''Second Chorus'' is a 1940 Hollywood

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

film starring

Paulette Goddard Paulette Goddard (born Marion Levy; June 3, 1910 – April 23, 1990) was an American actress and socialite. Her career spanned six decades, from the 1920s to the early 1970s. She was a prominent leading actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood ...

and

Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz, May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, actor, singer, musician, choreographer, and presenter, whose career in stage, film, and television spanned 76 years. He is widely regarded as the "g ...

and featuring

Artie Shaw Artie Shaw (born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky; May 23, 1910 – December 30, 2004) was an American clarinetist, composer, bandleader, actor and author of both fiction and non-fiction. Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest clarinetists", Shaw led ...

Burgess Meredith Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907 – September 9, 1997) was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed radio, theater, film, and television. Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" ...

and Charles Butterworth, with music by Artie Shaw,

Bernie Hanighen Bernard D. Hanighen (April 27, 1908 in Omaha, Nebraska – October 19, 1976 in New York City, New York) was an American songwriter and record producer, best known for " When a Woman Loves a Man", and writing lyrics to the jazz composition " 'Ro ...

and Hal Borne, and lyrics by

Johnny Mercer John Herndon Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Wallichs Music Cit ...

. The film was directed by H. C. Potter and produced independently for

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

by Boris Morros, with associate producers Robert Stillman and (uncredited) Fred Astaire. The film's copyright expired in 1968 and it is now in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

Plot

Danny O'Neill and Hank Taylor are friends and rival trumpeters with "O'Neill's Perennials", a college band. Both have managed to prolong their college careers by failing seven years in a row. At a performance, Ellen Miller catches the eye of Danny and Hank. She serves them a summons notice for her boss, a debt collector. However, the fast-talking O'Neill and Taylor soon have her working as their manager, where her business savvy increases their gigs. Meanwhile, tired of losing several gigs to the Perennials,

persuades Ellen to be his booking manager. Ellen tries to get Danny and Hank an audition for Shaw's band, but their jealous hijinks get them the boot. Ellen talks Shaw into letting rich "wannabe" mandolin player, J. Lester Chisholm, back a concert. When Hank pretends to be Ellen's jealous husband, then her brother, the plan to get Chisholm as backer nearly fails. But using the "brother" ploy, Danny and Hank get Chisholm back on board, then get Shaw to agree to put Danny's song into the show. All they have to do is keep Chisholm and his mandolin (which he wants to play in the concert) away from Shaw until after the show. Hank's solution is to drop sleeping pills into Chisholm's drink, but Chisholm knocks out Hank the same way. To Ellen's relief, Danny finally acts responsibly and arranges his number for the show, which Shaw says "has really grown up into something special." He hands the baton to Danny, who successfully conducts his composition while tap-dancing in front of the band. Danny and Ellen then drive off into the night.

Cast

Goddard Astaire Meredith in Second Chorus

as Danny O'Neill *

as Ellen Miller *

as himself * Charles Butterworth as Mr. Chisholm *

as Hank Taylor * Frank Melton as Stu * Jimmy Conlin as Mr. Dunn * Don Brodie as clerk * Marjorie Kane as secretary * Joan Barclay as receptionist * Willa Pearl Curtis as scrubwoman * Billy Butterfield as himself / Shaw's Band Trumpeter * William Benedict as ticket taker (uncredited) Cast notes *Billy Butterfield dubbed Burgess Meredith's trumpet solo.

Musical numbers

Hermes Pan Hermes Pan (born Hermes Joseph Panagiotopoulos, December 10, 1909 – September 19, 1990) was an American dancer and choreographer, principally remembered as Fred Astaire's choreographic collaborator on the famous 1930s musical film, movie musica ...

collaborated with Astaire on the choreography. * "

Sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

": Astaire is shown leading a college band in a jazz standard by Marceo Pinkard. Astaire's trumpet playing is dubbed by

Bobby Hackett Robert Leo Hackett (January 31, 1915 – June 7, 1976) was a versatile American jazz musician who played swing music, Dixieland jazz and mood music, now called easy listening, on trumpet, cornet, and guitar. He played Swing with the bands ...

, while Meredith's is dubbed by Shaw's bandsman Billy Butterfield. * "Everything's Jumping": A brief number for Artie Shaw and his band. * "I Ain't Hep to That Step But I'll Dig It": This comic song and dance duet for Astaire and Goddard was, according to Goddard - whose dance ability and experience was limited - done "just once, one Saturday morning ... I'm glad it was all right for I couldn't have done it again". It was the last of Astaire's duets to be filmed entirely in one take. The dance incorporates a new step, the "Dig It" which involved snapping both feet together and then hopping while keeping them together. The rest of the dance involves original use of partnered teetering, scooting and dodging steps with some

jitterbug Jitterbug is a generalized term used to describe Swing (dance), swing dancing. It is often synonymous with the lindy hop dance but might include elements of the Jive (dance), jive, east coast swing, collegiate shag, Charleston (dance), charlesto ...

ging thrown in. In his first film appearance, Hermes Pan can be seen as the clarinetist in the band (standing farthest back). * " Sweet Sue": Another Astaire (Hackett) and Meredith (Butterfield) mime routine, this time to a

Victor Young Albert Victor Young (August 8, 1899– November 10, 1956)"Victor Young, Composer, Dies of Heart Attack", ''Oakland Tribune'', November 12, 1956. was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. Young was posthumously awarded the ...

standard. * "Love of My Life":

and Shaw wrote this song one day over lunch at Mercer's house, and when the excited Shaw wanted to show it to the studio, Mercer persuaded him to wait three weeks explaining: "If you tell them you just wrote it over lunch they won't think it's any good". It is delivered by Astaire to Goddard and garnered an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

nomination for Best Song. * "Kamarinskaya": A brief comic number for Astaire, who plays a Russian doing a Moiseyev-style dance to the traditional Russian melody while singing a pseudo-Russian version of "Love of My Life" in a thick accent. * "Poor Mr. Chisholm ": Accompanying himself on the piano Astaire sings this folk-parody Mercer-Henighen number for Shaw's approval. * "Concerto for Clarinet": Like many jazzmen of his time –

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader, known as the "King of Swing". His orchestra did well commercially. From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing bi ...

Paul Whiteman Paul Samuel Whiteman (March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967) was an American Jazz bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist. As the leader of one of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s and early 193 ...

Jimmy Dorsey James Francis Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and big band leader. He recorded and composed the jazz and pop standards " I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary Peopl ...

and

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...

among them – Shaw occasionally produced pieces with titles more commonly associated with classical music; Shaw, however was characteristically modest about this attractively episodic extended piece, composed especially for the film: "I never intended it for posterity ... It filled a spot in the picture". It features the string section – Shaw's "mice men" as he liked to call them, which he had just added to band – most famously in " Frenesi" - the year before. * "Hoe Down the Bayou/Poor Mr. Chisholm (dance)": Astaire "conducts" the band while performing a tap solo. The only number involving Astaire and Pan, the choreographic collaboration responsible for many routines featuring Astaire in the 1930s, was "Me and the Ghost Upstairs", which was cut from the final film but has been included in some home video releases. In it, Pan, shrouded in a sheet, creeps up on Astaire and begins to mimic him in a riotous number involving Lindy lifts and jitterbugging.

Production

In a 1968 interview, Astaire described this effort as "the worst film I ever made." Astaire explained that he was attracted to the film by the opportunity to "dance-conduct this real swingin' outfit". In an interview shortly before his death, Shaw admitted this film put him off acting. Astaire and Shaw shared a striking series of personality traits in common: an obsessive perfectionism and seemingly endless appetite for retakes, profound musicality and love of jazz, personal modesty and charm, and in a late interview Shaw expressed his opinion of Astaire: "Astaire really sweat - he toiled. He was a humorless Teutonic man, the opposite of his debonair image in top hat and tails. I liked him because he was an entertainer and an artist. There's a distinction between them. An artist is concerned only with what is acceptable to himself, where an entertainer strives to please the public. Astaire did both.

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

was another one."Interviewed in Fantle, Dave and Johnson, Tom. ''Reel to Real''. Badger Books LLC, 2004, p.304.

References

Notes Bibliography *Mueller, John. ''Astaire Dancing - The Musical Films of Fred Astaire'', Knopf 1985, *Shaw, Artie. ''Artie Shaw'', Television documentary, British Broadcasting Corporation, 2003

External links