Ana de Olano

American Cinema

Prof. Hammond

May 12, 2012

Musicals in Hollywood

The development and introduction of Hollywood Musicals plays a large role in the motion of picture, and the history behind it. It was seen as a integration in the 1920s-1950s in which movie pictures revolutionized to the motion picture being depicted as a movie through songs and dances. It all started with the development of sound which occurred in the 1920s, and this allowed the development of musicals to occurr. Before the creations of musicals started, there were some vaudeville fillers that were made in the early 1900s in which consisted of having music. The audience of these films were captivated and accepted, but were never considered as famous and as popular as the creation of the new genre of Hollywood’s musicals. 

Musical films consist of the use of songs and music to allow the development of the plot. It is common for the songs to advance the development of the character, and is often used during the breaks in the storyline. There is a large role that the stage musicals, such as plays, played on the development of musicals. Not only did it give the film industry the idea of the development of the plot through music and song, but it allowed the use of ‘new technology’ at the time (sound) to be used as vitally as it was. There are some differences between musicals on stage and on film such as: the use of lavish backgrounds while stages are more limited, but they both serve a strong emphasis on the vocals and music. 

In the mid 1920s, Warner Brothers Studio started the experimentation with a new technique at the time called Vitaphone. This technique consisted of the coordination of a musical soundtrack to match up or alien with a film, which all together allowed the creation of a sound film. Looking back at this method, it didn’t realize ho much potential the incorporation of sound would play in further years to come. The reason for this is because during this period of time, it seen as unnecessary for motion pictures to hear the actors or individuals speak, but rather the sound was merely for background purposes. The way that motion pictures were able to communicate their message with out having the actors speak was common, and therefore there was not an understanding of why the actors would need to communicate with the audience. This is when, in 1927, Warner Brothers released The Jazz, which was a ‘singing along with the background sound’ (Hollywoodmoviememories.com), which was a movie that was modeled after the musical that was also named The Jazz. This movie was not only the first film to be a musical but also the first film to have a synchronized dialogue. 

During the late 1920s, is when the financial status of the country was under difficult circumstances, ultimately effecting the production of motion pictures. But Hollywood used this time and ‘rescued’ the public by providing them with entertainment. This is when Hollywood released musicals,  which allowed the public to escape their reality and to watch lovely movies with wonderful music. 42^nd St, Gold Diggers and Bright Lights, were some of the most famous and loved 

musicals that came out in the 1930s, along with one of the most beloved musicals of all time The Wizard of Oz which came out in 1939. This motion picture is still constantly watched by present generations. 

It was during the 1940s that musicals in Hollywood developed in terms of popularity and this continued all the way up to the 1950s.  Yankee Doodle Dandy, was one of the most famous musicals in the 1940s, this musical won an Oscar from the performace of James Cagney. This musical set the bar for all musicals, and is considered to be one of the best musicals to ever hit the screens. There is also The Bells of St. Mary’s, which is another very famous movie that has become a holiday tradition to many families to watch. 

In the 1960s there were films such as The Music Man, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, 

which all have played a large and impactful role in the revamp of musicals in this era. The production of such widely loved and watched films allowed wide entertainment of good traditional musicals. At this time in age, the development of rock and roll was s

tarting to play its roles against musical taste, and the shift from old music to current young music was affecting the development of musicals. But still, the most successful musical during this era would defiantly have to be Disneys production and biggest hit Mary Poppins. Although these musicals had great success and are still seen as popular and some of the best musicals, Hollywood at this time had what appeared to be a complete and serious use of misjudgment on what they though would attract the public to watch and what they though was the publics taste. With the production of movies like:  Man of la Mancha, Song of Norway, Camelot, Hello Dolly, Sweet Charity which were considered to be failures and ended up negatively effecting the main studios.

During the 1980s-1990s, there was a growth in confidence in the production of musicals, which hard part connections with the success of musicals on Broadway. Motion picuters such as Annie, Little Shop of Horror, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, all of which had great levels of followers. This era was also the time that Disney  started to develop musicals with in many animated movies. Disney films such as: The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame all developed the use of music to attain to their target market which of course was children. 

Now in the 2000s, the genre of musicals grew once again in popularity, with films like Moulin Rouge, Across the Universe, Rent, Dreamgirls, Chicago, and Phantom of the Opera. All of these movies are good examples of musicals that were created and attained large followers, many of which were also initially musical plays, that’s story was retold in film media. There were many animated movies that also attained success through the use of musical strategy.

The film industry now had to look for actors that were able to perform not only through appearance, speech and acting, but now had to have qualifications of high singing ability. The difficulty of being able to act sing and dance at the same time was a rarity, but when the right actor was found for the job, magic occurred. The character needs to be able to depict the narrative through the use of song and dancing. Some of the most famoust musical stars include Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Ginger found her shine and popularity in partaking in roles in movies like Top Hat, Shall we Dance and Swing Time. There were many cases that actors decided to take role in musical films to branch out and expand their acting level to another role, to show the audience that they were capable to perform various roles. 

The development of Musicals in Hollywood could never be duplicated, because it was a revolutionary time and era in which the development of film broaden their understanding of movie production. The process of the development of movies grew in every form, from the use of sound, to color to the way the script flows and the way the actors perform. This genre was able to start off strong in the early 1920s and is still being used today. Its role plays largely on not only in plain musical stories but also in Broadway duplicates, but also in even in animation. The development of film has played a large role in the development of musical films and with Hollywood creations. 

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