Bringing Song and Dance to the Screen: Directors of Golden Age Hollywood Musicals

(Hardback)

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An introduction to movie musicals in the golden age of Hollywood and the directors that brought them to the big screen.

The role directors have played in American cinema cannot be overstated, particularly how they shaped and developed the medium during Hollywoods golden age. Little appreciation has been paid though to the individual directors accomplishments with regards to the musical film, a genre that remains popular today. When the first film musicals were made, there were no experienced movie directors for the new genre. Instead of recruiting stage directors, Hollywood turned to the seasoned directors currently under contract and assigned them to make talkies with song and dance.

In Bringing Song and Dance to the Screen, Thomas S. Hischak looks at the contribution that twenty-seven Hollywood directors made to the art of the movie musical during the exciting and prolific golden age of cinema. Some directors flourished with the new genre; others struggled and eventually were only assigned to traditional films. Some unknown directors found their niche in making musicals and much of their subsequent careers were in the new genre. Yet even those directors who made only a handful of musicals sometimes delivered musical classics. This book will look at them all, focusing on the directors musicals and how they compare to their non-musical works.

Bringing Song and Dance to the Screen covers movie musicals made from the first talkies up through the 1950s, from The Jazz Singer in 1927 to Gigi in 1958. Hischak explores the directors' careers and film musicals chronologically and includes biographical information for each director. Readers will learn about both famous and obscure film musicals, making this the perfect guide for movie and musical fans alike.

Reviews

Bringing Song and Dance to the Screen is a must have for any lover of film and theater. Hischak brilliantly traces the trajectory of the movie musical and weaves a wonderful story of American artistry in the process. -- Robert W. Schneider, Behind the Curtain podcast
With his latest book, Bringing Song and Dance to the Screen: Directors of Golden Age Hollywood Musicals, Hischak takes us on an insightful and entertaining journey behind the camera of many of the greatest movie musicals to shine the spotlight on the directors who guided them to the screens for eager moviegoers. All the legendary directors are here, of course, but Hischak does a wonderful job of also including many great professionals the reader may have never heard of and show how their skills and innovations helped shape this amazing art form. It's a terrific, fascinating addition to any movie fan's collection! -- Donald Feltham, host, The Broadway Radio Show

Author Bio

Thomas S. Hischak is an internationally recognized writer and teacher in the performing arts. He is the author of twenty-six nonfiction books about theatre, film, and popular music, including Theatre as Human Action: An Introduction to Theatre Arts, The Oxford Companion to the American Musical, The Encyclopedia of Film Composers, The 100 Greatest American Plays, 1939: Hollywoods Greatest Year, 100 Greatest American and British Animated Films, and The Disney Song Encyclopedia (with Mark A. Robinson).