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I'm singin' in the rain.

Just singin' in the rain.

What a glorious feeling I'm happy again.

The year is 1929. The singer, Cliff Edwards, also known as Ukulele Ike.

The film, Hollywood Revue. It is the first all-talking...

all-singing, all-dancing movie ever made.

Everyone from the place.

Come on with your rain

I've got a smile on my face

I'll walk down the lane.

In the years that followed, "Singin' in the Rain" would become...

a theme song for MGM.

Sin gin ' in the rain.

In the 1930s, Jimmy Durante gave us this rendition.

You wrote that this morning?

Yeah, it's something they'll remember.

Yeah, I remember it already.

I'm singin' in the rain.

Oh, I'm singin' in the rain.

What a grand, what a glorious feeling I'm happy again.

In the 1940s, Judy Garland did it her way.

So dark up above.

The sun's in my heart

I'm gettin' ready for love.

Let the stormy clouds chase Everyone from the place.

And come on with the rain

I've a smile on my face I'll walk down the lane.

With a happy refrain.

And singin'.

Sin gin '.

I'm singin' in the rain.

In the 1950s, Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor...

put it all together in what many folks would call the best musical ever made.

Sin gin ' in the rain Just singin' in the rain.

What a glorious feelin' We're happy again.

If you're wondering what happened in between, well...

sit back and relax. You're about to find out.

It's been quite some time since I first came to this place.

And MGM is certainly not the same studio...

and Hollywood's not the same town.

But the films we made here are still around.

Some studios can claim they made the finest gangster films...

or the greatest horror movies...

but when it came to musicals, MGM, they were the champions.

Musicals were fantasy trips for the audiences of their day.

For instance, boy meets girl, boy loses girl...

boy sings a song and gets girl.

The plots were that simple.

The musicals of the 1930s, '40s, or even the '50s...

may not tell you where our heads were at...

but they tell you where our hearts were at.

And all of this lovable nonsense began back in 1929...

when the silent film had suddenly become a thing of the past...

and sound was the king.

Don't bring a frown to old Broadway.

You've gotta clown on Broadway.

Broadway Melody of 1929 won an Oscar for the Best Picture that year...

and MGM was off and running with a new formula for success.

Charles King and a line of slightly overweight chorus girls...

were the beginning of a new motion picture art form...

that would captivate audiences for years to come.

No skies of gray On the Great White Way.

That's the Broadway Melody!

No skies of gray On the Great White Way.

That's the Broadway Melody!

Within a few short years, the musical had come of age.

The primitive stage show had now become a cinematic spectacular.

Here Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Nelson Eddy and a cast of thousands...

watched Eleanor Powell dance in Rosalie.

When I'm calling you.

The most successful singing team in the history of motion pictures...

Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald in Rose-Mark.

Will you answer too?

Then I will know - Then I will know.

Our love - Our love.

Will come true - Will come true.

You'll belong to me - You'll belong to me

I'll belong - I'll belong.

To you - To you.

In 1936, The Great Ziegfeld won an Oscar for Best Picture that year...

and it's no wonder.

Virginia Bruce and a gang of lovely ladies...

cluttered up Hollywood's biggest staircase.

And somewhere in that lovely mob, you'll find Dennis Morgan singing a song.

If anyone could afford to film this extravagant number today...

perhaps it would look something like this.

Just like a heavenly rhapsody.

She captures you right from the start.

Just like a beautiful melody.

She'll play on the strings of your heart.

A pretty girl ls like a melody.

That haunts you night and day.

Just like the strain Of a haunting refrain.

She'll start upon a marathon.

And run around your brain.

You can't escape.

She's in your memory.

By morning, night and noon.

She will leave you And then.

Come back again - Will come back.

A pretty girl

ls just like a pretty.

Tune.

She's in your memory.

By morning, night and noon.

She will leave you And then.

Come back again.

A pretty girl

ls just like a pretty tune.

The last of the big black-and-white production numbers...

starring Eleanor Powell and Fred Astaire.

Cole Porter's music, the sets and the camera work...

the direction by Norman Taurog, the incredible tap dancing by these two...

well, it all seemed to come together in Broadway Melody of 1940.

You know, you can wait around and hope, but I'll tell you...

you'll never see the likes of this again.

Don't be afraid You'll make the grade.

Why, you can sing As good as Bing.

And here, the old pro, James Durante, gives a newcomer...

a few pointers in It Happened in Brooklyn.

Sing it, Danny, make me proud.

Okay, Nick, stand back.

It doesn't have to be witty or smart.

Smile.

Long as it comes from the heart.

Keep going.

It doesn't have to be classic or rock.

Great.

Long as it comes from the heart.

I'll give 'em that.

I'll give 'em this

I'll strut away.

Boy! You can't miss!

Just put a star on my chart.

You won't need this anymore.

'Cause the song's gonna come From the heart.

Don't work cheap.

On opening nights - On opening nights.

Your name in lights - Your name in lights.

Why we won't stop 'Til you reach the top.

- We'll order our meal a la carte. - We'll order our meal a la carte.

- That's expensive! - That's expensive!

- If the song comes from the heart. - If the song comes from the heart.

We'll be tremendous!

- If the song comes from the heart. - If the song comes from the heart.

They'll holler, "Bravo."

If the song - If the song.

Comes from the heart - Comes from the heart.

Head - Head.

That's just a sample of what's been going on around here for the past 40 years.

The work was hard, but it was great fun.

Because the people you worked with really knew what they were doing.

It was said that through those doors passed the most famous stars in Hollywood.

I don't think you'll find anyone around this town who will argue about it.

Here's one of the most lovely and talented of those stars...

Miss Elizabeth Taylor.

I was 10 years old when I first came to MGM.

And I spent most of the next 18 years of my life...

behind the walls of that studio.

As a young girl growing up in that strange place...

it's hard to recall what was real and what wasn't.

Perhaps, my most vivid memories were of MGM musicals.

Just to stand there on the set and watch...

the singing and the dancing. It was like fantasy come true.

Total innocence. Loveliness.

I love a melody.

Of spring.

Lilacs in bloom.

Birds on the wing.

I made my musical debut when I was 15 years old...

in a film called Cynthia.

I was certainly no threat to Jane Powell or Judy Garland...

as you will see.

For life is an eager.

Joyous thing.

Whenever I hear.

The music.

Of.

Spring.

Maybe that experience helped give me...

the enormous regard that I have for musical talent.

And believe me, at MGM, I saw the best.

Every honeybee sighs with jealousy.

For instance, if Lena Horne was in a movie...

then it almost had to be from MGM.

Honeysuckle rose.

When we're passin' by Flowers droop and sigh.

And I know the reason why.

You're much sweeter Goodness knows.

Honeysuckle rose.

I don't buy sugar.

You just have to touch my cup.

You're my sugar.

It's sweet when you stir it up.

When I'm takin' sips From your tasty lips.

Seems the honey fairly drips.

You're confection Goodness knows.

You're my honeysuckle rose.

You're my honeysuckle rose

'Cause it's one - Two.