What A Glorious Feeling!

On March 27, 1952, MGM hosted the premiere for “Singin’ in the Rain” at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Seventy years later, it is still hailed as one of the most perfect movie musicals of all-time. Today’s post celebrates the Technicolor triumph that boasted the perfect cast, memorable songs, and a well-written script that balanced comedy, satire, history, romance, and dramatic tension.



Madge Blake (Aunt Harriet in the “Batman” (1966) TV series), as gossip columnist Dora Bailey, breathlessly begins the movie introducing “The Royal Rascal” premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Well, MGM’s version of the famed theatre at least! Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) & Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) wave to their adoring fans, as Don’s lifelong friend Cosmo Brown (Donald O’Connor) stands to the side.



After the thunderous applause from the crowd dies down, Don thanks the audience for their kind reaction while obviously preventing Lina from getting a word in edgewise. When Lina’s voice is finally revealed, we realize the reason: her shrill shrieking is a far cry from the dulcet tones her fans believe that she possesses. Fortunately for her, the movies are still silent!



In this deleted scene, Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) tells the other chorines about her recent chance encounter with movie star Don Lockwood. Little does she know that the cake she is about to burst out of is for Don, who she berated for being nothing more than a ham. Oops.



In this behind-the-scenes shot, Jean Hagen is doted on by the MGM beauty factory to play her role-within-a-role as an 18th century aristocrat for “The Dueling Cavalier.”



Don and Lina portray lovers in their next film, “The Dueling Cavalier.” Does the love affair spill over into “real life” for Don and Lina? After their passionate screen kiss, Lina says, “Oh, Donnie - you couldn’t kiss me like that and not mean it just a teensy-weensy bit!”  Her costar quickly corrects her, “I’d rather kiss a tarantula!”



Don finally tracks down Kathy, who garnered a bit part in a movie at Monumental Pictures. R.F. Simpson (Millard Mitchell), the head of the studio where Don also works, is seen at left.



When “The Dueling Cavalier” flops in previews because of Lina’s voice, Cosmo has the brilliant idea of having her voice dubbed. Kathy gets the kiss though!



In one of the greatest tap duets, Cosmo & Don dance circles around the studio diction coach (Bobby Watson) to “Moses Supposes.”



Lina discovers that Kathy is going to dub her voice. Because she is still a bigger star, she arranges for Kathy’s credit to be removed and blackmails the studio head to continue to have the young girl relegated to only dubbing her voice. What a rotten…



Don and Cosmo give Lina her comeuppance at the movie premiere, and Kathy is restored to a budding film career as well as a romance with Don. Debbie Reynolds later admitted that the tears she shed in the final scene were from glycerine. After that, she was able to do it on her own!



See more “Singin’ in the Rain” photos at my main website.

Happy Birthday, Lina Lamont!

Today marks what would have been the 91st birthday of actress Jean Hagen. Her name may not be remembered today, but her most famous role, Lina Lamont in "Singin' in the Rain," still wows 'em! When we first meet Lina, we see a very glamorous platinum haired beauty, who seems both shy and demure…until she opens her mouth.



A behind-the-scenes shot of Hagen in makeup for the film; sure would love to know what's going through the mind of the assistant on the right of this image.



A publicity still showing the film within the film being shot with Gene Kelly and Jean.



A closeup of the ginormous corsage on her dress that would eventually be used to hide the microphone when the silent film "The Dueling Cavalier" was to be converted to sound.



A clip of the classic scene where Lina meets with her diction coach (expertly played by Kathleen Freeman) in a vain attempt to improve her voice:



Oblivious to the shrill quality of her voice, Lina loves how she sounds in the premiere as the rest of the audience cringes.



Sadly, Hagen passed away from esophageal cancer at the young age of 54, without ever having any leading roles that allowed her talents to shine as much as they did in this 1952 classic.



54 years ago today, Hawaii's own eight-year-old Raymond Sleeper became the 10-millionth Disneyland Railroad passenger. He took this historic ride with Walt Disney himself, as well as R.G. Rydin, Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Executive Vice President. Walt is seen here sifting through the 10,000 pennies in a presentation boxcar that Raymond was awarded. I hope he invested it wisely!



A color shot from my collection of this momentous occasion:



From the original Disneyland photo history blog that started the whole durn thing here comes this shot that also shows Cast Member favorite Engineer Bill (Bill Stulla) aboard the Ernest S. Marsh:



Hope you are having a fantastic Sunday!

See more Daveland Movie photos at my main website.

Screen Gem Saturdays: Lovely Lina Lamont

This movie borders on perfection; can you imagine anything better than the songs, dancing, acting, and writing of this MGM musical gem? Debbie Reynolds sparkled as Kathy Selden, the vivacious up-and-coming actress who had to supplement her income by popping out of cakes at parties.

Gene Kelly was tailor-made for the role of Don Lockwood, the silent-screen matinee idol just a little too infatuated with his fame.



And Jean Hagen...she literally walked away with the picture in her star turn as Lina Lamont, the impossibly glamorous actress with the voice of a shrew...and a personality to match.



It takes the advent of talking pictures and the love of Gene Kelly’s character to knock down Lina and give sweetheart Debbie Reynolds the break of a lifetime.



The irony of the movie? The Kathy Selden character dubs Lina Lamont’s speaking and singing voice so that the studio won’t lose money on Lina’s first talking picture. However, another actress (Betty Noyes) dubbed the singing vocals for Debbie Reynolds and Jean Hagen’s actual voice was used for the speaking parts that Kathy was supposedly dubbing! The difference in Noyes’ and Reynold’s singing voice is glaring, as are the speaking voices of Hagen and Reynolds. Definitely a “huh?” moment for this otherwise perfect movie.

For the Major, here’s a closeup of the sign near Monstro at Disneyland from yesterday’s post; not very helpful (or readable), but it’s here nonetheless:



See more Classic Hollywood Movie & TV photos at my main website.