Iinfluence of broadway By T. Snow

Musical Film The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven {or apart of} into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters,but can also be a "rest", or a break from the plot. The musical film was a natural development from the stage musical after the emergence of sound film technology. Typically, the biggest difference between film and stage musicals is the use of lavish background scenery and locations that would be impractical in a theater. Musical films characteristically contain elements reminiscent of theater; performers often treat their song and dance numbers as if there is a live audience watching. In a sense, the viewer becomes the audience, as the performers often look directly into the camera and performs to it.   The 1930s through the early 1950s are considered to be the golden age of the musical film, when the genre's popularity was at its highest in our culture.

The first muscials Musical short films were made by Lee de Forest in 1923-24. Beginning in 1926, thousands of Vitaphone shorts were made, many featuring bands, vocalists and dancers. The earliest feature- length films with synchronized sound had only a soundtrack of music and occasional sound effects that played while the actors portrayed their characters just as they did in silent films: without audible dialogue.  

The Jazz Singer The Jazz Singer released in 1927 by Warner Brothers, only a short sequence of spoken dialogue. This feature-length film was also a musical, featuring Al Jolson singing "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face", "Toot, Toot, Tootsie", "Blue Skies" and "My Mammy".   Historian Scott Eyman wrote, "As the film ended and applause grew with the houselights, Sam Goldwyn's wife Frances looked around at the celebrities in the crowd. She saw 'terror in all their faces', she said, as if they knew that 'the game they had been playing for years was finally over. Actually only certain sequences featured "live" sound {singing, playing instruments, etc. On camera.. Captured live!!} ; most of the film had only a synchronous musical score.

Singing Fool In 1928, Warner Brothers followed this up with another Jolson part-talkie, The Singing Fool which was a blockbuster hit. Theaters scrambled to install the new sound equipment and to hire Broadway composers to write musicals for the screen.

Lights Of New York The first all-talking feature, Lights of New York, included a musical sequence in a nightclub. The enthusiasm of audiences was so great that in less than a year all the major studios were making sound pictures exclusively. This was shortly followed by The Broadway Melody (1929) which was a story about two sisters competing for an entertainer. It was advertised by MGM as the first "All-Talking, All-Singing, All-Dancing" feature film, it was a hit and won the Academy Award for Best Picture for 1929. There was a rush by the studios to hire talent from the stage to star in lavishly filmed versions of Broadway hits.

All About The Warner Brothers Warner Brothers produced the first screen operetta { shorts operas generally based in the comedy/humor genre}, The Desert Song in 1929. They spared no expense and photographed a large percentage of the film in Technicolor. This was followed by the first all-color, all-talking musical feature which was entitled On with the Show (1929). The most popular film of 1929 was the second all-color, all-talking feature which was entitled Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929). This film broke all box office records and remained the highest-grossing film ever produced until 1939. Suddenly the market became flooded with musicals, revues and operettas. In addition, there were scores of musical features released with color sequences. Hollywood released more than 100 musical films in 1930, but only 14 in 1931.By late 1930, audiences had been oversaturated with musicals and studios were forced to cut the music from films that were then being released. The public had quickly come to associate color with musicals and thus the decline in their popularity also resulted in a decline in color productions.

Busby Berkeley Musicals revived again in 1933 when director Busby Berkeley began to enhance the traditional dance number with ideas drawn from the drill precision he had experienced as a soldier during World War I. In films such as 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933, Berkeley choreographed a number of films in his unique style. Berkeley's numbers typically begin on a stage but gradually transcend the limitations of that confined area as his choreographed displays, involving human bodies forming patterns like a kaleidoscope, could never fit on a real stage and the intended perspective is viewing from straight above.

Movie Links wizard of Oz {1939} http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x33348i_the-wizard-of-oz-1939-victor-fleming_shortfilms hard days nite {1969} http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x23xuif_a-hard-day-s-night-1964_shortfilms Al Jolson The Singing Fool https://vimeo.com/80603243