The Musicals of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Category: Main Crew

  • Owen Hall

    James Davis (1853-1907) was a solicitor who allegedly chose the pen name Owen Hall because it sounded like ‘owing all’, reflecting his frequently bankrupt state. 

    Hall achieved greater success as a librettist, helping to write some of the most successful British musical comedies of his day. Amongst these was Florodora (1899), for which he provided lyrics to Leslie Stuart’s music.

    The show’s breakout song, ‘Tell Me Pretty Maiden’ is performed by Marion Davies and chorus, with interruptions by Lawrence Gray, at the end of The Florodora Girl.

  • Directors N to Z

    Nigh, William
    Ober, Robert
    Pollard, Harry A
    Reisner, Charles F
    Roach, Hal
    Rogers, Charley
    Sedgwick, Edward
    St Clair, Mal
    Van Dyke II, W S
    Vidor, King
    Walsh, Raoul
    White, Jules
    Wood, Sam

  • Directors A to M

    Barrymore, Lionel
    Beaumont, Harry
    Berkeley, Busby
    Brabin, Charles
    Cabanne, Christy
    Conway, Jack
    DeMille, Cecil B
    Franklin, Sidney
    Grinde, Nick
    Houston, Norman
    Howard, William K
    Leonard, Robert Z
    MacGregor, Edgar J
    Mack, Willard

  • Leslie Stuart

    Thomas Augustine Barrett (1863-1928) has been called one of the most gifted composers of musical comedy on the British stage. His early hits, written for the music hall, included ‘Lily of Laguna’ and ‘Soldiers of the King’.

    Stuart’s first West End musical comedy, which became an international success, was Florodora (1899), and it had two quite different impacts on MGM musicals. Firstly, the show formed the background for The Florodora Girl, a fictional story about one of the original Broadway chorus girls. A song from the show, ‘Tell Me Pretty Maiden,’ features at the climax of the film.

    Decades later, Florodora, misnamed Florodora Girl, is one of the many no-longer-relevant New York sights featured in Chip’s out-of-date guidebook in On the Town and mentioned in ‘Come Up to My Place’.

  • Paul Dresser

    Johann Paul Dreiser Jr (1857-1906) is considered one of the most important American songwriters of the late nineteenth century. Like many of his contemporaries, he started out performing in minstrel shows, and ended up as a music publisher.

    In between, Dresser wrote an estimated 150 songs. Like Stephen Foster from an earlier generation, he leaned heavily on sentimental themes such as motherhood, the home, and patriotism.

    Dresser’s best-known song is ‘On the Banks of the Wabash,’ which featured in many Hollywood films, including The Florodora Girl. A bridge over the Wabash River now bears his name.

    Dresser was the older brother of novelist Theodore Dreiser, whose career he supported financially.

  • Alfred E Rick

    I can tell you nothing about Alfred E Rick (18??-19??) except that he and Maurice Scott wrote the comic song ‘Swing Me Higher, Obadiah,’ as performed by music hall artiste Chummie La Mara and, later, by Marion Davies in The Florodora Girl.

  • Maurice Scott

    Only one fact is known about composer Maurice Scott (1878-1933). In 1917 he composed a song that forty-something years later would lend its title to an internationally-acclaimed stage musical and an award-winning film: ‘Oh, It’s a Lovely War’ was written by Scott and John P Long for the music hall entertainer Ella Shields. 

    It was another music hall artiste, Chummie La Mara, who sang Scott’s ‘Swing Me Higher, Obadiah,’ later performed by Marion Davies in The Florodora Girl.

  • Michael Nolan

    The comedian Michael Nolan was born in Ireland but raised in Bradford in Yorkshire, where he got his start as a music hall performer.  Known as ‘the Prince of Irish Comedians,’ he combined comedy patter with songs, many of which he composed himself.

    One of these songs was ‘Little Annie Rooney,’ as featured in The Florodora Girl.

  • Joe Hayden

    Joe A Hayden (1845-1916) was a lyricist who would be totally forgotten today but for one thing. He wrote the words for Theodore A Metz’s immortal ‘There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight’ in 1897.

    The number has been performed in a vast array of context, one of which was to be sung by Marion Davies in The Florodora Girl.

  • Theodore A Metz

    Theodore August Metz (1848-1936) was born in the Hanover of King Ernest Augustus and died in FDR’s America. Having trained as a violinist, Metz emigrated and eventually found work as conductor for a touring minstrel show. 

    Metz’s claim to cultural immortality rests on his composition, in 1897, of a tune that has achieved anthemic status in the United States: ‘There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight’. This song, with lyrics by Joe Hayden, was featured in The Florodora Girl.

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