A splashy MGM musical revue, THE ZIEGFELD FOLLIES OF 1946, was first runner up at the national box office in April according to Variety. It was in its fifth week at the Capitol and more than holding its own in New York City, although scheduled to make way soon for "The Postman Always Rings Twice." Directed by Vincente Minnelli, the movie was a hodgepodge of musical production numbers and comedy sketches showcasing MGM stars. Unlike the two previous Ziegfeld films, this movie had no plot. The critics generally approved with varying degrees of enthusiasm, almost all finding it uneven but disagreeing over which bits fell flat. Just about everybody liked the Fred Astaire numbers. In an otherwise favorable review, the Variety reviewer suspected that the real Ziegfeld would miss the risqué interludes, nudity and “heartwarmedness” of his own productions. Here is the trailer.
While Minnelli was credited as the overall director, each segment had its own writers and directors, including some leading names from nightclubs and Broadway. The featured stars were Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, former Copa showgirl and Rockette Lucille Bremer, Ziegfeld veteran and radio star Fanny Brice reprising one of her classic routines, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, Metropolitan Opera tenor James Melton in a duet with Marion Bell, Victor Moore, Red Skelton, Esther Williams, and William Powell reprising his earlier role as Flo Ziegfeld now observing from the clouds. The supporting cast also included Edward Arnold, Cyd Charisse, Hume Cronyn, William Frawley, Robert Lewis, Virginia O’Brien and Keenan Wynn. Some of the supporting players, like Cronyn, were cut in the shortened versions that later played the neighborhood circuits.
According to Time, the Memphis censor insisted that Lena Horne’s number be cut before the hit MGM musical could be shown in his notoriously corrupt, segregated city. Apparently the sight of an attractive, sensual African-American woman on the screen not doing the white man’s bidding would impair the morals of the good Christians of that city. It was a matter of values. A Variety article that same week noted that the head of the city's censorship board, one Lloyd T. Binford, a high school dropout and insurance executive, also had kept “Brewster’s Millions” from playing in the city for over a year because he thought that one of the film’s co-stars, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, Jack Benny’s radio sidekick, "has too familiar a way with him for a Negro." Again Southern "values" in action. In 1950 Binford assured a Colliers magazine reporter that he “loved old n*****s” with whom he had spent many happy days during his boyhood on the old plantation. His eyes welled up when he told the appalled reporter that he was going to reserve two back rows for his darkie friends at his funeral. No hate in his heart. No siree. Just those good ol' Southern “Christian” values. Hallelujah!
Built in 1919, the Capitol, with its 5200 plus seats, was one of the oldest of the movie palaces and the venue for the premiere of some of MGM’s biggest movies. Eugene Ormandy had once been concert master there and Major Bowes had broadcast his radio show live from the Capitol stage in the '20s.
On this week, The “Rumba King,” Xavier Cugat, a familiar presence on screen and radio in the 1940s, headlined the stage show, which also featured Harvey Stone, billed as “America’s favorite GI comedian.” On Monday April 15, the theater had a special promotion featuring actual former Ziegfeld girls and four winners of the Ziegfeld Girl Contest.