A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film » (1st Edition)

Richard Barrios has lectured extensively on film, served as a commentator on numerous DVDs, and co-hosted a series on Turner Classic Movies. He currently lives outside Philadelphia.

Drawing on meticulous research, sharp wit, and insightful analysis, Richard Barrios illuminates the origins of the movie musical in this extensively revised and updated edition of his highly acclaimed A Song in the Dark. From Warner Bros. and Jolson, to the Oscar-winning Broadway Melody and beyond, here is the whole funny and peculiar history of these films, their creators, and their audiences. Ranging from the smash hits of The Singing Fool and Sunny Side Up to bizarre flops like Golden Dawn and Cecil B. DeMille's Madam Satan, they form a body of work unlike anything else in the history of popular entertainment. Here too are legendary performers, directors, and composers: from Fannie Brice, James Cagney, and Mae West, to Busby Berkeley, George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, and countless others. With many new rare photographs, some not published in nearly 80 years, this new edition traces the rise and fall, and rise again, of this quintessential piece of the American experience.

Introduction 3

1 Vitaphone Prelude 15

2 The Sound Barrier 43

3 "You Were Meant for Me" 59

4 On with the Show! 75

5 Finding a Voice 101

6 Dueling Mammies 139

7 Hollywood, Revued 157

8 Broadway Babies 183

9 "With All Its Original Stage Enchantment" 215

10 Just Imagine 237

11 The Cuckoos 253

12 Of Viennese Nights and Golden Dawns 269

13 Is It a Musical? 299

14 The March of Time 313

15 Voices in the Wilderness 331

16 "We're in the Money" 359

17 The Past as Prologue 395

Finale 419

App. I Notes on Lost Films 433

App. II A Selective Discography: The First Musicals on Record 437

Source Notes 453

Selected Bibliography 469

Index 475