FROM STAGE TO SCREEN … EASTER PARADE

“Easter Parade”

VINTAGE PIANO SHEET MUSIC
Titled: "EASTER PARADE"
SAM H. HARRIS PRESENTS "AS THOUSANDS CHEER"
WITH UKULELE ARRANGEMENT
By: IRVING BERLIN
Published By: IRVING BERLIN, INC., NEW YORK
Dated: 1933

Sung by Clifton Webb and Marilyn Miller as they lead a stylish parade down 5th Avenue in the first-act finale of the revue As Thousands Cheer (NY 1933).

Since the entire show was created in the form of a newspaper, the justification for the number was a rotogravure section showing the parade as it might have looked in 1883. As Irving Berlin recalls: “I’d written a couple of old-fashioned-type songs but they were lousy. So I reached back to something I’d written in 1917. It went, ‘Smile and show your dimple, you’ll find it’s very simple . . .‘ It was a poor imitation of the cheer-up kind of songs of the day, like ‘Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag.’ But I’d always liked the main four-bar theme. So for As Thousands Cheer, instead of trying to write a new old-fashioned melody I simply used a real old-fashioned melody. Except that now, of course, I made the words apply to an Easter parade.” In a much-revised London edition of the revue, called Stop Press (1935), the song was used for the finale and was sung by Dorothy Dickson and Gordon Little. For this version, reference in the lyric to Fifth Avenue was altered to apply to Hyde Park’s Rotten Row.

MGM, 1948, Color, 104 minutes

Produced by: Arthur Freed
Directed by: Charles Walters
Screen Play by: Sidney Sheldon, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett
Lyrics and Music by: Irving Berlin
Musical Numbers Staged and Directed by: Robert Alton
Music Direction: Johnny Green
Orchestration: Conrad Salinger, Van Cleave, Leo Arnaud
Set Decorations: Edwin B. Willis
Women's Costumes by: Irene
Men's Costumes by: Valles
Color by Technicolor

Cast:
Judy Garland (Hannah Brown),
Fred Astaire (Don Hewes),
Peter Lawford (Jonathan Harrow III),
Ann Miller (Nadine Gale),
Jules Munshin (Francois, the Head Waiter)

SOUNDTRACK

01 - Main Title (Medley)
02 - Happy Easter
03 - Drum Crazy
04 - It Only Happens When I Dance With You
05 - Happy Easter (Reprise #1) (Outtake)
06 - Everybody's Doin' It Now
07 - I Want To Go Back To Michigan (Down On The Farm)
08 - Happy Easter (Reprise #2)
09 - Making Faces (Medley)
10 - Beautiful Faces Need Beautiful Clothes
11 - This Is The Life (Dog Act)
12 - Along Came Ruth
13 - Call Me Up Some Rainy Afternoon
14 - A Fella With An Umbrella
15 - I Love A Piano
16 - Snookey Ookums
17 - The Ragtime Violin
18 - When The Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves For Alabam'
19 - Mixed Greens
20 - That International Rag (Fanfare And Montage-Ziegfeld Follies)
21 - Shakin' The Blues Away
22 - It Only Happens When I Dance With You (Reprise)
23 - Fanfare And Montage-Globe Theatre
24 - Steppin' Out With My Baby
25 - Mr. Monotony (Outtake)
26 - A Couple Of Swells
27 - Roof Garden (Drum Crazy) (Reprise)
28 - The Girl On The Magazine Cover
29 - New Amsterdam Roof (It Only Happens When I Dance With You) (Reprise)
30 - Better Luck Next Time (Premiere Extended Version)
31 - Easter Parade (End Title)