Jules Munshin, Frank Sinatra, and Gene Kelly on the Brooklyn Bridge, in "On The Town," 1949
America spent the 1940s preparing for, fighting in, or helping the world heal from the ravages of World War II. Film entertainment was an elixir for the country’s heartaches and the eight major Hollywood studios cranked out more than 550 musicals during the decade, films bursting with sumptuous production numbers, naïve plots, and phenomenal music. Advances in film technology had heightened the appeal of the industry, and by 1946, 80 million people went to theaters every week. Hollywood stars became generators of patriotism and nostalgia and their audiences adored them.
It was a decade of sensational singing actors. Bing Crosby’s reputation soared and Fred Astaire continued his dominance, even without Ginger Rogers. Judy Garland, his partner in Easter Parade, made 16 MGM musicals in the 1940s, one of them in 1942, For Me and My Gal, with a young dance instructor from Pittsburgh making his film debut, Gene Kelly.
That same year, the smash hit Yankee Doodle Dandy featured Jimmy Cagney’s portrayal of the irascible George M. Cohan. Frank Sinatra settled into his first major role in 1945’s Anchors Aweigh, awkwardly crooned “Old Man River” in Jerome Kern’s (heavily fictitious) biography Till the Clouds Roll By, and ended the decade as Gene Kelly’s sidekick in On the Town.
Film songs frequently topped the pop charts in the 1940s and the most popular songwriters of the era, Kern, Berlin, Porter, Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, Rodgers and Hammerstein, all wrote for Hollywood. So it’s not surprising that many of the biggest hit songs of the decade—including "White Christmas," "Blues in the Night,” “The Last Time I Saw Paris," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and “It Might as Well Be Spring”—were introduced on screen.
Join Robert Wyatt, whose specialty is American music, as he guides you through an extraordinary era of film and enduring voices. Sound recordings and movie clips will spark recollections of when you first heard Bing Crosby sing “White Christmas,” saw Gene Kelly’s roguish mustache in The Pirate, or watched Judy Garland hop on that trolley in Meet Me in St. Louis.
Other Connections
One of the top 1940s musical stars was made for Technicolor: Rita Hayworth. Though the stunning redhead’s singing was usually dubbed, her dancing belonged to no one else. She and Gene Kelly performed a rousing “Put Me to the Test” in 1944’s Cover Girl, set to a Jerome Kern–Ira Gershwin score, and played the goddess of dance herself in 1947’s Down to Earth, in which Terpsichore poses as a Broadway showgirl.
