THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT!

As I mentioned previously, I’ve been watching more TV since I became a Trophy Husband.  Recently I started watching movies on TCM and same many films from the 1930’s and 1940’s including Broadway Melodies of 1936, ‘38 and ‘40 starring Eleanor Powell, the fantastic Tap dancer.  That caused me to watch That’s Entertainment, released 50 years ago, which highlighted the previous 50 years of MGM Musicals.

As  some of you know, my mother grew up in Germany during the 1930’s, came to England in 1939, and then to America in 1946.  She died in 1963 at the age of 43, which is now younger than all my children.  One thing I remember her saying is how she loved Broadway musical films.  Why?  Because while she grew up watching the rise of fascism firsthand, she dreamed of a life like the characters in those movies, where everything turned out well in the end.  Even though she had a beautiful voice and played the guitar, her life didn’t turn out exactly that way, although it had some high spots.

The other thing that I noted from these films was the almost complete whiteness, with a few Black housekeepers and Black Face minstrels thrown in.  People of color were second-class citizens back then.  I wonder what the MGM stars would think if they saw the movies being produced today, and whether they would notice the progress we’ve made to becoming a colorblind society.