When the silver screen learned to talk, it learned to sing as well. In 1927 the part-talkie The Jazz Singer made its appearance and, through its success, saved the Warner Bros. studio from bankruptcy. Soon every star on every film lot was dragooned into performing in elephantine film reviews whether they had any talent for it or not. Luckily, all the performers we feature here were renowned for their performing talents.
Our title track comes from The Broadway Melody of 1938 made a year earlier, and so called to differentiate it from two previous Broadway Melody films (there was still the Broadway Melody of 1940 to come.) Everybody Sing was introduced by the former Frances Gumm, now MGMs wonderfully talented child star, Judy Garland.
Another name change: Alvin Morris became Tony Martin when this charismatic former saxophone player concentrated on his singing, and established himself as a popular film star. In 1941, shortly after his marriage to Alice Faye was dissolved, Martin appeared in a Marx Brothers extravaganza, The Big Store and sang a number of songs including If Its You.
Maria do Carmo Miranda do Cunha was born in Lisbon, but achieved fame in Brazil and subsequently on film in Hollywood as Carmen Miranda. Her vivacious personality, her energetic dancing and staccato singing enlivened many a 20th Century Fox musical. Weekend In Havana also made in 1941 was cheerful escapist fare; When I Love, I Love presents the diminutive fireball in typically ebullient form.
Singer/dancers come no greater tham Frederick Austerlitz - the incomparable Fred Astaire.
In one of his finest films, Swing Time with the help of Jerome Kerns music and a deft lyric from Dorothy Fields, Astaire paid tribute to the legendary Broadway and film dancer, the African-American Bill Bojangles Robinson. The song was Bojangles Of Harlem.
Before her post-war Broadway career, in which she created such roles as Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound Of Music, Mary Martin had a successful film career. Rhythm on the River paired her with Bing Crosby in a cheerful musical about a failing songwriter, played by Basil Rathbone who engages the couple to write his songs for him. Mary got to introduce the piquant Aint It A Shame About Mame?
"Goldwyn Cantor-girl-and-gag socko" exclaimed Variety with its usual verbal economy. Kid Millions was another vehicle for one of the stage and screens most hardworking and animated performers. Edward Israel Iskowitz, better known as Eddie Cantor, a powerhouse personality, known as Banjo Eyes made a terrific impact on stage, radio and on the screen. When My Ship Comes In was a hit both on film and on record.
From the age of five, Mae West had been an entertainer. The daughter of a heavyweight boxer, she knew how to take care of herself. For the film Im No Angel she wrote the script, loaded with double if not triple meanings, and starred. It was released in 1933, and two years later, Mae was the highest-paid woman in the United States, thanks to her blend of sexual allure, and parody of it. Mae west and her plays and films were frequently attacked by moral reformers; that only made them more popular.
The much married bundle of talents that is Mickey Rooney started life as Joe Yule Junior. He began as a child performer in the family show business act, but soon outstripped his parents when he began a highly successful career in films. As well as the still-remembered Andy Hardy series with Ann Rutherford, he was teamed with Judy Garland in a highly successful series of musicals. An adaptation of the classic Gershwin stage success Girl Crazy (the origin of the current hit Crazy For You), included the exhortation Treat Me Rough.
Whether the comment that "She gave him sex-appeal and he gave her class" was true, or not, the pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers was the gr