Unfortunately there is very little available outside of stills and selected newsreel footage showing the first 30 years of Broadway musicals covered here, so you get a lot of film clips and a few little surprises here and there. You can find many stills of these early shows online through archives sites that have made them available for the first time to the public (such as the New York Public library and the museum of the history of New York), so in addition to a few sound recordings, you get a slight example of what they look like in a dated way. Early short sound films showed vaudeville teams, famous singers of the time (who didn't make it in film and thus are forgotten) and abridged versions of never fully filmed shows. Some of the novelty acts certainly can now be looked as very bizarre, and some that you could never do today and live to tell about.
There's glimpses of muscle man Eugene Sandow (who is muscles made women faint), newsreel footage of Florenz Ziegfeld discussing what made the perfect Ziegfeld girl, and interviews with his daughter and then surviving former showgirls, giving a lesson to audiences that elderly women were once glamorous and greatly desired. It's funny to hear one of the chorus girls, probably then in her '80s, speaking with a heavy New York accent, making you do a double take in thinking that she was once scantily clad and wearing wings on a Broadway stage.
Even though it's James Cagney you here, you do get to see some news real footage of the real George M Cohan, and an interview with Joel Grey who would play him later on Broadway gives an insight into the real man. Cohan's brash personality and obvious narcissism followed over into other artists like Al Jolson, but their talent is undeniable even if some of their styles can be considered offensive. Yet, you see their influence in other shows that are still felt today in the style of choreography that while changing with the times utilizes these timeless methods. Irving Berlin's daughter gets to tell her father's story, and you get to see why he is still called the personification of what American music is. This is an example of a person whose name may eventually be forgotten by most, but whose melodies will never not be sung. Then there's a profile on fellow Jewish entertainer Fanny Brice, represented by footage from "The Great Ziegfeld" which of course gives us footage from "Funny Girl", represented in an opening segment featuring Barbra Streisand.
"Bert Williams is the funniest man I ever saw and the saddest man I ever knew." Those words of W. C. Fields give us an insight to this Ziegfeld performer who even being black was forced to appear as if he was in blackface, making a living but sadly realizing what a sad living it was. We glimpses of that sadness through profiles of Williams and Ethel Waters, the first black superstar whose sad upbringing is profiled here along with Williams' story. "A fool who speaks with the voice of a wise man" describes Williams' method of trying to bring some sort of dignity, and in reflection of the times, it's both sad and moving. The songs "Nothin'" and later on "Supper Time" reflect the issues that these black performers faced. Seeing the real Bert Williams sans makeup makes me think immediately how he would be as Coalhouse Walker in the modern musical classic "Ragtime". He certainly was as handsome as Howard E. Rollins who played the role in the movie and Brian Stokes Mitchell who originated the role on Broadway.
So this basically focuses on the pre-depression years of American culture as seen through Broadway, taking us up to "Show Boat", so we get the operettas and ragtime, the basically plotless musical comedies that featured stars like Fred and Adele Astaire, patriotic songs during World War I, and even some political issues concerning actors equity. You get to see how the power of the people can take on the power of a producer like Ziegfeld, and it's a reflection of similar scandals of today where powerful people can be taken down when the so-called little people have had enough. A great start to a fantastic documentary that may not go up to the present day but has enough to keep you coming back, and get you to plan a trip and buy as many tickets to Broadway shows as you can. This picks the right note to conclude on by showing how just one show could change the whole course of musical theater history.
There's glimpses of muscle man Eugene Sandow (who is muscles made women faint), newsreel footage of Florenz Ziegfeld discussing what made the perfect Ziegfeld girl, and interviews with his daughter and then surviving former showgirls, giving a lesson to audiences that elderly women were once glamorous and greatly desired. It's funny to hear one of the chorus girls, probably then in her '80s, speaking with a heavy New York accent, making you do a double take in thinking that she was once scantily clad and wearing wings on a Broadway stage.
Even though it's James Cagney you here, you do get to see some news real footage of the real George M Cohan, and an interview with Joel Grey who would play him later on Broadway gives an insight into the real man. Cohan's brash personality and obvious narcissism followed over into other artists like Al Jolson, but their talent is undeniable even if some of their styles can be considered offensive. Yet, you see their influence in other shows that are still felt today in the style of choreography that while changing with the times utilizes these timeless methods. Irving Berlin's daughter gets to tell her father's story, and you get to see why he is still called the personification of what American music is. This is an example of a person whose name may eventually be forgotten by most, but whose melodies will never not be sung. Then there's a profile on fellow Jewish entertainer Fanny Brice, represented by footage from "The Great Ziegfeld" which of course gives us footage from "Funny Girl", represented in an opening segment featuring Barbra Streisand.
"Bert Williams is the funniest man I ever saw and the saddest man I ever knew." Those words of W. C. Fields give us an insight to this Ziegfeld performer who even being black was forced to appear as if he was in blackface, making a living but sadly realizing what a sad living it was. We glimpses of that sadness through profiles of Williams and Ethel Waters, the first black superstar whose sad upbringing is profiled here along with Williams' story. "A fool who speaks with the voice of a wise man" describes Williams' method of trying to bring some sort of dignity, and in reflection of the times, it's both sad and moving. The songs "Nothin'" and later on "Supper Time" reflect the issues that these black performers faced. Seeing the real Bert Williams sans makeup makes me think immediately how he would be as Coalhouse Walker in the modern musical classic "Ragtime". He certainly was as handsome as Howard E. Rollins who played the role in the movie and Brian Stokes Mitchell who originated the role on Broadway.
So this basically focuses on the pre-depression years of American culture as seen through Broadway, taking us up to "Show Boat", so we get the operettas and ragtime, the basically plotless musical comedies that featured stars like Fred and Adele Astaire, patriotic songs during World War I, and even some political issues concerning actors equity. You get to see how the power of the people can take on the power of a producer like Ziegfeld, and it's a reflection of similar scandals of today where powerful people can be taken down when the so-called little people have had enough. A great start to a fantastic documentary that may not go up to the present day but has enough to keep you coming back, and get you to plan a trip and buy as many tickets to Broadway shows as you can. This picks the right note to conclude on by showing how just one show could change the whole course of musical theater history.