The Musicals of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Tag: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

  • The Florodora Girl

    Some Thoughts

    My grandpa saw the girly shows

    And told me of one special pearl,

    He said the hottest show in town

    Was called the Florodora Girl

    So sings Chip in On the Town, reading from his forty-year-old New York guidebook. He has to miss out, unfortunately, but a glimpse of the show can be caught in The Florodora Girl, a fictional tale about one of the original six chorus girls in the Broadway production of Owen Hall and Leslie Stuart’s Florodora.

    The show opened on Broadway in 1900 the film, as its subtitle ‘A Story of the Gay Nineties’ makes clear, is set in the late-Victorian period. This is certainly the period of most of The Florodora Girl’s songs. The then-ubiquitous Stothart-Grey partnership only wrote two numbers for the picture, with the assistance of Andy Rice. The rest are popular songs from the period. But the new songs blend in comfortably as pseudo-Victorian, especially ‘Pass the Beer and Pretzels’, which is part of a three-minute medley performed by Marion Davies and chorus. 

    Daisy (Marion Davies) throws herself into a performance of ‘Pass the Beer and Pretzels’

    Robert Barrios suggests that the film’s music is “present less for its own sake than to provide atmospheric upholstery”. There is a degree of truth in this, but it is not the whole story. For example, ‘Don’t Wake Me Up, I’m Dreaming’ (which may have a third set of lyrics by Clifford Grey or Andy Rice), is sung over, and mirrors, Daisy’s yearning looks at Jack after she refuses his flowers. And ‘Tell Me Pretty Maiden’ not only involves Jack’s intrusion into the on-stage performance, but the lyrics and movements of the singers are utilized to become Daisy’s half of their conversation.

    This reflects Harry Beaumont’s growing comfort with the musical. His staging and framing is much more inventive than in his earlier efforts, especially in the sequence at the Bowery slumming ball.

    Dancers at the Bowery slumming ball

    Marion Davies is clearly more comfortable as Daisy than she had been as Marianne, and her lively performance won deserved praise from critics. And as the film’s producer, she benefited from having a star who happened to own a private beach suitable for shooting a lengthy portion of the first half. Davies’s staff were able to provide catering that was a cut above what the cast and crew were used to in Culver City.   

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Ren Shields

    Ren Shields (1868-1913) was a folk musician and vaudeville performer who also worked as a lyricist, in which capacity he wrote ‘Make a Noise Like a Hula Hoop and Roll Away (Whoop,Whoop, Whoop)’.

    More memorably, Shields provided the lyrics for ‘In the Good Old Summer Time,’ written with George Evans.  The number featured in The Florodora Girl and In the Good Old Summertime.

  • George Evans

    George ‘Honey Boy’ Evans (1870-1915) was a Welsh music hall performer, songwriter and producer who toured the United States with a minstrel show he bought called the Honey Boy Minstrels.

    Evans’s best-known contribution to the Great American Songbook was ‘In the Good Old Summer Time,’ written with lyricist Ren Shields in 1902. The number was featured in the Edwardian-set musical The Florodora Girl, and was later the title song of In the Good Old Summertime. 

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial
RSS
Facebook
X (Twitter)
WhatsApp
Copy link
URL has been copied successfully!