Royal Wedding (MGM) is a 1951 Hollywood musical comedy film set in London in 1947 at the time of the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, and stars Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford, Sarah Churchill and Keenan Wynn, with music by Burton Lane and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. The film was directed by Stanley Donen. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Stanley Donen (born April 13, 1924) is an American film director and choreographer hailed by David Quinlan as the King of the Hollywood musicals. His most famous work is Singin In The Rain, which he co-directed with Gene Kelly. ... Fred Astaire (May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987), born Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska,[1] was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. ... Jane Powell (born April 1, 1929) is an American singer, entertainer and actor. ... The Rat Pack. ... The Honourable Sarah Millicent Hermione Spencer Churchill (October 7, 1914 – September 24, 1982) was a British actress. ... MGM logo Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM, is a large media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of cinema and television programs. ... is the 67th day of the year (68th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... See also: 1950 in film 1951 1952 in film 1950s in film 1940s in film years in film film Events Sweden - May Britt is scouted by Italian film-makers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati Top grossing films North America David and Bathsheba Show Boat tie The Great Caruso and An... MGM logo Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM, is a large media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of cinema and television programs. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... The musical film is a film genre in which several songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative. ... Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor; born 21 April 1926) is Queen of sixteen sovereign states, holding each crown and title equally. ... HRH The Duke of Edinburgh His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (Philip Mountbatten, formerly Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark), styled HRH The Duke of Edinburgh (born 10 June 1921), is the consort of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. ... Fred Astaire (May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987), born Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska,[1] was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. ... Jane Powell (born April 1, 1929) is an American singer, entertainer and actor. ... The Rat Pack. ... Sarah Millicent Hermione Spencer Churchill, Baroness Audley (October 7, 1914 – September 24, 1982) was a British actress and dancer. ... Wynn in Warning Shot (1967) Keenan Wynn (July 27, 1916 – October 14, 1986) was an American character actor and member of a well-known show-business family. ... Burton Lane (February 2, 1912, New York City - January 5, 1997, New York City) was a composer and lyricist. ... Alan Jay Lerner (August 31, 1918 – June 14, 1986) was an American Broadway lyricist and librettist. ... Stanley Donen (born April 13, 1924) is an American film director and choreographer hailed by David Quinlan as the King of the Hollywood musicals. His most famous work is Singin In The Rain, which he co-directed with Gene Kelly. ...

Astaire and Powell play a brother and sister song and dance duo, echoing the real-life theatrical relationship of Fred and Adele Astaire. Powell, who was not first choice for the role, surprised her colleagues with her all-round ability. She falls for Lawford, who plays an English aristocrat - mirroring Adele Astaire's romance and eventual marriage to Lord Charles Cavendish, son of the Duke of Devonshire. Adele Astaire, 1927 Lady Charles Cavendish (September 10, 1896 -January 25, 1981) [1], better known as Adele Astaire was an American dancer and entertainer. ... The Dukes of Devonshire are members of the aristocratic Cavendish family in the United Kingdom. ...

Royal Wedding is one of several MGM musicals (another being Till the Clouds Roll By) that have lapsed into public domain. As such it is widely available on Video and DVD, but the quality of these versions varies. In February 2007 Warner Home Video announced plans to issue a restored version of Royal Wedding on DVD.[1] Till The Clouds Roll By is an American musical-biographical film released by MGM in 1946. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Key songs/dance routines

Choreographer Nick Castle collaborated with Astaire on several of the numbers. Although none of the songs are considered standards, dance-wise, it is notable for the inclusion of not one but two Astaire solos, both of which are amongst his best known works. Parody, of himself and of some well-known colleagues, is an important theme of the choreography. Songwriter Harold Arlen (right) with singer Bing Crosby (left) and Decca Records owner Jack Kapp (center) The Great American Songbook is an informal term referring to a period of American popular music songwriting that took place between the 1930s and 1960s. ...

• "Ev'ry Night At Seven": A rather tired-looking Astaire (pretending to be a bored king) and a lively Powell sing and dance through this royal-themed number.

Fred Astaire in "Sunday Jumps"

• "Sunday Jumps": Astaire credits the idea for this famous solo to his long-time choreographic collaborator Hermes Pan. In it, Astaire parodies himself by dancing with a clothes-horse (often incorrectly referred to as the "hat-rack" dance) and appears to parody his rival and friend Gene Kelly by inserting a mock body-building episode during which he kicks aside some Indian clubs in a reference to Kelly's routine with The Nicholas Brothers in The Pirate. The fame of the dance rests on Astaire's ability to animate the inanimate. The solo takes place in a ship's gym, where Astaire is waiting to rehearse with his partner Powell, who doesn't turn up, echoing Adele Astaire's attitude towards her brother's obsessive rehearsal habits to which the lyrics (unused and unpublished) also made reference. Controversially, in 1997, it was digitally manipulated to show Astaire dancing with a vacuum cleaner in Dirt Devil commercials. In a missive, later published in Time Magazine and Variety[2], Astaire's daughter Ava severely criticized the corporation's president, writing: "Your paltry, unconscionable commercials are the antithesis of everything my lovely, gentle father represented."[3] This number has been referenced by Mel Gibson in What Women Want and parodied by Kermit the Frog in The Great Muppet Caper.

• "Open Your Eyes": This lilting waltz is sung by Powell at the beginning of a romantic routine danced by Powell and Astaire in front of an audience in the ballroom of a transatlantic liner. Soon, a storm rocks the ship and the duet is transformed into a comic parody with the dancers sliding about to the ship's motions. This number is based on a real-life incident which happened to Fred and Adele Astaire as they travelled by ship to London in 1923.

• "The Happiest Days Of My Life": Powell sings this ballad to Peter Lawford, with Astaire sitting at the piano.

• "How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I've Been A Liar All My Life" has what is considered the longest title of any song in MGM musical history. For the first time in his career,^[1] Astaire successfully casts aside all pretension to elegance and indulges in a deliberately vulgar comic song and dance vaudeville-style routine with Powell. The routine recalls the "A Couple Of Swells" number with Judy Garland in Easter Parade. Here, for the second time in the film, he seems to parody Gene Kelly by wearing the latter's trademark straw boater, and employing the stomps and splayed strides which originated with George M. Cohan, and were much favoured in Kelly's choreography.

Fred Astaire in "You're All the World to Me"

• "Too Late Now": Powell sings her third ballad, this time an open declaration of love, to Lawford.

• "You're All The World To Me": In one of his best-known solos, Astaire dances on the walls and ceilings of his room. The idea occurred to Astaire years before, and was first mentioned by him in the MGM publicity publication Lion's Roar in 1945. The number was filmed by mounting the camera and operator in a cage which rotated with the room. The same technique would later be used to simulate a zero gravity environment in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and in the music video for "Fly" by Sugar Ray. Burton Lane's music originally featured in the 1934 Eddie Cantor film Kid Millions, in the number "My Minstrel Man", sung by a ten year-old Harold Nicholas to lyrics by Harold Adamson.

• "I Left My Hat In Haiti": This number, essentially the work of Nick Castle, involves Powell, Astaire and chorus in song and dance routine with a Latin theme.

Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Fred Astaire and Hermes Pan working out a dance routine Hermes Pan (December 10, 1909 – September 19, 1990) was an American dancer and choreographer. ... Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996), better known as Gene Kelly, was an American dancer, actor, singer, director, producer, and choreographer. ... Categories: African Americans | Tap dancers | Art stubs ... The Pirate is a slang term for a supposed sex move performed during oral sex. ... (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ... Variety is a daily newspaper for the entertainment industry. ... Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson AO (born January 3, 1956) is an American born Australian actor, director, and producer. ... What Women Want is a [[2000 in film|2000](with fantasy elements), directed by Nancy Meyers and starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. ... This article is about the utility for transferring computer files; Kermit is also the name of a Muppet in whose honor the utility was named, and also a city in Texas Kermit screwed Anup Kelkar Kermit is a computer file transfer/management protocol and a set of communications software tools... The Great Muppet Caper is the second of a series of live-action musical feature films, starring Jim Hensons Muppets. ... Year 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Superscript text Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was an Oscar-nominated American film actress, considered by many to be one of the greatest singing stars of Hollywoods Golden Era of musical film, best known for her role as Dorothy Gale from The... Easter Parade is a 1948 musical film starring Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. ... George Michael Cohan (July 3, 1878 – November 5, 1942) was a United States entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, director, and producer of Irish descent. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Year 1945and died 2007 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Astronauts on the International Space Station display an example of weightlessness Weightlessness is the experience (by people and objects) during freefall, of having no weight. ... Suborders Nematocera (includes Eudiptera) Brachycera Wikispecies has information related to: Diptera True flies are insects of the Order Diptera (Greek: di = two, and pteron = wing), possessing a single pair of wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax. ... Sugar Ray is a rock band from Newport Beach, Orange County, California. ... Year 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... One of 12 Eddie Cantor caricatures by Frederick J. Garner for a 1933 Brown & Bigelow advertising card set. ... Categories: African Americans | Tap dancers | Art stubs ... Harold Adamson (1906-1980) was an American lyricist during the 1930s and 1940s. ...

Casting

Jane Powell was far from the first actress approached to play the role of Ellen opposite Astaire. Initially Ginger Rogers was asked, but she declined. Then June Allyson was signed for the role, but had to drop out when she became pregnant. Judy Garland was then signed as Ellen, but due to personal issues was fired from the film (and her MGM contract was terminated). Jane Powell ultimately replaced Garland.[4] Ginger Rogers (July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an Academy Award-winning American film and stage actress and singer. ... June Allyson (October 7, 1917 – July 8, 2006) was an American film and television actress, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. ...

References

Fred Astaire: Steps in Time, 1959, multiple reprints.

John Mueller: Astaire Dancing - The Musical Films of Fred Astaire, Knopf 1985, ISBN 0-394-51654-0

Notes

External links

• Royal Wedding at the Internet Movie Database

• Film clip (Public Domain) of Astaire's Sunday Jumps Dance

• Film clip (Public Domain) of Astaire's You're All The World To Me Dance

• Complete film (Public Domain) available for free download at the Internet Archive