That's Entertainment! III

Here '3 to the beautiful ladies

here '3 to those wonden'ul girls

this is the mixture to start the picture so bring on the beautiful girls

narrator: When Fred Astaire sang this song in the film Ziegfeld follies...

The year was 1946...

And mgm was at the height of its success in creating incredible fantasies...

And setting them to music.

Here, Lucille ball tames a pack of exotic cat-women.

It was imaginative, outlandish imagery, and audiences loved it.

It was a time before television and vcrs, when on the average...

90 million Americans went to the movies each week...

And the mgm musical was king of the box office.

The most popular entertainment in the world.

Chorus : This is the mixture to start the picture

so bring on the beautiful girls.

Narrator: Once upon a time, there was a factory...

That created wonderful musical dreams.

It happened when a special group of talented artists came together...

To create some of the world's most enchanting movies.

Metro-goldwyn-ma yer was not the only studio...

That made musical motion pictures.

But it did make more than anyone else...

And somehow did it better.

To tell us more about those remarkable days...

Here's one of mgm's best: Mr. Gene Kelly.

The 44 acres behind me...

Was where it all began.

When I first arrived here...

Mgm's dream factory was in full swing.

And every week the studio released a new film...

And musicals were always a big part of the lineup.

But the success of the mgm musical did not happen overnight.

It all started when the movies learned to talk.

Kelly: At first, the studios were unsure of what to do with this new invention.

Then they hit on the idea of filming popular vaudeville acts.

All : My pet told me cutely that I'm set absolutely

so I pet with nobody else but my, my pet -whose pet?

I repeat that he's my pet -whose pet?

Ain't he sweet? And I pet with nobody else

but my pet.

Kelly: In the Hollywood revue of 1929...

One of the first all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing movies...

The studio gave its huge roster of stars...

A chance to get their feet wet...

In the newfangled talkies.

The finale introduced a brand-new song that did a lot for me much later.

But at the time it was so new...

That some of the performers had trouble remembering the lyrics.

All : Let the stormy clouds chase everyone from the place

come on with the rain I've a smile on my face

I walk down the Lane with a happy refrain

just singin' just singin' in the rain

singin' in the rain

just singin' in the rain

Kelly: Suddenly, the musical became an overnight sensation...

Delighting audiences with bigger casts...

Lavish sets and costumes...

And even a new gimmick called technicolor.

Mgm began its most ambitious film of this kind...

And filmed all the big production numbers...

Before the public lost interest in these plotless musicals...

And the project was abandoned.

One of the numbers featured the dodge twins...

- Performing... what else? - - "The lock step"...

From the unfinished march of time.

Shake your stripes beat your pipe

start crooning the jailhouse wail

lock your cell step light, hello, warden

join in and lock step it'll get you fizzin'

like bottles of pop get hep to the new jazz prison

lock step.

Clean as a whistle fresh as a Daisy

brand-new clean through

on my way just wearin' that smile of mine

clean as a whistle fresh as a Daisy

spick-and-span

spend my day just wearin' a great big smile

Kelly: To capture an audience, producers knew they could always turn...

To the old reliable sex.

Imagine that.

This number, set in the shower room of a girls' school...

Shocked audiences in 1933.

All : All wearin' a great big smile

can't you see we 're all excited?

They might be relaxing

but, gee, I'd rather exercise myself into

say, the water stopped.

Kelly: Such scenes fuel led the growing public outcry.

Faced with threats of boycotts and censorship...

Mgm conformed to the stern production code.

That the vulgar, the cheap and the tawdry is out.

There is no room on this screen at any time...

For pictures which offend against common decency.

And these, the industry will not allow.

Eddy : Ah, sweet mystery of life

at last I found thee.

Kelly: Among mgm's efforts for the new morality...

Was a series of wildly successful operettas...

With Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson eddy.

Both : My heart has heard the answer to its calling

for it is love that rules

fore vermore.

Kelly: In 1934, the studio lifted the public out of the depression...

And into a make-believe Hollywood party.

Hollywood party get up, get up, get in it

Hollywood party nobody sleeps tonight

Hollywood party going a mile a minute

Hollywood party nobody sleeps tonight

let the laughter spring out music ring out

Satan sing out, "yeah, man"

at that crashing, furniture-smashing

Hollywood party nobody sleeps tonight

and now, here's to beauty, laughter, romance, music.

On with the biggest party ever given in Hollywood.

Feelin' high

what's the use feelin' low?

On that wagon on the town

gonna be up never down.

There's a reason if you'd like to know why

I'm in love

I'm feelin' high.

Kelly: Even the biggest production numbers needed stars.

So Eleanor Powell became mgm's first big dancing star.

In Broadway melody of 1938 and almost all of her films...

Eleanor becomes a huge sensation by the last reel.

All : Follow in my footsteps.

Follow them

follow them

your Broadway and my Broadway

got that rhythm

inside me everybody dance

you are my lucky star

hear the rhythm of the music and the music of the rhythm

got a pair of new shoes got a pair of new shoes

gotta dance

tap your feet light, long and sweet

and dance.

Dance now Broadway dance

a Broadway dance and go singing

the whole town is waking up

your Broadway

and mine.

Kelly: It took a lot of hard work...

To make musical production numbers for the big screen.

And here's a good example.

Eleanor Powell's tap dance of "fascinating rhythm"...

From lady be good.

On the right, we see what went on behind the scenes.

Stagehands using little tractors called mules...

Quickly take the set apart...

Allowing the camera to move forward to follow her dancing.

Chorus : Fascinatin'rhythm you've got me on the go

fascinatin' rhythm I'm all aquiver

what a mess you're making the neighbors will know

I'm always shaking like a flivver

each morning I'm wakin' up

very happy

just to find that no work has been done

once it didn't matter but now you do wrong

when you start to patter I'm so unhappy

won't you take a day off? A couple of weeks?

Somewhere far away off and make it snappy

oh, how I long to be the man that I used to be

oh, fascinatin' rhythm

won't you stop picking on me?

Good morning -it's a lovely morning

good morning -what a wonderful day

we've danced the whole night through

good morning, good morning to you

how do you do?

Kelly: When mgm teamed Mickey Rooney and Judy garland...

In babes in arms...

It launched the most successful musical team at the studio.

Both : Good morning, good morning to you.

Kelly: With world war ii raging in Europe, the Mickey-Judy musicals...

Provided an uplifting diversion for audiences of the day.

All : Wherever freedom's banners are unfurled sing a song from our hearts

to the hearts of the world

we send our greetings to friendly nations

we may be yanks but we 're your relations

drop your sabers we 're all gonna be good neighbors

here in god's

god I s

country.

Kelly: As Andy Hardy, Mickey Rooney was always falling in love.

Esther Williams played his love interest in her first film.

A fashion model and champion swimmer...

Esther was working in an aquacade...

When she caught the attention of an mgm talent scout.

In the 22 films she made at Metro...

She was seldom out of the water.

Williams: This is mgm's famous saucer tank.

I did many of my underwater scenes here.

It's a huge, all-steel swimming pool...

With porthole windows just below the waterline...

So that you can see anything that's going on inside.

This tank was originally built as a place for Tarzan, Johnny weissmuller...

To fight his rubber crocodiles.

But I really had it pretty much to myself...

Once my swimming musicals became popular.