Ars Gratia Artis*

Another day, another centenary...

One hundred years today, three studio magnates reached a merger agreement - and the legendary Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was born!

Famed for its glittering parade of stars over the decades - such icons as Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Elizabeth Taylor, Rudolph Valentino, the Barrymores, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Judy Garland, Robert Taylor, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Lana Turner and Cyd Charisse (and so many more) all got their big break at MGM! - it was also the home of Tom and Jerry, Lassie, the Marx Brothers, and some of the biggest and campest Busby Berkeley productions.

This was the studio that was responsible for some of history's most-lauded films, including The Women, Doctor Zhivago, North by Northwest, Mrs. Miniver, Ben–Hur [both versions], National Velvet, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Jailhouse Rock, Waterloo Bridge, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Forbidden Planet, Mutiny on the Bounty [both versions], How the West Was Won, The Philadelphia Story, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Shaft, Where Eagles Dare, Westworld, The Hunger, Moonstruck - and hundreds more besides!

It is, of course, as the production house behind some of the most wonderful musicals ever made that we love MGM the most! Its back-catalogue includes Easter Parade, Annie Get Your Gun, On the Town, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Show Boat, Gigi, Meet Me in St. Louis, and these...

Judy Garland & co - We're Off To See The Wizard [Wizard of Oz]

Gene Kelly - Singin' In The Rain

The Band Wagon trailer

Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron - An American In Paris

Ann Miller - Too Darn Hot [Kiss Me, Kate]

Lesley Anne Warren - Chicago, Illinois [Victor Victoria]

Following the death of Louis B Mayer in 1957, the demise of the original company was palpable - with a number of buy-outs, reshuffles and bits sold off to the likes of Ted Turner, the involvement of dodgy businessmen and accusations of illegal operations, it went bankrupt in 2010 - despite having acquired United Artists, and with it the distribution rights for such cinematic behemoths as the James Bond and Rocky franchises. It survived the humiliation with a major buyout by its creditors, and finally MGM ended up in the hands of none other than Amazon, who bought it in 2021...

Let's hope that bodes well for its future.

["Ars Gratia Artis" = "art for art's sake" in English]

Start quoting him now

It's Will.i.am Shakespeare’s 450th birthday today (the date is actually unknown, but appropriately enough someone decided the celebrations should coincide with St George's Day - funny, that!).

Whatever the truth, it is (from scant pictorial evidence) highly unlikely that The Bard was anything like as sexy as he was portrayed by the sultry Joseph Fiennes in the hit movie...

Let us celebrate England's finest writer today, not with poetry, but with music. From Cole Porter's classic, "Shakespeare the Musical" Kiss Me Kate, here's Keenan Wynn and James Whitmore with Brush Up Your Shakespeare (of course):

Brush Up Your Shakespeare (Kiss Me, Kate! - 1953)

The girls today in society
Go for classical poetry,
So to win their hearts one must quote with ease
Aeschylus and Euripides.
But the poet of them all
Who will start 'em simply ravin'
Is the poet people call
The bard of Stratford-on-Avon.

Brush up your Shakespeare,
Start quoting him now.
Brush up your Shakespeare
And the women you will wow.
Just declaim a few lines from "Othella"
And they think you're a heckuva fella.
If your blonde won't respond when you flatter 'er
Tell her what Tony told Cleopaterer,
And if still, to be shocked, she pretends well,
Just remind her that "All's Well That Ends Well."
Brush up your Shakespeare
And they'll all kowtow.

Brush up your Shakespeare,
Start quoting him now.
Brush up your Shakespeare
And the women you will wow.
If your goil is a Washington Heights dream
Treat the kid to "A Midsummer Night Dream."
If she fights when her clothes you are mussing,
What are clothes? "Much Ado About Nussing."
If she says your behaviour is heinous
Kick her right in the "Coriolanus."
Brush up your Shakespeare
And they'll all kowtow,
And they'll all kowtow,
And they'll all kowtow.

Brush up your Shakespeare,
Start quoting him now.
Brush up your Shakespeare
And the women you will wow.

Brush up your Shakespeare
And they'll all kowtow.

Will Shakespeare's birthday celebrations

10 things you didn't know about William Shakespeare

Like to sup with my baby tonight

Convoluted connections, #789 in a series...

Today is William Shakespeare's 448th birthday.

The musical Kiss Me Kate is vaguely based upon Shakespeare's comedy The Taming of the Shrew.

One of the finest songs Cole Porter wrote for that musical was Too Darn Hot.

So, on this Tacky Music Monday here are Mikhail Baryshnikov and our patron saint Liza Minnelli with their fabulously energetic version!

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Liza Minnelli - Too Darn Hot

It's definitely not going to be hot, just wet - but nevertheless, have a great week!

Dispensing fol-de-rol frivolity

Now here's a neat little way of tying up three items in one hit.

My tradition here is to publish "tacky" music every Monday (don't ask me why, but it is, and I like it).

Ninety years ago today, the booming master of baritone musical theatre numbers, the late Howard Keel was born (and in his six decade career, set many hearts-a-flutter with his manly roles in films such as Annie Get Your Gun, Show Boat, Oklahoma, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and in his later years on TV in Dallas.)

And yesterday saw the anniversary of the birth of that ever-sparkling, tap-dancing phenomenon Ann Miller.

So what's more appropriate than this spectacularly tacky number (from Kiss Me Kate), a film that also just so happens to feature both Mr Keel and Miss Miller..? Enjoy:

Ann Miller - From This Moment On (from Kiss Me Kate)

Too darn hot

As I sit in 31 degree heat in our bloody office, this little number springs to mind:

Ann Miller - Too Darn Hot [Kiss Me, Kate]

Miss Miller tapping her brains out...