It's an MGM Easter Basket!

The cast of The Band Wagon, defying gravity it seems!

Jack Buchanan (in one crazy belted jacket), Nanette Fabray, Fred Astaire,

and a very detractive Oscar Levant (but so charming in a snide way),

front and center.

Betty Comden and Adolph Green wrote the screenplay (with help from Alan Jay Lerner, yes that My Fair Lady dude),

and modeled Nan's and Oscar's characters on themselves.

Did I say that right?

Anyway...they pulled songs from several different Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz musicals to great success for this MGM classic...

 

...like "Triplets" which was originally from Between The Devil,

a show that ran on Broadway back in 1937.

Ethel Barrymore jumping outta that cake (again and again!)

in Singin' In The Rain.

Ethel of course played by Debbie Reynolds, who was 20 years old at the time.

This scene was a hit with my kids, who saw it 45 years after its 1952 release.

We played it over and over again until the VHS tape gave out!

That's the wonderful Jean Hagen at left,

the only cast member to receive even an Oscar nom for this flick. Insane!

"Make 'Em Laugh"

was totally stolen from "Be A Clown" from The Pirate,

though fortunately Cole Porter never bothered to sue.

Stanley Donen (co-director of Singin' In The Rain) requested a "cheer up" song for Donald O'Connor to sing to a sulky Gene Kelly,

and screenwriters Betty Comden & Adolph Green served him up 

"Make 'Em Laugh."

We'll play 'em both on Sunday, and you can be Judge Judy!

Irving Berlin, Judy (in a wonderful blouse...I want it!), and Fred

on the set of Easter Parade.

That "Fella With An Umbrella" is Peter Lawford, of course, a guy who can sing and shelter simultaneously.

"A Couple Of Swells" in Easter Parade,

a song that Irving wrote (as the Hollywood story goes) in an hour.

He was requested to write a song that would show off Judy's comedic talent...we needed reminding? 

But yeah, we like the reminder! :)

Above, that iconic Easter Parade scene (and man, can we please get back to that FASHION! Beats baseball caps and Walmart pajamas, right?)

and below, Ann Miller "Shaking The Blues Away."

From In The Good Old Summertime,

we'll hear an also ran tune called "Play That Barbershop Chord",

written by Lewis Muir and William Tracey.

Like She Loves Me, it was based on The Shop Around The Corner,

transplanted from Budapest parfumerie to a music shop.

Along with Judy, it starred Van Johnson, a cameo by baby Liza, and some

helpful staging by Buster Keaton!