The Musicals of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Category: Performers

  • Trixie Friganza

    Actor, poet, suffragist and body-positive activist Delia O’Callaghan (1870-1955) had been a star in vaudeville for many years before making her first film appearance in 1923. She had a featured role in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1928), but her best part was probably Ma Plunkett in Free and Easy, which allowed her to demonstrate some of the comedic and musical skills she had honed on the stage.

    The weirdest item in Friganza’s filmography is How to Undress in Front of Your Husband (1937), an ‘educational’ short in which she and Elaine Barrymore demonstrate the right and wrong ways for a woman to get ready for bed. Friganza was 67 at the time, but still game.

  • Free and Easy

    Cast

    Buster KeatonElmer Butts
    Anita PageElvira Plunkett
    Trixie FriganzaMa Plunkett
    Robert MontgomeryLarry Mitchell
    Fred NibloDirector Fred Niblo
    Edgar DearingStudio Gate Guard
    Gwen LeeGwen Lee – Actress in Bedroom Scene
    John MiljanJohn Miljan – Actor in Bedroom Scene
    Lionel BarrymoreLionel Barrymore – Director of Bedroom Scene
    William HainesWilliam Haines – Guest at Premiere
    William Collier Sr.William Collier Sr. – Master of Ceremonies at Premiere
    Dorothy SebastianDorothy Sebastian – Actress in Cave Scene
    Karl DaneKarl Dane – Actor in Cave Scene
    David BurtonDirector DavidBurton
    Jack BaxleyTrain Conductor (uncredited)
    Edward BrophyBenny – The Stage Manager (uncredited)
    Richard CarleEunuch Crowning Elmer (uncredited)
    Louise CarverBig German Woman (uncredited)
    Emile ChautardUndetermined Role (uncredited)
    Jackie CooganJackie Coogan – at Premiere (uncredited)
    Cecil B. DeMilleDirector Cecil B. DeMille (uncredited)
    Drew DemorestLarry’s Valet (uncredited)
    Ann DvorakChorine (uncredited)
    Joseph FarnhamJoseph Farnham (uncredited)
    Pat HarmonDoorman at Premiere (uncredited)
    Lottice HowellVocalist in ‘It Must Be You’ Number (uncredited)
    Arthur LangeArthur Lange – Orchestral Conductor (uncredited)
    Theodore LorchTheodore Lorch – Dynamite Scene Director (uncredited)
    Billy MayBilly May (uncredited)
    Doris McMahonSinger and Dancer in the ‘Free and Easy’ number (uncredited)

  • Phil Dunham

    British-born Phil Dunham (1885-1972) made his first screen appearance in 1914 and was in over 260 films. He had a parallel career as a screenwriter and worked on some of the ‘race’ pictures that featured all-Black casts. These included The Duke is Tops (1938), in which Lena Horne made her debut, and Gang Smashers (1938), which featured MGM alumna Nina Mae McKinney.

    Dunham had uncredited roles in six Metro musicals, beginning with Montana Moon. The others were It Happened in Brooklyn, The Unfinished Dance, Annie Get Your Gun, Singin’ in the Rain and Easy to Love.   

  • Mary Carlisle

    Gwendolyn Witter (1914-2018) played bits in three MGM musicals (Montana Moon, Children of Pleasure and Madam Satan) before moving on to more substantial roles at Paramount, often paired with Bing Crosby,

    Carlisle retired in 1943 and lived for another 75 years.

  • Dorothy Sebastian

    Stella Dorothy Sebaston (1904-57) was a chorus girl who became a stage and then screen actor, securing a five-year contract at Metro. She appeared with Joan Crawford and Johnny Mack Brown in Our Dancing Daughters (1928), and supported them again in Montana Moon, playing Crawford’s sister.

    Sebastian appeared in one other MGM musical, Free and Easy, with her friend Buster Keaton. Her contract ended and her career declined through minor studios, ending in playing bit parts.

  • Johnny Mack Brown

    John Brown (1904-74) was a college football star whose good looks secured him a screen test and a five-year contract with MGM. He played opposite Joan Crawford in Our Dancing Daughters (1928), but his thick Alabama accent meant he was never going to be cast as a city sophisticate after the introduction of sound. Brown’s accent was suitable, however, for the cowboy he played when reteamed with Crawford in Montana Moon. 

    Brown’s career suffered a double blow in 1931 when he was replaced by the rising Clark Gable in Laughing Sinners, and then failed to secure the lead in Tarzan the Ape Man. His MGM contract ended and Brown spent the rest of his, very successful and prolific, career in Poverty Row westerns, frequently playing characters called ‘Johnny Mack Brown’.

  • Larry Steers

    Lawrence Wells Steers (1888-1951) appeared in around 550 films during his thirty-year career, sometimes credited, more often not.

    Twenty-seven of those uncredited roles were in Metro musicals, starting in 1930 with Lord Byron of Broadway. Steers was subsequently in Stage Mother, Dancing Lady, Hollywood Party, Reckless, Here Comes the Band, The Great Ziegfeld, Nobody’s Baby, The Great Waltz, At the Circus, Broadway Melody of 1940, Ziegfeld Girl, Lady Be Good, Two Girls and a Sailor, Meet the People, Ziegfeld Follies (giving the hattrick of MGM Ziegfeld titles), Yolanda and the Thief, Holiday in Mexico, No Leave, No Love, Till the Clouds Roll By, A Date with Judy, The Barkeleys of Broadway, That Midnight Kiss, Annie Get Your Gun, Duchess of Idaho, The Toast of New Orleans and The Great Caruso.

  • Virginia Sale

    Virginia Sale (1899-1992) was a trained character who maintained a career on stage and screen for almost fifty years. Her first film role was as Fifi in French Leave (1927), but she soon began to specialize in playing older women, though still in her twenties. She played many mothers, aunts and spinsters.

    Sale cropped up in three MGM musicals: Lord  Byron of Broadway, the 1930 New Moon and Strike Up the Band.

  • Bill Elliott

    At the height of his career, Gordon Nance (1904-65) was generally billed as Wild Bill Elliott. So named, he featured in dozens of B westerns, mostly produced at Republic and Monogram, the upper end of Poverty Row. Elliott concluded his career playing Lieutenant Andy Doyle in a series of crime pictures for Allied Artists.

    In the thirties, Elliott made uncredited appearances in five MGM musicals: Lord Byron of Broadway, Stage Mother, Dancing Lady, Hollywood Party and Reckless.

  • Iris Adrian

    Iris Adrian Hostetter (1912-84) was at the very beginning of her career when she played an uncredited audience member in Lord Byron of Broadway. She did not go on to stardom of any kind, but maintained a steady career as a reliable and recognizable supporting player, usually as down-to-earth broads. Fourth-billed in Bob Hope’s The Paleface indicates the best amongst her credits. In the 1960s and 70s Adrian became a regular part of the Disney Studio’s live-action stock company.

    Iris Adrian only featured in one other metro musical, uncredited as Mary Lou in Go West.

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