Tag Archives: Gene Krupa

Musical Monday: The Gene Krupa Story (1959)

Posted on by
Reply

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

gene krupa posterThis week’s musical:
The Gene Krupa Story (1959) – Musical #332

Studio:
Columbia Pictures

Director:
Don Weis

Starring:
Sal Mineo, James Darren, Susan Kohner, Yvonne Craig, Susan Oliver, Lawrence Dobkin, Celia Lovsky, Bobby Troup, Shelly Manne, Gavin MacLeod (uncredited), Arthur Walsh (uncredited)
Self: Red Nichols, Anita O’Day, Buddy Lester, Ruby Lane

Plot:
Biographical film on drummer Gene Krupa (Mineo). The film shows Krupa’s conflict with this family over becoming a musician, struggling as a musician in New York City, and then breaking it big as a solo drummer. The film also depicts his downfall when Krupa is arrested for his substance abuse.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Boy! What a Girl! (1947)

Posted on by

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Boy! What a Girl! (1947) – Musical #426

Studio:
Herald Pictures

Director:
Arthur H. Leonard

Starring:
Tim Moore, Elwood Smith, Duke Williams, Alan Jackson, Sheila Guyse, Betti Mays, Sybil Lewis, Warren Patterson
Themselves: Slam Stewart Trio, Deek Watson and the Brown Dots, Big Sid Catlett, Ann Cornell, Gene Krupa, Harlemaniacs

Plot:
Jim Walton (Smith) and Harry Diggs (Williams) are trying to get a show on Broadway but lack the financial backing. Jim hopes that his girlfriend’s rich father, Mr. Cummings (Jackson), will help fund the show. Mr. Cummings will only help fund the show if wealthy French impresario Mme. Deborah Martin pays for half of the show. In her absence, female impersonator Bumpsie (Moore) poses as Mme. Deborah, but the issue is when the real Mme. Deborah (Lewis) arrives.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: The Benny Goodman Story

Posted on by

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
The Benny Goodman Story (1956) – Musical #331

Studio:
Universal Studios

Director:
Valentine Davies

Starring:
Steve Allen, Donna Reed, Herbert Anderson, Sammy Davis Sr., Dick Winslow, Berta Gersten, Barry Truex, Robert F. Simon
Themselves: Lionel Hampton, Gene Krupa, Teddy Wilson, Ben Pollack, Kid Ory, Martha Tilton, Harry James, Babe Russin, Allan Reuss

Plot:
This is a biographical film on clarinet player Benny Goodman (Allen). The film follows Goodman as a child when he learns the clarinet and becomes interested in jazz and swing music. Goodman struggles with gaining interest in “hot” music, especially in New York City. Many prefer classical music, including Alice Hammond (Reed), who is interested in Benny Goodman but isn’t sure about his music. Alice and Benny have a romance, but with his busy music schedule and his skeptical mother, it’s hard for the two to be together.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Beat the Band (1947)

Posted on by

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Beat the Band (1947) – Musical #622

Studio:
RKO Radio Pictures

Director:
John H. Auer

Starring:
Frances Langford, Ralph Edwards, Phillip Terry, June Clayworth, Mabel Paige, Andrew Tombes, Donald MacBride, Mira McKinney, Mabel Paige, Grady Sutton, Ellen Corby (uncredited), Tommy Noonan (uncredited), Diane Jergens (uncredited)
Himself: Gene Krupa

Plot:
Bandleader Damon Dillingham (Tery) returns home from the military, thinking his manager (Edwards) and father (Tombes) had been paying his band. Instead, they have been spending the salary money on a losing racehorse. To make money to get the band together, they have Damon pose as an opera instructor and singer Ann Rogers (Langford) is his top dollar student – though Ann prefers swing music.

Continue reading →

Musical Monday: George White’s Scandals (1945)

Posted on by

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

Jack Haley, Joan Davis, Gene Krupa in “George White Scandals”

This week’s musical:
George White Scandals (1945) – Musical #348

Studio:
RKO Radio Pictures

Director:
Felix E. Feist

Starring:
Joan Davis, Jack Haley, Phillip Terry, Martha Holliday, Margaret Hamilton, Glenn Tryon, Jane Greer (billed as Bettejane Greer), Audrey Young, Rose Murphy, Fritz Feld, Beverly Wills, Tommy Noonan (uncredited), Dorothy Sebastian (uncredited)
Themselves: Gene Krupa, Ethel Smith

Plot:
The George White Scandals are being cast and rehearsals are beginning … and romances are budding. Joan Mason (Davis) was in the Scandals as a child star is now performing in them as an adult. She recently got engaged to her co-star Jack Evans (Haley), but his sister Clarabelle (Hamilton) hates Joan. Tom McGrath (Terry), who is leading the show, has no time for chorus girls, but Jill Martin (Holliday) works to set herself apart from the others to get noticed. Jill is secretly the daughter of a former Scandals star, who married nobility, and she doesn’t want the rest of the cast to find out.

Continue reading →