- published: 14 Aug 2009
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Roger Edens (9 November 1905 - 13 July 1970) was a Hollywood composer, arranger and associate producer, and is considered one of the major creative figures in Arthur Freed's musical film production unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during the "golden era of Hollywood".
Edens was born in Hillsboro, Texas. His parents were of Scots-Irish ancestry. He worked as a piano accompanist for ballroom dancers before going to work as a musical conductor on Broadway. He went to Hollywood in 1932 along with his protege Ethel Merman, writing and arranging her material for her films at Paramount. In 1935, he joined MGM as a musical supervisor and occasional composer and arranger, notably of music for Judy Garland. He also appeared on screen opposite Eleanor Powell in a cameo in Broadway Melody of 1936.
Arthur Freed, producer of musicals at MGM, was impressed by Edens and soon made him integral to his production team, which was rapidly growing and featured many of the greatest talents, recruited by Freed himself. Freed built a cabinet around himself, and in the early 1940s made Edens associate producer. The unit made dozens of popular and extremely successful musical films in the 1940s and into the 1950s, including Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949), Show Boat (1951), An American in Paris (1951), Singin' in the Rain (1952), and The Band Wagon (1953).
Judy Garland (June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was an American actress, singer and vaudevillian. Renowned for her contralto voice, she attained international stardom through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage. Respected for her versatility, she received a Juvenile Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award, as well as Grammy Awards and a Special Tony Award. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the remake of A Star is Born and for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1961 film, Judgment at Nuremberg. At 39 years of age, she remains the youngest recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in the motion picture industry.
After appearing in vaudeville with her two older sisters, Garland was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. There she made more than two dozen films, including nine with Mickey Rooney and the 1939 film with which she would be most identified, The Wizard of Oz. After 15 years, she was released from the studio but gained renewed success through record-breaking concert appearances, including a return to acting beginning with critically acclaimed performances.
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra, /sɨˈnɑːtrə/, (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and film actor.
Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the "bobby soxers", he released his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra in 1946. His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1953 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity.
He signed with Capitol Records in 1953 and released several critically lauded albums (such as In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin' Lovers, Come Fly with Me, Only the Lonely and Nice 'n' Easy). Sinatra left Capitol to found his own record label, Reprise Records in 1961 (finding success with albums such as Ring-a-Ding-Ding!, Sinatra at the Sands and Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim), toured internationally, was a founding member of the Rat Pack and fraternized with celebrities and statesmen, including John F. Kennedy. Sinatra turned 50 in 1965, recorded the retrospective September of My Years, starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, and scored hits with "Strangers in the Night" and "My Way".
Actors: Judy Davis (actress), Philip Williams (actor), Al Waxman (actor), Bruce McFee (actor), Aron Tager (actor), John Stocker (actor), Hugh Laurie (actor), Daniel Kash (actor), Adrian Hough (actor), Aidan Devine (actor), Michael Rhoades (actor), Victor Garber (actor), William Holden (actor), Jayne Eastwood (actress), Rosemary Dunsmore (actress),
Plot: The movie starts off at the beginning of Judy Garland's life singing when she was two years old. It jumps to when she was 12 and was signed by MGM and later when her father dies. The movie tells about her early struggles with MGM and with the addiction to barbiturates. It then jumps to the marriage to Vincette Minelli and the struggles with that, and leads into the rest of the movie and her marriages to Sid Luft, Mark Herron, and Mickey Deans and ends when she dies in 1969
Keywords: actor-shares-first-name-with-character, actress, alcoholism, amphetamine, award, based-on-autobiography, camera-shot-of-feet, carnegie-hall-manhattan-new-york-city, character-name-in-title, child-starActors: Michael Parks (actor), Rue McClanahan (actress), Jackie Cooper (director), Nicholas Pryor (actor), Jack Carter (actor), Piper Laurie (actress), John McGreevey (writer), Charles Fox (composer), Martin Balsam (actor), Philip Sterling (actor), Don Murray (actor), Moosie Drier (actor), Stanley Kamel (actor), Donna Pescow (actress), Selma Archerd (actress),
Plot: The early life and struggles of Judy Garland (portrayed by Andrea McArdle), and of the film star's trials as a youngster in dealing with the Movie Studio system that held her back while her mother was forever pushing her to excel.
Keywords: actor's-life, actress, amphetamine, barbiturates, based-on-book, domineering-mother, father-daughter-relationship, intimate, loss-of-father, meningitis