B Musicals - Musicals by Year
At their peak in the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s, movie musicals became popular when some of the first “talkies” (Hollywood films made with sound) included musical numbers and dance routines. Movie musical styles included Busby Berkeley’s “Gold Digger” revues with scantily clad showgirls, light romances with hoofers like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, as well as films of musical comedies and dramas first staged in live theater. And of course, classic Disney animated films are often musicals as well. This web site has Fred Astaire in Second Chorus andR oyal Wedding, and Bobby Breen in four of his Movies.
In A movies, you see established stars of the present. But in a B picture you have both people on their way up and on their way down, and it's fascinating in the context of film history.
Like the B-Westerns, costume dramas, and crime films with which they shared the assembly line, B musicals were a training ground for on-camera and behind-the-camera talent whose careers would outlast poverty row.
The Musical was a kind of escapist cinema to exist next to the more realistic ones. The 30’s and 40’s and 50’s weren’t better than today. There was depression and wars. But people still went to see Musicals (and a lot of other movies), to dream in the dark for two hours. It was a period very different than our overly analytical, criticism-filled world.
When one thinks of the venerable tradition of the American musical movie, MGM and the famed Arthur Freed Unit, birth place of "Singin' in the Rain," "The Wizard of Oz," and "Meet Me in St. Louis," are more likely to come to mind than Western and serial factoryRepublic, or PRC. Nevertheless, throughout the 1930s, through World War II, and up until the Supreme Court forced Hollywood studios to divest themselves of their theater chains in the late '40s, cheaply made B musicals were a regular part of every B-movie production slate.
Yet these B musicals are perhaps the least known genre relics of Hollywood's golden age. Local repertory screens, DVD and Turner Classic Movie showings have kept the A musical at center stage for decades.
This Web Site is one of the few places to see the B Musicals. Go back in time and enjoy what your grandparents and parents were watching.
Click on Nero (below) for the software to create Movies on DVDs or Audio on CDs
Click on the year below to go to the movie you want to download.
Starting: Jimmy Durante, Bobby Breen, Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurry, Irene Dare, Dorthy Page, etc.
Starting: Fred Astaire, James Stewart, George Murphy, Frances Langford, Betty Hutton, June Allyson, Dorsey Brothers, Cab Calloway, Danny Kaye, Victure Mature, etc.
Starting: David Niven, Fred Astaire, June Powell, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Forrest Tucker, Alan Freed, Van Johnson, etc.
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