Makers of Melody
About Makers of Melody
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart appear as themselves. Asked how they came by their songs, they act out short, scripted scenes that pretend to catch the moment a tune was born. Each sketch ends with a performance. Ruth Tester and Allan Gould sing Manhattan, the team's first hit.
Cast & crew
More about Makers of Melody
S. Jay Kaufman directed this two-reel Movietone short for Paramount Famous Lasky. Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky presented it. Paramount released it on 1 June 1929. Western Electric Movietone sound-on-film is the system. Robert Cloy, Inez Courtney, Marie Leonard, Kathryn Reece, and Edward Ryan also appear.
Themes
Background
Paramount made it in 1929, during the rush of Broadway-composer shorts that showed songwriters on camera once sound was in the theaters.
Making
The pair do not simply sit and talk. The script has a casual remark trigger each number, then cuts to a singer.
Reviews
In a 1991 New York Times piece on a Rodgers and Hart television program, Stephen Holden described this short as a bizarre two-reeler in which the composers play themselves and pretend to pull songs out of scripted banter.
Technique
Shot in the Movietone format at 1.20:1, with Western Electric sound-on-film rather than a separate disc.
Music
Sound-on-film. Manhattan, music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart, is sung by Ruth Tester and Allan Gould. The Girl Friend, The Blue Room, and Here in My Arms are the other numbers staged in the short.
Preservation
A print exists and is in the public domain in the United States. Wikimedia Commons carries a copy sourced from the Internet Archive.
Notes
- A circulating print runs 17 minutes and 33 seconds.
- Inez Courtney sings with Allan Gould.
- The film is in the public domain in the United States.
Scenes
- Ruth Tester and Allan Gould sing Manhattan after Rodgers and Hart stage a phony story of how the song started.
Also available
- Internet Archive (makers-of-melody_1929)