Billy Rose's Jumbo (film)
Encyclopedia
Billy Rose's Jumbo is an American musical film
produced by MGM in Panavision
and Metrocolor
, and starring Jimmy Durante
, Doris Day
, Martha Raye
, and Stephen Boyd
. The film was directed by Charles Walters
and featured Busby Berkeley
's choreography. It was nominated for an Academy Award for the adaptation of its Rodgers and Hart
score.
The title came from the original Broadway
show on which the film was based. The show opened on November 16, 1935, and was the last musical produced at the New York Hippodrome
before it was torn down in 1939. Billy Rose
produced the original stage version, and stipulated that if a film version was ever made, he would have to be credited in the title, even if he were not personally involved with the film.
Both play and film feature songs by Richard Rodgers
and Lorenz Hart
, although the film borrows two songs from other Rodgers and Hart shows other than Jumbo
(including This Can't Be Love
, from The Boys from Syracuse
). The screenplay was written by Sidney Sheldon
.
Despite the fact that the score contained such Rodgers and Hart standards as "My Romance
" and "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
", neither the original play or the film were especially successful. The film was Doris Day's last screen musical.
On April 2, 2007, Robert Osborne
of TCM
, introducing the MGM film Fearless Fagan (1952) directed by Stanley Donen
, said that Donen was due to direct Jumbo right after Singin' in the Rain
in 1952. However, MGM decided the script was not ready, and Jumbo was not filmed until 1962 with a different director and stars.
of the film was issued by Columbia Records
in 1962.
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
produced by MGM in Panavision
Panavision
Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses during the widescreen boom in the 1950s, Panavision expanded its product...
and Metrocolor
Metrocolor
Metrocolor is the trade name used by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for films processed at their laboratory. Virtually all of these films were actually shot on Kodak's Eastmancolor film.-External links:* at Internet Movie Database...
, and starring Jimmy Durante
Jimmy Durante
James Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...
, Doris Day
Doris Day
Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...
, Martha Raye
Martha Raye
Martha Raye was an American comic actress and standards singer who performed in movies, and later on television....
, and Stephen Boyd
Stephen Boyd
Stephen Boyd was an Irish actor, from Glengormley, Northern Ireland, who appeared in around 60 films, most notably in the role of Messala in Ben-Hur.-Biography:...
. The film was directed by Charles Walters
Charles Walters
Charles Walters was a Hollywood director and choreographer most noted for his work in MGM musicals and comedies in from the 1940s to the 1960s....
and featured Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley was a highly influential Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer. Berkeley was famous for his elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns...
's choreography. It was nominated for an Academy Award for the adaptation of its Rodgers and Hart
Rodgers and Hart
Rodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership of composer Richard Rodgers and the lyricist Lorenz Hart...
score.
The title came from the original Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
show on which the film was based. The show opened on November 16, 1935, and was the last musical produced at the New York Hippodrome
New York Hippodrome
The Hippodrome Theatre, also called the New York Hippodrome, was a theatre in New York City from 1905 to 1939, located on Sixth Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan. It was called the world's largest theatre by its builders and had a seating capacity of...
before it was torn down in 1939. Billy Rose
Billy Rose
William "Billy" Rose was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. He is credited with many famous songs, notably "Me and My Shadow" , "It Happened in Monterey" and "It's Only a Paper Moon"...
produced the original stage version, and stipulated that if a film version was ever made, he would have to be credited in the title, even if he were not personally involved with the film.
Both play and film feature songs by Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
and Lorenz Hart
Lorenz Hart
Lorenz "Larry" Milton Hart was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart...
, although the film borrows two songs from other Rodgers and Hart shows other than Jumbo
Jumbo (musical)
Jumbo is a musical produced by Billy Rose, with music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart and book by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.-Production:...
(including This Can't Be Love
This Can't Be Love (song)
"This Can't Be Love" is a show tune and a popular song from the 1938 Rodgers and Hart musical The Boys from Syracuse. It was also included in the 1962 musical film, Billy Rose's Jumbo, though most of the songs in that film came from the 1935 Rodgers & Hart musical Jumbo. The lyrics poke fun of the...
, from The Boys from Syracuse
The Boys from Syracuse
The Boys from Syracuse is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart, based on William Shakespeare's play, The Comedy of Errors, as adapted by librettist George Abbott. The score includes swing and other contemporary rhythms of the 1930s. The show was the first musical...
). The screenplay was written by Sidney Sheldon
Sidney Sheldon
Sidney Sheldon was an Academy Award-winning American writer. His TV works spanned a 20-year period during which he created The Patty Duke Show , I Dream of Jeannie and Hart to Hart , but he became most famous after he turned 50 and began writing best-selling novels such as Master of the Game ,...
.
Despite the fact that the score contained such Rodgers and Hart standards as "My Romance
My Romance (song)
"My Romance" is a popular song, with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart, written for Billy Rose's musical, Jumbo . In the 1962 movie version of Jumbo, Doris Day performed the song....
" and "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World (1935 song)
"The Most Beautiful Girl In The World A.K.A Hannah Langston '" is a show tune from the 1935 Rodgers and Hart musical Jumbo.This tune hit the Top 40 in 1953 in a recording by the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, and was later recorded by Sonny Rollins, Les and Larry Elgart, Vaughn Monroe, Vic Damone, and...
", neither the original play or the film were especially successful. The film was Doris Day's last screen musical.
On April 2, 2007, Robert Osborne
Robert Osborne
Robert Jolin Osborne is an American actor and film historian best known as the primary host for Turner Classic Movies, and previously a host of The Movie Channel.-Life and career:...
of TCM
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
, introducing the MGM film Fearless Fagan (1952) directed by Stanley Donen
Stanley Donen
Stanley Donen ; is an American film director and choreographer whose most celebrated works are Singin' in the Rain and On the Town, both of which he co-directed with Gene Kelly. His other noteworthy films include Royal Wedding, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Funny Face, Indiscreet, Damn...
, said that Donen was due to direct Jumbo right after Singin' in the Rain
Singin' in the Rain
Singin' in the Rain is a 1952 American comedy musical film starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds and directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, with Kelly also providing the choreography...
in 1952. However, MGM decided the script was not ready, and Jumbo was not filmed until 1962 with a different director and stars.
Cast
- Doris DayDoris DayDoris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...
as Kitty Wonder - Stephen BoydStephen BoydStephen Boyd was an Irish actor, from Glengormley, Northern Ireland, who appeared in around 60 films, most notably in the role of Messala in Ben-Hur.-Biography:...
as Sam Rawlins - Jimmy DuranteJimmy DuranteJames Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...
as 'Pop' Wonder - Martha RayeMartha RayeMartha Raye was an American comic actress and standards singer who performed in movies, and later on television....
as Lulu - Dean JaggerDean JaggerDean Jagger was an Academy Award winning American film actor.-Career:Born Ira Dean Jagger in Columbus Grove, Ohio, Jagger made his film debut in The Woman from Hell with Mary Astor...
as John Noble - Joseph Waring as Harry
- Lynn WoodLynn WoodL. Lin Wood born October 19, 1952 in Raleigh, North Carolina and is a high profile American attorney based in Atlanta Georgia. He represented Richard Jewell, the security guard falsely accused in the Atlanta Olympic bombing. Wood's representation of Richard Jewell propelled L. Lin Wood to be known...
as Tina - Charles Watts as Ellis
- James ChandlerJames ChandlerJames Chandler is the director of the Franke Institute for the Humanities and holds the Barbara E. & Richard J. Franke Professorship in English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago....
as Parsons - Robert Burton as Madison
- Wilson WoodWilson WoodWilson Wood is a Scottish former footballer who played primarily as a midfielder.-Career:A former lab assistant with the National Coal Board, Wood started his professional career with Newcastle United whom he joined from Shotts Bon Accord aged 17...
as Hank - Norman Leavitt as Eddie
- Grady SuttonGrady SuttonGrady Harwell Sutton was an American film and television actor from the 1920s to the 1970s.-Biography:Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Sutton was raised in Florida where he attended St. Petersburg High School. He began his career during the silent film era and made the transition to sound films...
as Driver
Soundtrack
A soundtrack album Billy Rose's JumboBilly Rose's Jumbo (album)
Billy Rose's Jumbo was the title of an album containing the music from the soundtrack of the movie of the same name. The album featured the film's cast: Doris Day, Stephen Boyd, Jimmy Durante, and Martha Raye....
of the film was issued by Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
in 1962.