I supplied a small rant on the Art Deco style of Top Hat from intro lettering, to room design to music to clothes and even how Fred dances rectilinear and not, say, Art Nouveau and curvy like Gene Kelly. Anyway in the first of many mistakes, thinking I’d be clever, I asked TriviaTonyT “What was the first colour musical”?. He quickly counter feinted; “Wizard of Oz”, just as I mumbled out “Gigi”.
Now I‘d always had in my mind that Gigi was the first colour musical but no, TonyT and his coterie of female admirers insisted that the first colour musical was “the wiz”. Overwhelmed I subtly shifted the conversation across to The Producers or Curb or something.
Now I’ve looked it up:
“Gigi is a 1958 motion picture musical”
“The Wizard of Oz premiered at the Strand Theatre in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin on August 12, 1939 and Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood on August 15, 1939. The New York City premiere at Loew's Capitol Theater on August 17, 1939 was followed by a live performance with Judy Garland and her frequent film co-star Mickey Rooney. They would continue to perform there after each screening for a week. The movie opened nationally on August 25, 1939.”
However:
“the first all color all talking musical feature was entitled On with the Show (1929). The most popular film of 1929 was in fact the second all-color all-talking feature which was entitled Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929).’
So there.
Listen to Tip-Toe Through The Tulips (mp3) from Gold Diggers
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