by A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life;Films of Vincente Minnelli
Reynolds, Bill
Reynolds, Debbie
Reynolds, Laura
Rhapsody in Blue
Richardson, John
Ring, Blanche
The Roaring Twenties
Robbins, Harold
Roberta
Roberts, Pernell
Roberts, Roy
Robinson, Edward G.
Rodgers, Richard
Rogers, Ginger
Rogers, Kenny
Roman Holiday
Rooney, Mickey
Root, Lynn
Rose, David
Rose, Helen
Rosenfield, Josh
Ross, Herbert
Rothafel, Samuel “Roxy”
Rousseau, Henri
Royal Wedding
Rozsa, Miklos
Ruttenberg, Joseph
Rybar, Valerian
Saidy, Fred
Saint, Eva Marie
Saintly Hypocrites and Honest Sinners
Salinger, Conrad
Saltzman, Barbara Freed
Samuel Goldwyn Studios
Sanders, George
The Sandpiper
Saroyan, William
Sarris, Andrew
Say It with Music
Schallert, Edwin
Schary, Dory
Schickel, Richard
Schlamme, Martha
Schnee, Charles
Schrank, Joseph
Schwartz, Arthur
Schwarz, Vera
Scorsese, Martin
Scott, Randolph
See Here, Private Hargrove
Selznick, David O.
Sennett, Mack
Serena Blandish
set design
curtain of Vanities
Rothafel and
of Ziegfeld Follies
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
The Seventh Cross
The Seventh Sin
sexuality
of Alton, Robert
Dean, James and
Epperson on
Freed Unit and
of friends of Minnelli
of Hart, Moss
Home from the Hill and
rumors concerning John Houseman and
Minnelli and
Minnelli, Denise and Marisa Mell
of Salinger, Conrad
Tea and Sympathy and
Shales, Tom
Shall We Dance
Sharaff, Irene
Shaw, Irwin
Shearer, Moira
Sheehan, Henry
Sheppard, Eugenia
Sherman, Hiram
Sherman, Richard
Sherman, Robert
Show Boat
The Show Is On
Shubert, Jake (J.J.)
Shubert, J.J. (Jake)
Shubert, Lee
Shurlock, Geoffrey
Sidney, George
Sidney, Lillian Burns
Siegel, David
Siegel, Joel E.
Siegel, Sol
Signoret, Simone
Simon, John
Simone, Lela
Sinatra, Frank
Singin’ in the Rain
Sister Boy, see Tea and Sympathy
Skelton, Red
Smith, Liz
Smith, Oliver
Some Came Running
Some Like It Hot
Sondheim, Stephen
The Song of Bernadette
The Sound of Music
South Pacific
Spiegel, Betty
Spiegel, Sam
Spielberg, Steven
Spillane, Mickey
Spite Marriage
Spreckles, Kay
Springtime for Hitler
stage design. see set design
Stage Door
Star!
A Star Is Born
Stein, Jules
Stevens, Stella
Stewart, Donald Ogden
Stewart, Jimmy
Stewart, Paul
Stimmel, Robert
Stokowski, Leopold
Stone, Irving
Stone, Paul
The Story of Three Loves
Strategy of Love
Strayhorn, Billy
The Street Where I Live (Lerner)
A Streetcar Named Desire
Streeter, Edward
Streisand, Barbra
Strickling, Howard
Strike Up the Band
Sublett, John W. “Bubbles”
substance abuse, Garland, Judy and
Sullivan, Barry
Summer Holiday
A Summer Place
Summer Stock
Sunny
Sunset Boulevard
Surtees, Robert
Suter, Eugene Francois
Sweet Bird of Youth
Sweet Charity
Swift, Kay
Tamblyn, Russ
Tarzan the Ape Man
Taurog, Norman
Taylor, Elizabeth
Taylor, Robert
Tea and Sympathy
Technicolor
The Temperamentals
Temple, Shirley
The Tender Trap
Tess of the Storm Country
Tessier, Valentine
Than, Joseph
That’s Entertainment!
Thau, Ben
Thery, Jacques
Thirty Seconds over Tokyo
Thomas, Edward
Thompson, Al
Thompson, J. Lee
Thompson, Kay
Thousands Cheer
Three Sisters
Thulin, Ingrid
Till the Clouds Roll By
Times Square
Tinkcom, Matthew
Toby, Mark
A Tom Boy Girl
Tootsie
Torch Song
On the Town
Tracy, George
Tracy, Spencer
Trevor, Claire
Tribute to a Bad Man
Troy, Hugh
Trumbo, Dalton
Turner, Lana
Twiss, Clinton
Two for the Seesaw
Two Weeks in Another Town
Uggams, Leslie
Undercurrent
The Unsinkable Molly Brown
The Users (Haber)
Valentino, Rudolph, xv,
van Gogh, Theo
van Gogh, Vincent
Van Rees Press
Van Vooren, Monique
Vance, Vivian
Venice Productions
Vera-Ellen
Versois, Odile
Very Warm for May
Victor/Victoria
Villa-Lobos, Heitor
Vizzard, Jack
Vogel, Joseph
Walker, Nancy
Walker, Robert
Wallace, Beryl
Walsh, Raoul
Walters, Charles
Wand, Betty
Warren, Harry
Watch on the Rhine
Waters, Ethel
Webb, Clifton
Webb, David
Webber, Robert
Webster, Paul Francis
Weitman, Robert
Welles, Orson
Wells, George
West Side Story
Where the Cross is Made
Whistler, James McNeill
Whitcomb, Jon
White, George
White Heat
Whiteman, Paul
Whitfield, Henry
Whiting, Margaret
Whorf, Richard
Widmark, Richard
Widney, Stone
The Wild One
Wild Strawberries
Wilder, Billy
William Morris Agency
Wilson
Wilson, Dooley
Wilson, Dorothy
Wilson, Michael
Winchell, Walter
Winckler, Richard
window dressing (Marshall Field)
Winsten, Archer
Winston, Har
ry
Winters, Pinky
The Wizard of Oz
Woodburn, Peter
Words and Music
The Wreck of the Mary Deare
Wright, Robert
Written on the Wind
Wyler, William
Wynn, Ed
Wynn, Keenan
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Yolanda and the Thief
You Were Never Lovelier
Young, Freddie
Zanuck, Darryl F.
Zelda with a “Z”
Ziegfeld Follies
Ziegfeld Follies of 1936,
Zinnemann, Fred
Zinsser, William K.
Zukor, Adolph
MARK GRIFFIN has been a writer and reviewer for many publications, including the Boston Globe, MovieMaker, Film Score Monthly, Genre, and the Portland Phoenix. He lives in Maine and is now at work on a screenplay.
a
An Emmy-winning 2001 television movie adapted from Luft’s memoir, Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, seemed to diverge from its source material where Vincente Minnelli was concerned. In one scene, Garland (Judy Davis) confides to MGM arranger Roger Edens (John Benjamin Hickey) that she expects Minnelli (Hugh Laurie) to propose to her. Edens is visibly surprised and attempts to warn his protégé about the director: “I don’t think he’s marrying material.” (Quotation from Lorna Luft’s book Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir [New York: Pocket Books, 1998].)
b
One of V. C. Minnelli’s tunes, “The White Tops,” a Sousa-like “march and two-step,” was a popular selection in the repertoires of circus bands across the country. Lester Minnelli’s mother, Mina Gennell, penned the rarely heard lyrics.
c
In Vincente Minnelli’s 1974 autobiography, he refers to his mother’s family “emigrating from France.” (Vincente Minnelli, with Hector Arce, I Remember It Well [Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974].) Mina Le Beau (born Marie Emelie Odile LeBeau) was actually of French-Canadian descent. Her father, Flavian Le Beau, was born near Montreal. There is a strong probability that Mina’s maternal lineage includes Native American ancestors.
d
A medical certificate entitled “Inquest of Lunacy, Epilepsy or Feeble-Mindedness” from July 22, 1920, describes Paul Minnelli’s behavior as “childlike” and determined that as a feeble-minded person, Paul was “incapable of receiving instruction in the common schools.” Even so, surviving classmates in Delaware, Ohio, recall Paul Minnelli attending school—though he was usually in a lower grade.
e
In 1978, while Vincente Minnelli was being honored at the Athens International Film Festival, journalist Peter Lehman asked the Oscar-winning director, “Do you have any brothers or sisters?” Between puffs on his ever-present cigarette, the seventy-five-year-old auteur responded, “No. We had twins who died when they were infants.” No mention was made of Paul Minnelli. (Peter Lehman, Marilyn Campbell, and Grant Munro, “Two Weeks in Another Town: An Interview with Vincente Minnelli,” Wide Angle 3, no. 1 [1979]: 65.) In 1994, Delaware historian Brent Carson met Liza Minnelli after she performed at the Polaris Amphitheater: “I mentioned Paul Minnelli to her and she said, ‘I never knew that he had a brother.’” (Brent Carson, interview with author, 2007.)
f
At one point, V.C. and family moved in with Lester’s grandparents. Their home at the corner of N. Washington Street and Fountain Avenue in Delaware came complete with a rolling front yard and a spacious front porch. The house is a dead ringer for the Smith residence in Meet Me in St. Louis.
g
According to city directories, Lester Minnelli was still residing with his parents in Ohio as of 1922. He most likely moved to Chicago the following year.
h
Aunt Amy’s baptismal name was Marie Levina Le Beau.
i
Misidentified in Minnelli’s memoir and other sources as “Mr. Frazier.”
j
Although Minnelli’s enrollment at the Art Institute was short lived, his attendance would contradict later newspaper reports that insisted that “he never had an art lesson in his life.”
k
One of Stone’s subjects in later years was future Hollywood adonis Steve Reeves, whose god-like physique would earn him the title “Mr. Universe” and starring roles as Hercules in several sword-and-sandal epics.
l
Ina Claire, who would go on to star in such Hollywood classics as The Awful Truth and Ninotchka, was Minnelli’s first choice for the role of Aunt Alicia in his Oscar-winning musical Gigi. The actress turned down the role.
m
In later years, Minnelli and Marion Herwood Keyes occasionally corresponded. “I have thought about you many times and it is a joy to hear from you,” Vincente wrote to his former assistant in the early 1970s. Herwood Keyes was also one of dozens of Minnelli colleagues whom writer Joel Siegel interviewed for his exhaustively researched though ultimately aborted biography of the director.
n
When the Dunkirk Evening Observer profiled Minnelli in December 1936, it described Hara as “a soft-slippered, slant-eyed servitor” as well as Vincente’s “best friend and severest critic.” In The Sewing Circle, author Axel Madsen makes reference to “the rumors about [Minnelli] and his Japanese valet,” but little is known about Hara, and the suggestions that he was more than just a personal assistant to Minnelli aren’t accompanied by any substantial evidence. (“Valet Critical,” Dunkirk Evening Observer, December 31, 1936; Axel Madsen, The Sewing Circle: Hollywood’s Greatest Secret. Female Stars Who Loved Other Women [New York: Birch Lane Press, 1995].)
o
The original title was Tickets for Two.
p
It’s worth noting that despite Minnelli’s all-encompassing credit, Eddie Dowling was responsible for “stage direction,” Edward Clark Lilley is credited with directing the sketches, and Robert Alton handled the choreography.
q
It was Minnelli who suggested this title for the classic musical, which had originally been saddled with the name Stepping Toes.
r
Artists and Models was a hit at the box office and even inspired a sequel, 1938’s Artists and Models Abroad, which featured Lester Gaba’s high-profile blonde mannequin “Cynthia.”
s
The musical was originally entitled In Other Words, after one of the songs in the show.
t
Years later, Minnelli became interested in mounting a revue entitled The Black Follies, a project that Alan Jay Lerner’s assistant, Stone Widney, proposed to him. The show was envisioned as an all-black Ziegfeld Follies. “We went out and talked to him about that,” remembers Widney. “He said, ‘This is a wonderful idea… . You have to go to Chicago and see all the people who are in the jazz scene. It should be big. Extravagant.’ When we came away from the meeting, I said, ‘I think this is going to be a little over budget.’” The Black Follies was never produced. (Stone Widney, interview with author.)
u
It’s been suggested that Minnelli may have been responsible for Horne’s “You’re So Indiff’rent” sequence in 1944’s Swing Fever, a wartime musical directed by Tim Whelan.
v
Russian-born Borros Morros served as the musical director on dozens of Hollywood films, including John Ford’s Stagecoach and the same version of Artists and Models that Minnelli had contributed to. (Almena Davis, “How ’Bout This?” Los Angeles Tribune, October 19, 1942, 9-10.)
w
Like the Kansas sequences in Oz, the original theatrical prints of Cabin in the Sky were enhanced by a warm sepia tone, though Minnelli’s musical is rarely, if ever, shown that way. Vincente told interviewer Henry Sheehan that the sepia enhancement was Arthur Freed’s idea.
x
McQueen’s sequence was no laughing matter to two lieutenants stationed at the Santa Ana Army Air Base. In September 1943, they wrote to Minnelli and expressed their outrage: “We were shocked by the scene in I Dood It in which Red S
kelton mistakes the idiotic black dog for the negro girl. The slur on the colored people was one of the most vicious we have seen emanate from Hollywood for some time.” Decades later, Minnelli insisted that no racial insensitivity was intended: “I was surprised by such an interpretation. Like my general attitude to the picture, this was the farthest thing from my mind.” The letter to Minnelli, which was dated September 12, 1943, was from Lieutenants “Twinelmann” and “Darby,” stationed at the Santa Ana Army Air Base, and concludes with: “You directors have a personal responsibility to see that not even one scene, even in jest, encourages anti-democratic attitudes.” The letter is contained in the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, California.
y
Although he ultimately shared screen credit with Fred Finklehoffe, Brecher would contend that he was solely responsible for the entire screenplay of Meet Me in St. Louis. Brecher’s assertion seems to be borne out by studio records, which reveal that after contributing to a rough continuity outline, Finklehoffe moved on to other assignments while Brecher carried on alone.
z
“George Folsey told me that he did not shoot ‘The Trolley Song,’” says film historian David Chierichetti. “Folsey was busy setting things up for the ‘Boys and Girls Like You and Me’ number that was cut, so Harold Rosson [who was the cinematographer on The Wizard of Oz] shot ‘The Trolley Song.’” (David Chierichetti, interview with author.)
aa
Three sequences that George Sidney directed remain in the release print of Ziegfeld Follies, including Virginia O’Brien’s “Bring on Those Wonderful Men,” Red Skelton’s “When Television Comes,” and Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, and Lucille Ball in the eye-popping opener, “Here’s to the Girls.” A number of other sequences—including Fred Astaire’s “If Swing Goes, I Go, Too” and Avon Long serenading Lena Horne with “Liza”—would wind up on the cutting-room floor.
ab
Bert May turns up in several Minnelli movies: In The Clock, he is the assistant to the judge who marries Judy Garland and Robert Walker. In The Band Wagon, he doubled for Cyd Charisse as “Mr. Big” in “The Girl Hunt Ballet.” The versatile May also appeared with Barbra Streisand and Larry Blyden in “Wait Till We’re Sixty-Five,” an elaborate production number ultimately deleted from the release print of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. (Bert May, interview with author.)
ac
The Clock was a favorite of composer Stephen Sondheim’s: “I so wanted to make a musical out of it at one point. I persuaded one of the secretaries at MGM to sneak a script out of a vault for me over a weekend so that I could type a copy for myself.” But after writing an opening number, he gave up on the idea. Sondheim’s 1964 Broadway musical Anyone Can Whistle appeared to contain a clever homage to Minnelli in the form of the number “Me and My Town,” in which Angela Lansbury’s haughty mayoress meets the press in a manner reminiscent of Judy Garland’s “Interview” in Ziegfeld Follies.