Alexander's Ragtime Band(1938)

'Alexander's Ragtime Band' is a film made in 1938, directed by Henry King and starring Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman and Jack Haley. The movie takes its name from the famous 1911 Irving Berlin song "Alexander's Ragtime Band".

On release 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' was a popular hit and grossed in excess of five million dollars. It was the top-grossing US film of 1938 and earned the second highest number of Academy Award nominations for that year, six in total including winning the Oscar for Best Music, Scoring.

Plot

The movie tells the story of Roger Grant, a classical violinist, played by Tyrone Power, who disappoints his family and surprises his friends, by organising a jazz band and attempts to follow a career in the new "ragtime" rage instead of "serious" music.

Roger falls in love with his singer Stella, played by Alice Faye and the film follows their romance over two decades. It also traces the history of jazz music from the 1911 release of the song "Alexander's Ragtime Band" to the acceptance of jazz and swing as an art form in the late 1930s, using music composed by Berlin

The band created by Roger gradually increases in size from 5 members at the start to the final performance at Carnegie Hall, where the band has expanded to a total of 58 players, not counting conductor Alexander. The band size reflects the increase in the popularity of their "ragtime" music.

Production

Irving Berlin was already a well known figure in America in 1937 when he was invited by 20th Century Fox to outline a story for their proposed film entitled "Alexander's Ragtime Band."[ Fox's Daryll Zanuck wanted to be the first to offer a movie score mixing old and new works by a single composer. Berlin disliked the idea of a biographical film about himself but agreed to create a fictional story which would include a large number of his songs. He and Richard Sherman expanded his story into a 114 page treatment, which was revised many times by Zanuck's in-house dramatists.

The film was originally intended as a vehicle for Fred MacMurray but was eventually given to Tyrone Power although he could neither sing nor play an instrument. Barbara Stanwyck was considered as Power's romantic foil until Zanuck chose Alice Faye instead. Zanuck also cast Don Ameche as Charles Dwyer, thus reuniting the trio who had worked together on 'In Old Chicago' the prevuous year.

Filming began at the end of January, 1938 and continued for 3 months Fox went all out on production, creating eighty-five lavish sets and many stunning costumes.

Berlin supervised the musical elements using more than 30 of his original songs including 3 new numbers: "Now It Can Be Told", "My Walking Stick" and "Marching Along With Time"..

The film allowed Zanuck to continue the sort of hit musicals that Fox and 2oth CenturyPictures had produced prior to their 1935 merger..

Lawsuit
Soon after release a a lawsuit charged Berlin and Zanuck with "stealing" songs and story line. The suit was ultimately dismissed and the film became a huge commercial success

Songs

The movie features several Irving Berlin hit songs including "Heat Wave", "Some Sunny Day", "Blue Skies", "Easter Parade", "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" as "Alexander's Ragtime Band". Previously released songs were rearranged and used in conjunction with new songs written by Berlin specially for the film. Irving Berlin personally singled out Alice Faye to play the female lead. This was the first time that composer Irving Berlin had worked with Ethel Merman. He told her that he was so impressed with her talent that he would work with her again. He kept that promise and wrote two Broadway shows especially for her: "Annie Get Your Gun" in 1946 and "Call Me Madam" in 1950, the latter of which also starred Merman in the film adaptation: Call Me Madam (1953). Merman also later starred in a film that, like this one, was a cavalcade of Irving Berlin songs, There's No Business Like Show Business (1954).