My Geisha is a 1962 American comedy film directed by Jack Cardiff, starring Yves Montand, Shirley MacLaine, and Edward G. Robinson, and released by Paramount Pictures. The film was produced by MacLaine's then-husband Steve Parker, and written by Norman Krasna, based on Krasna's story of the same name.

Paul Robaix (Montand), a famous director, wants to shoot a film in Japan inspired by Madama Butterfly. His wife, an actress named Lucy Dell (MacLaine), has been the leading lady in all of his greatest films, and she is more famous. He feels that she overshadows him and he would like to achieve success independent of her. By choosing to film Madame Butterfly, he can select a different leading lady without hurting her feelings, because she, as a blue eyed, red headed woman, would not be suitable to play a Japanese woman. As a surprise, she visits him in Japan while he's searching for a leading lady. To surprise him further, she disguises herself as a geisha at a dinner party, planning to unveil her identity during the meal.

Paolo Rustichelli (born 1953 in Rome) is an eclectic smooth jazz, rock-jazz and progressive rock composer, pianist and producer, son of Oscar nominee Carlo Rustichelli . Pioneering the use of the monophonic synthesizer ( ARP 2600 ) and a mellotron for a movie soundtrack, Paolo composed the musical scores of numerous films since the early 1970s.

His 1996 Mystic Man rock-jazz album featured Miles Davis, Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Andy Summers, and Jill Jones, the song Paisa reaching the Top Ten on the Radio & Records Smooth Jazz/NAC charts.

The song Full Moon from "Mystic Jazz" was composed for Carlos Santana and became an evergreen in various Santana albums and collections ( "Multi Dimensional Warrior" - 2009, "Spirits Dancing in the Flesh", The Best of Santana ).

Tenor Plácido Domingo sang Paolo Rustichelli's "Kyrie" in his album "Sacred Songs" in 2002.

The song "My Geisha" from the album "Neopagan" reached the Top Ten on the Radio & Records Smooth Jazz/NAC charts - 2006 & 2007.

Shirley MacLean Beaty (born April 24, 1934), known professionally as Shirley MacLaine, is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well known for her beliefs in New Age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career. She was nominated for an Academy Award five times before winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1983 for her role in Terms of Endearment. Her younger brother is Warren Beatty.

Named after Shirley Temple, MacLaine was born in Richmond, Virginia. Her father, Ira Owens Beaty, was a professor of psychology, public school administrator, and real estate agent, and her mother, Kathlyn Corinne (née MacLean), was a drama teacher originally from Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada; MacLaine's grandparents were also teachers.The family was devoutly Baptist. Her uncle (her mother's brother-in-law) was A.A. MacLeod, a Communist member of the Ontario legislature in the 1940s.

Maria Callas, Commendatore OMRI (Greek: Μαρία Κάλλας) (December 2, 1923 – September 16, 1977) was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts. An extremely versatile singer, her repertoire ranged from classical opera seria to the bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini; further, to the works of Verdi and Puccini; and, in her early career, to the music dramas of Wagner. Her remarkable musical and dramatic talents led to her being hailed as La Divina.

Born in New York City and raised by an overbearing mother, she received her musical education in Greece and established her career in Italy. Forced to deal with the exigencies of wartime poverty and with myopia that left her nearly blind onstage, she endured struggles and scandal over the course of her career. She turned herself from a heavy woman into a svelte and glamorous one after a mid-career weight loss, which might have contributed to her vocal decline and the premature end of her career. The press exulted in publicizing Callas's allegedly temperamental behaviour, her supposed rivalry with Renata Tebaldi and her love affair with Aristotle Onassis. Her dramatic life and personal tragedy have often overshadowed Callas the artist in the popular press. However, her artistic achievements were such that Leonard Bernstein called her "The Bible of opera"; and her influence was so enduring that, in 2006, Opera News wrote of her: "Nearly thirty years after her death, she's still the definition of the diva as artist—and still one of classical music's best-selling vocalists."

Franz Waxman (24 December 1906 – 24 February 1967) was a German-American composer, known for his bravura Carmen Fantasie for violin and orchestra, based on musical themes from the Bizet opera Carmen, and for his musical scores for films.

Waxman was born Franz Wachsmann in Königshütte (Chorzów) in the German Empire's Prussian Province of Silesia (now in Poland). At the age of three Waxman suffered a serious eye injury involving boiling water tipped from a stove, which permanently impaired his vision.

Waxman orchestrated Friedrich Hollaender's score for the 1930 film The Blue Angel and then wrote original scores for several German films. With the Nazis in power from 1933, he worked briefly in France, composing the music for Fritz Lang's French version of Liliom, but arrived in the United States by 1935. He was commissioned to write the score for Bride of Frankenstein, his first American film, by director James Whale, who had admired his score for Liliom.

Franz Waxman worked with the director Alfred Hitchcock in four films, including Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), The Paradine Case (1947), and Rear Window (1954). Bernard Herrmann, Franz Waxman, Louis Levy, and Dimitri Tiomkin are the only composers who often worked with Alfred Hitchcock. Although Miklós Rózsa wrote most of the music for Spellbound (1945), some of Franz Waxman's music was also used, especially the scene where Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman are skiing. Franz Waxman had two Academy Award nominations for his scores with Alfred Hitchcock: Rebecca and Suspicion.