Summary: American Chronicle
- "Act Four: The Golden Age of the American Musical, 1924-1937." Chapter 8 (pp. 502-554) in Bordman, Gerald and Richard Norton. American Musical Theater: A Chronicle. 4th edition. Oxford University Press, 2010.
This book is an extensive chronicle of the history of musical theater in the USA. To start each year the author writes about the highlights of the year and then goes show by show, giving each a brief description. Through reading about each musical the reader gains an insight into the pressures and culture of the time. I am mining this chronicle for what producers were doing in the early 1930’s to draw the public into their theaters, as their entertainment budgets get smaller. Bordman does offer some commentary and analysis as the preceding some sections.
By 1930 the Great Depression had taken its toll on Broadway. Between the cheaper talkie movies and the more “introspective material” and subdued material. Revivals of past successes were a sure bet while the number of new musicals being produced kept dropping. In 1930 producers such as Arthur Hammerstein, Charles Dunham and even the Shuberts filed for bankruptcy. The Shuberts soon reopened on a smaller scale and reclaimed their theaters.
Producers were going to any lengths to draw people into their houses: Vanities by Earl Carol had a tank of water on the stage with girls swimming and being chased by the lead man; this show had troubles with the police. Other shows with more suggestive material were either not a lure or were quickly closed by the authorities. Well know performers and new hit makers were being integrated into the shows as attractions like Louis Armstrong, Ginger Rogers and, in the pit, Benny Goodman. A musical was devised to employ a Rube Goldberg invention while featuring W.C Fields: the machine would pop a balloon, crack nuts and then punch a man. By 1932 revivals of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas were seeing success, and “when attendance waned the Civic Light Opera would bring back The Merry Widow.”
Many of the bright talents of Broadway were moving to Hollywood for more consistent work. The movies offered directors, actors and the public “more spectacle than the richest Ziegfeld extravaganza could hope to match”. In 1933 microphone singing was introduced on some of the stages, which allowed for smaller scale shows, and this helped Broadway limp along and develop talent.
By 1937 the onset of World War II and the rise of swing songs in musicals and their composers were in a slump. Radio and records did help in popularizing songs from the shows and helped to draw people to see the musicals.
Sources
The sources used for this chronicle are the shows and songs themselves and an extensive list of books, reviews and commentary. All of the sources, shows people and songs are cataloged in three indexes at the end of the book. The Author does not cite his sources in the main body of his work, only references them in the index. The large breath of this work from 1866 to 1996 is well organized but would have been helped by a proper bibliography.
Significance
This Chronicle is large work that is able to give the reader a look into the culture, successes, and failures of specific seasons, shows and producers on Broadway. The author is mainly giving facts with out much in the way of conclusions allowing the reader to use the book as a resource for their own research and draw their own conclusions.