Singin' and Dancing Back in Time.: kathryn grayson

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Friday, April 8, 2011

Kathryn Grayson and June Allyson are TWO SISTERS FROM BOSTON (1946)

A delightful musical comedy set at turn of the century New York and centering on Abigail Chandler (top notch turn by Kathryn Grayson) who tells her stuffy Boston relatives that she is a big time opera singer. In truth she works at a burlesque house and is billed as High-C Susie. Trouble ensues when the family comes for a visit. Her sister, Martha (played by June Allyson) is all giddy about seeing her big sis in an opera. Jimmy Durante is the club manager that lets loose with zingers. Grayson and Allyson are terrific as the sisters with Grayson's voice a heavenly sound. Allyson is quite fun in her role, all wide eyed and innocent but gets in on the act with a grand and funny performance at the club. Also starring MGM regular Peter Lawford as a love interest for Allyson. These two sisters are definitely worth hanging out with.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Happy Birthday: Kathryn Grayson!

Kathryn Grayson (February 9, 1922 – February 17, 2010). From the age of twelve, Grayson trained as an opera singer. She signed a contract with MGM in the early 1940s, making a wonderful career in musicals. She was a lead performer in films: Anchors Aweigh (1945) with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, and Show Boat (1951) and Kiss Me Kate (1953) both with Howard Keel.

Please click here to read more about Kathryn Grason.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Kathryn Grayson

Kathryn Grayson, made her first film performance in, Andy Hardy's Private Secretary(1941). White House Girl(1941), Then she went on to perform in, Very Warm for May(1948) The Vanishing Virginian, Rio Rita, Seven Sweethearts and Thousands Cheer(1943).

In 1942 Grayson performed in An American Symphony with Judy Garland. Garland was replaced by June Allyson and the film was retitled Two Sisters from Boston and released in 1946.

From 1943 to 1945, she entertained the troops during the war and performing on radio programs. She return to films in Anchors Aweigh (1945). Musical comedy film directed by George Sidney in which two sailors go on a four-day shore leave in Hollywood, accompanied by music and song, meet an aspiring young singer and try to help her get an audition at MGM. It stars Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Kathryn Grayson, José Iturbi, Pamela Britton, Dean Stockwell, and Sharon McManus.

This was followed by Two Sisters from Boston and guest appearances in Ziegfeld Follies and Till the Clouds Roll By. Grayson's performance in, Till the Clouds Roll By, was of a song from the musical Show Boat, which would be remade five years later, with Grayson in the starring role.

MGM re-paired Grayson and Sinatra for two movies in 1947 and 1948, It Happened in Brooklyn and The Kissing Bandit. Later, Grayson was partnered with tenor Mario Lanza in two films, That Midnight Kiss(1949) and The Toast of New Orleans(1950), where she performed the Academy-Award-nominated song "Be My Love".

Grayson replaced June Allyson as the role of Ina Massine in 1951's Grounds for Marriage. She portrayed an opera singer with laryngitis, alongside Van Johnson who played her doctor and love interest. This was also first non-singing role at MGM.

Grayson was next cast as Magnolia Hawkes(1951) remake of the 1927 Hammerstein and Kern musical, Show Boat, alongside Howard Keel and Ava Gardner.

Grayson teamed again with Keel that year in one of my favorite musicals, Lovely to Look At(1952), a remake of the 1935 Astaire and Rogers film Roberta. Tony Naylor, Al Marsh and Jerry Ralby are looking for backers for their Broadway show. They have just run out of hope when Al gets a letter from his Aunt's attorneys and finds he is a part-owner of a dress shop in Paris. wanting to sell his share, they all fly to Paris, only to find the shop is almost bankrupt. There they also find Stephanie and Clarisse, who own the other shares of the business. Tony is torn between Stephanie and how to finance the fashion show. The popular song "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is featured in this film.

After 11 years with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Grayon's contract ended, and she went on to Warner Bros. Grayson's first musical with the studio was, The Desert Song.

Grayson performed on television in the 1950s, receiving an Emmy nomination in 1956 for her performance in the General Electric Theater episode Shadow on the Heart. In the 1980s, she guest starred in several episodes of Murder, She Wrote with Angela Lansbury.

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Bob Fosse

Was a musical theater choreographer and director, screenwriter and film director. He won an eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction. He was nominated for an Academy Award four times, winning for his direction of Cabaret. He was identified with his third wife, Gwen Verdon. She was both the dancer/collaborator who he choreographed much of his work and, together with dancer/choreographer Ann Reinking, a guardian of the Fosse legacy after his death. Fosse is considered to be one the most influential coreographers of the 20th Century.

Esther Williams.

JANE POWELL

After rising to fame as a singer in her home state of Oregon, Powell was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer while still in her teens. Once there, the studio utilized her vocal, dancing and acting talents, casting her in such musicals as Royal Wedding, with Fred Astaire, A Date with Judy, with friend Elizabeth Taylor and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, with Howard Keel. In the late 1950s, her film career slowed, only to be replaced with a busy theater and television career.Click picture to enter websight.

Jeanette MacDonald

Singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (Love Me Tonight, The Merry Widow) and Nelson Eddy (Naughty Marietta, Rose-Marie, and Maytime). During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars (The Love Parade, One Hour With You, Naughty Marietta and San Francisco), and recorded extensively, earning three gold records. She later appeared in grand opera, concerts, radio, and television. MacDonald was one of most influential sopranos of the 20th century. Click picture to view fan website.

Joan Crawford.

Click picture to view website. Joan Crawford, born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre. Starting as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway, Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her parts, Crawford began a campaign of self-publicity and became nationally known as a flapper by the end of the 1920s. In the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well-received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money and by the end of the 1930s

Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Richard Rodgers (1902 – 1979) and Oscar Hammerstein II (1895 – 1960) the songwriting duo, on our musical page. They created many popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age. With Rodgers composing the music and Hammerstein writing the lyrics, five of their shows, Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music. They won thirty-four Tony Awards, fifteen Academy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and two Grammys. Click picture to read movie reviews.

Cab Calloway

Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s. Calloway's band featured performers including trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, New Orleans guitar ace Danny Barker, and bassist Milt Hinton. Calloway continued to perform until his death in 1994 at the age of 86 .Click picture to view official website.