Hollywood Musicals – Review
Hollywood Musicals is a beautiful book that comes with a CD. The introduction of the book begins with “In the beginning there was light. The electric light.” In this spirit, beginning with Edison, the book continues with the technical history of photography, film, and Nickelodeon Kinetograph ten minutes shorts, Griffith and the silent films that followed.
Among the earliest silent films, the book cites Edwin S. Porter ‘s (1903) “The life of an American Fireman and The Great Train Robbery”, Griffith (1915) “Birth of a Nation” and “intolerance.” Along with the top producer Cecil Blount De Mille, the stars of the silent era are also included: Mary Pickford, Dorothy and Lillian Gish, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Greta Garbo and Rudolph Valentino.
His entry into films through the efforts of four Warner Brothers: Harry, Sam, Albert and Jack. The Jazz Singer (1927), with Al Jolson is considered the first sound film, which Jolson spoke the prophetic words: “Wait a minute … is not heard nothin ‘yet’.
Talking pictures or talkies had their pain of childbirth. The big stars like Pola Negri, Norma Talmadge, and John Gilbert are disabled because their vote does not ring well in the talkies. But some actors like Greta Garbo made a dramatic transition and are engraved in the history of cinema.
The first real musical came to Broadway in MGM Melody later by The Wizard of Oz and Little Caesar. Initially, musicals with similar themes, reinterpreted versions of plays, stories and scenes. When the song from The Wizard of Oz, won an Academy Award, she has opened doors for other musicals of the most spectacular with extravagant, artistic sets and expensive costumes.
Among those who have followed the road to stardom in musicals are Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly, Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson and Gordon MacRae.
Some of the earliest musicals note are: Show Boat Singing in the Rain, For Me and My Gal, Ziegfeld Follies, Brigadoon, Oklahoma, The King and I, Carousel, South Pacific, Gigi, West Side Story The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady and The Music Man.
The tracks on the CD has fifteen starts with ‘Over the Rainbow “from The Wizard of Oz and ending with″ Where Is Love? “From Oliver. The CD is remastered, with good sound quality.