Musicals Quest Trivia Quiz

Answer: Annie Get Your Gun

Very loosely based on the life of Annie Oakley, the 1950 "Annie Get Your Gun" stars Betty Hutton as Annie, and Howard Keel as Frank Butler, her one true love. In the movie at any rate. They did get married in real life though, so at least that part was based on fact. Judy Garland was originally cast to star in the leading role, but after constantly fighting with the director and turning up late, she was suspended by the studio.

In that short time though, as in a previous movie in which they had worked, the director, also fired, had driven her to a state of exhaustion.

When Betty Hutton took over the role, she promptly fell out with all the cast, including the delectable Howard Keel himself. Guns then would seem to be an ideal theme for this film.

It was very popular when released, however, with none of these cracks showing.

Answer: Show Boat

The 1951 musical "Show Boat", based on a stage production of the same name, stars Kathryn Grayson, the delectable Howard Keel and Ava Gardner, just to name a few of the top thespians of the time. Contrary to most other musicals, which tend to be light-hearted romantic comedies, "Show Boat", though still a musical, is a drama, and ends up very sadly. Two major plots run throughout. The first is that of the blossoming, and beautifully musical romance between Magnolia (Grayson), who is the daughter of the captain - and Gaylord (Keel), a gambler. The second is that of Julie (Gardner), the star of the show boat, but who is subsequently revealed to be of mixed blood and has to be let go as it contravenes the race laws of the time.

"Show Boat" follows the troubled follow up marriage between Magnolia and Gaylord, which results in a five year separation - and the disintegrating relationship of Julie with her husband, which sees her become a hopeless alcoholic. The last scene of this excellent musical is the show boat as it steams away to the sounds of the magnificent "Ol' Man River", with a reconciled Magnolia and Gaylord on board - and with the deteriorating Julie, who has made a great sacrifice for Magnolia, but is now lost to the world, standing in the shadows of the docks, blowing a kiss goodbye. I hate sad endings.

Answer: April in Paris

The 1952 "April in Paris" stars the always talented Doris Day as a chorus girl, Ethel "Dynamite" Jackson, and Ray Bolger as S. Winthrop Putnam, who is the Assistant Secretary to the Assistant to the Undersecretary of State in France. Remember Ray Bolger? He played the scarecrow in the wonderful 1938 "The Wizard of Oz". But, back to France, Putnam believes he has sent an invitation to Ethel Barrymore to represent the United States at a production in Paris - but Ethel "Dynamite" Jackson receives it by mistake, and cheerfully heads off to Paris, accompanied by Putnam, on her new career. Along the way, they fall in love of course, and after a series of misunderstandings, everything ends up most satisfactorily.

Answer: By the Light of the Silvery Moon

I love the 1953 musical "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" which is the sequel to the equally much loved 1951 "On Moonlight Bay", both of which, along with most musicals in this quiz, end up on late night television from time to time. In the first of these two movies, Doris Day, as Marjorie Winfield, plays a tomboy who has moved with her family to live in a small town in Indiana. There she gradually learns to fit more into the mould the sedate young lady of her time - or does she? Gordon Macrae plays William Sherman, the boy next door who falls in love with her, but who has a very conventional father who does not approve of the less than average Winfield family.

The follow up "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" sees Marjorie's on-again off-again, but finally on-again boyfriend, William, returning from fighting in World War I. Throw the entire Winfield family into the mix, and you have a series of hilarious misunderstandings caused mainly by Marjorie's younger brother, Wesley, who has an exceptionally over-active imagination.

Answer: Rose Marie

Howard Keel stars in many musicals from this era, and once again he appears in this 1954 version of "Rose Marie". Starring Ann Blyth as Rose Marie and Keel as the Mountie, Sergeant Malone, this film tells the story of the unrequited love that Malone has for the semi-wild girl, Rose Marie, who, alas, loves another, an innocent man convicted of murder, but whom Malone has to bring to justice. The movie features some beautiful songs, including the haunting "Indian Love Call" (a signal song between the two lovers) and our heartbroken Mountie's equally lovely "Rose Marie" number.

Perhaps theatre-goers from the 1950s thought the love between Rose Marie and her equally wild man was the highlight of this film, and that it ended happily with their re-union, but to my romantic heart, it ends sadly when Keel, who is such an overwhelmingly powerful presence in any movie, is left with a broken heart. This film, the third of three versions, is loosely based on the 1924 original operetta of the same name. The two other versions were a 1928 silent movie version starring Joan Crawford while she was still young and beautiful, and the excellent 1936 Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddie production. They were magic together, those two, and when Jeanette MacDonald died (1965) before Nelson Eddie in real life, he too was left with a broken heart, dying just two short years later in 1967.

Answer: Guys and Dolls

Based on a stage work of the same name, the 1955 film "Guys and Dolls" begins with gambler Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) planning to set up an illegal game of craps wherever the police can't find it. Nathan, who's been engaged to the one woman (Vivian Blaine as Miss Adelaide) for over a dozen years, is also having understandable problems with Adelaide who is demanding her wedding, and wants him to stop gambling. In the meantime he meets up with an old friend, Sky Masterson (Marlon Brando) and wagers a large amount that Masterson can't get a girl whom Nathan knows (Jean Simmonds as Sarah Brown from the "Save a Soul" Mission) to fly to Cuba with him just to have dinner. To get her to accept his invitation, Masterson tells her he wishes to change his ways and that he will get a dozen new converts to the Mission if she will go. Because the Mission is about to close down from lack of attendance, Sarah very reluctantly agrees.

Meanwhile, when the police arrive at Nathan's gambling venue - unknown to Sarah, it is at her Mission - the other gamblers present tell them that they are just there to celebrate Nathan's wedding to Adelaide. Back in Cuba, Sarah and Masterson have fallen in love, and they return to the Mission just as the police are also arriving and the gamblers are trying to leave. Of course there's a fight as Sarah thinks Masterson set her up. And so on. It all ends happily of course, with a nice double wedding, somewhat reluctantly agreed to by Nathan, but not too much so.

Answer: Carousel

The 1956 musical "Carousel" was based on the 1945 stage show by Rogers and Hammerstein. It stars the lovely Shirley Jones as Julie Jordan, a sweet and innocent mill girl, and Gordon MacRae as Billy Bigelow, a less than desirable carousel barker. When they fall in love, it leads to both being fired from their jobs, Julie for staying out later than allowed by the mill owner (Mr Bascombe, played by John Dehner), and Billy because the female carousel owner, Mrs Mullin (uncredited) resented Julie for having taken Billy's affections. Marrying in spite of this, the young couple move to another town, but Billy, who cannot find work, becomes more and more bitter and turns out to be a far from ideal husband to Julie. When Mrs Mullin hears of this, she attempts to lure Billy back to his job. He is tempted but when Julie fearfully tells him she is pregnant, he is delighted and chooses to stay with her instead.

Alas, wanting to provide the best for Julie and his forthcoming child, Billy then foolishly decides, with one of his cohorts, to rob Julie's old employer. The pair are caught by both an armed Mr Bascombe and the police, and Billy's mate flees, but Billy himself, while climbing a pile of crates in an attempt to also flee, falls onto his own knife when the crates collapse. He dies in Julie's arms. Years later, he returns from heaven for one day to try to make amends to Julie and his daughter Louise (played by Susan Luckey), who is now a troubled teenager because of what he had done. He manages to do this, appearing fully to Louise as a stranger, but allowing Julie just one second's glimpse of him, along with the knowledge that he had always loved her. Another sad movie, sob.

Answer: The Pyjama Game

"The Pyjama Game" which was also based on a stage production of the same name, starred all but one of the actors who appeared in the theatre presentation. The one exception was that Janis Paige was replaced in the movie by the ever entertaining Doris Day.

In this musical, Sid, the newly arrived superintendent (John Raitt) of a pyjama factory in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, promptly falls for Babe (Doris Day) who is not only a worker in the factory, but also one of their union's leaders. Oh, oh. Babe also falls for him of course, but becomes very worried that the issue of management versus labour may drive them apart.

This proves to be the case as the movie unfolds, and when the workers subsequently cause trouble, Sid is forced to sack Babe. I won't spoil the rest of the movie for you if you haven't seen it, but it is very funny and well worth the watch should it ever re-appear on late night television.

Answer: Tom Thumb

The 1958 musical "Tom Thumb", which stars Russ Tamblyn as the title character, begins by relating the story of a poor woodcutter who agrees not to chop down a tree in the forest at the request of the magical forest queen. In gratitude she grants him three wishes. When he races home to share this good news with his wife, however, the childless couple argue so much about what they will wish for, that their wishes are squandered. That night, looking at their spare bedroom which is filled with lovely toys for the child they never had, the wife sobs that if only the forest queen would grant them one last wish, she would wish for any child, even one the size of her thumb. And that's exactly what happens.

Tom Thumb, because of his size, then spends the rest of the movie dealing with, and escaping from one scrape after another, from floating away on a balloon, to falling into the grip of two thieves, from innocently helping to commit a crime of their connivance, to seeing his parents arrested because of this, learning how to control animals, rescuing his parents, and finally seeing the family's dear friend, Woody, marrying his one true love, the forest queen. Don't you just love a happy ending?

Answer: Sleeping Beauty

"Sleeping Beauty", an animated musical made in 1959 by Walt Disney, sadly didn't do too well at the box office when released, a fact which discouraged the Disney studio from making any more films centred around a fairy tale until the 1989 release of "The Little Mermaid". "Sleeping Beauty" is a lovely film, however, even if it is a little alarming at times for children. It relates the story of a curse placed on a beautiful young maiden (secretly the daughter of a king), who is in the care of three rather doddery, but charming, fairies. That curse is that if Aurora pricks her finger on a spinning wheel before the sun sinks on her 16th birthday, she will die! Oh, no, whatever can be done to save the girl??

Burning all the spindles doesn't do the trick (and probably put a lot of cottage workers out of a job), and sorrowfully the day comes to pass that Aurora (who is known as Briar Rose during her stay with her fairies), does indeed prick her finger on the one spinning wheel left in the land. But will she die, boys and girls? Have the three magical fairies managed to mitigate that curse somewhat? Does a handsome prince awaken her with love's first kiss? Tune in to the next exciting episode to find out. And now a word from our sponsors.