Description
Book SynopsisMovie musicals are among the most quintessentially American art forms, often celebrating mobility, self-expression, and the pursuit of one's dreams. But like America itself, the Hollywood musical draws from many distinct ethnic traditions. In this illuminating new study, Desirée J. Garcia examines the lesser-known folk musicals from early African American, Yiddish, and Mexican filmmakers, revealing how these were essential ingredients in the melting pot of the Hollywood musical. The Migration of Musical Film shows how the folk musical was rooted in the challenges faced by immigrants and migrants who had to adapt to new environments, balancing American individualism with family values and cultural traditions. Uncovering fresh material from film industry archives, Garcia considers how folk musicals were initially marginal productions, designed to appeal to specific minority audiences, and yet introduced themes that were gradually assimilated into the Hollywood mainstream. No other bo
Trade Review"As well-written as it is original,
The Migration of Musical Film is, quite simply, the best book on film musicals I have read." * Journal of American Ethnic History *
"Garcia’s thought-provoking book encompasses a film tradition of the folk musical that includes well-known mainstream films such as
The Wizard of Oz and
Meet Me in St. Louis, even as it puts those films in rich and fruitful conversation with many less-known Jewish, African American, and Hispanic films. Along the way, Garcia makes a compelling argument for the influence, heretofore unacknowledged, of these ethnic traditions on mainstream Hollywood. Highly recommended." * Choice *
"Flowing smoothly between theoretical concepts, historical research, and textual analysis,
The Migration of Musical Film explores how various minority populations helped found the folk musical...a stunning and needed contribution to the scholarly conversation."
-- Sean Griffin * author of America on Film *
"Desirée Garcia’s illuminating insight in this engrossing book is seeing Hollywood musicals not in isolation, but in cultural dialogue with ethnic filmmaking—Black 'race movies,' Yiddish cinema, and Mexican films." -- Charles Ramírez Berg * The University of Texas at Austin *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: There's No Place Like Home
1. The
Shtetls, Shund, and Shows of Musicals
2. The Musicals of Black Folk: Race Cinema and the Black-Cast Musicals of 1929
3. "Not a Musical in Any Sense of the Word":
Alla en el Rancho Grande Crosses the Border
4. "Our Home Town": The Hollywood Folk Musical
5. "Tahiti, Rome, and Mason City, Iowa": Musical Migrants in the Postwar Era
6. "Ease on Down the Road": Folk Musicals of the Ethnic Revival
7. Home Is Where the Audience Is: The Sing-Along
Conclusion: Beyond the Rainbow
Notes
Bibliography
Index
