The Musicals of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Category: Main Crew

  • Ernest Belcher

    Ernest Belcher (1882-1973) is almost totally forgotten, but was a very significant figure in the presentation of dance in early Hollywood. One of the few writers on his work described him as “a figure of national importance”.

    Belcher studied ballet in the UK and worked in the music halls and as a principal danseur before travelling to the United States with a dance troupe in 1914. After various dancing jobs, he established himself as a teacher in Los Angeles.

    His career in film choreography began in 1918 he was hired by D W Griffith to stage dances for Broken Blossoms (1918). Working as a dance director, he taught, amongst others, Pola Negri, Betty Grable, Cyd Charisse, Rita Hayworth, Gwen Verdon and Gower Champion, as well as his own daughter, Marge Champion.

    Belcher provided dance direction in many silent films, including The Phantom of the Opera (1925), almost always without onscreen credit. But in 1928 the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers dubbed him ‘Dance Director of Movieland’. 

    He was there at the beginning of the sound era, arranging dance in The Jazz Singer (1927), and he trained Shirley Temple, staging the ballet in The Little Princess (1939).

    It is ironic, given the size of Belcher’s contribution to dance on film, that his only known involvement in MGM musicals was the appearance of Ernest Belcher’s Dancing Tots in The Hollywood Revue of 1929.

  • Larry Shay

    Lawrence Fredrick Schaetzlein (1897-1988) was a prolific songwriter with one immortal classic to his name. In 1928 he co-authored that paean to optimism, ‘When You’re Smiling (the Whole World Smiles With You)’.

    Shortly before MGM appointed him Music Director, Shay co-wrote ‘Gee, But I’d Like to Make You Happy’ for the 1930 Good News.

  • George Waggner

    George Waggner (1894-1984), or george waGGner as he sometimes, and inexplicably, chose to credit himself, is best known as a writer, director and producer. 

    Wagner produced and directed Universal’s The Wolf Man (1941), establishing himself in the horror pantheon. He also produced Cobra Woman (1944), the once-in-a-lifetime joining of Robert Siodmak with Maria Montez.

    Much earlier in life, Waggoner worked as an actor (up against Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik (1921) and songwriter.

    In the latter capacity, Waggoner teamed with J Russel Robinson to write ‘I Feel Pessimistic’ for the 1930 version of Good News.

  • J Russel Robinson

    Joseph Russel Robinson (1892-1963) was a member of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and a notable jazz composer. He co-wrote the standard ‘Singin the Blues’, which was recorded by Bix Beiderbecke.

    In the 1930s Robinson turned to songwriting, including for the screen. The title song for Portrait of Jennie’ (1948), with lyrics by Gordon Burge, became a hit record for Nat ‘King’ Cole.

    Robinson co-wrote ‘I Feel Pessimistic’ for the 1930 version of Good News. 

  • Ray Henderson

    Raymond Brost (1896-1970) was a Tin Pan Alley composer whose many hits included ‘Has Anybody Seen My Girl’ and Shirley Temple’s ‘Animal Crackers in My Soup’.

    Perhaps the highpoint of Brown’s career was the six years he spent from 1925 in partnership with Buddy G DeSylva and Lew Brown. Their Broadway show Good News (1927) was filmed twice by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The pictures retained some, though not all, of the original show’s numbers, including ‘The Varsity Drag’. 

  • Lew Brown

    Louis Brownstein (1893-1958) became a Tin Pan Alley songwriter in 1912, but his career reached a new level when he partnered with Buddy G DeSylva and Ray Henderson in 1925. They wrote many standards, including ‘Sonny Boy’ (for Al Jolson) and ‘Sunny Side Up’, as well as the Broadway hit Good News (1927).

    Several of the original numbers from Good News were retained in Metro’s two film versions, including ‘The Best Things in Life are Free’.

  • Buddy G DeSylva

    George Gard DeSylva (1895-1950) had two distinct careers, which overlapped. He was originally a Tinpan Alley songwriter, teaming up in 1925 with Lew Brown and Ray Henderson to become one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of the time. They wrote many hit songs, including the standards ‘April Showers’, ‘Button Up Your Overcoat’ and ‘Look for the Silver Lining’. They also scored a major success with the musical Good News (1927) and other Broadway shows. 

    At the same time, DeSylva was a Hollywood producer, initially with Fox and later, and most significantly, at Paramount, where he oversaw, amongst others, some of Preston Sturges’s best films.

    When MGM made its two versions of Good News, they retained some, but by no means all, of the songs from the original show.

  • Edgar J MacGregor

    Edgar J MacGregor (1878-1957) was an actor who became a highly-successful theatre director, usually on Broadway, from 1910 through to the late 1940s. His successes included Good News (1927), Funny Face (1927), DuBarry Was a Lady (1939), Panama Hattie (1939) and several editions of Earl Carroll’s Vanities.

    MacGregor’s screen career was less auspicious. He travelled to Hollywood in 1930 to work on the screen version of Good News, co-directing with Nick Grinde. He never directed another film.

  • Nick Grinde

    Harry A Grinde (1893-1979) was a vaudeville performer who found work as a director at MGM in the late twenties. From then until 1945 he directed around sixty generally low budget features for a variety of studios.

    Early on, Metro occasionally used Grinde to work in partnership with tyro directors who had joined the studio directly from theatre work. For example, he co-directed The Bishop Murder Case (1930) with Broadway director David Burton.

    Another such was Good News, which Grinde co-directed with Edgar J MacGregor, director of the original broadway production.

    Grinde did not direct any additional musicals at Metro, being far more at home with westerns and thrillers, though he did, out of left field, write the screenplay for Babes in Toyland.

  • Good News

    The Crew

    Nick GrindeDirector
    Edgar J MacGregorDirector (as Stage Director)
    Frances MarionScenario
    Joseph FarnhamDialogue
    Buddy G DeSylvaLyricist
    Ray HendersonComposer
    Lew BrownLyricist
    Nacio Herb BrownSongwriter
    Arthur FreedSongwriter
    J Russel RobinsonSongwriter
    George WaggnerSongwriter
    Larry ShaySongwriter
    George WardSongwriter
    Reggie MontgomerySongwriter
    Percy HilburnCinematographer
    William LeVanwayEditor
    Cedric GibbonsArt Director
    Douglas ShearerSound Recording Director
    Russell FranksSound Recording Engineer (uncredited)
    David CoxCostume Design
    Sammy LeeChoreography
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