It's remarkable to realize that this was once the popular culture. In its own way, it encouraged thoughtfulness and literacy. The "star chemistry" here is lovely, he faux shy and awkward and she so, so beautiful and ardent. It's schmaltzy, but only in the best sense. And the sublime tunefulness of Porter's melody, the subtle sexuality of the lyrics--with or without the censored one!
Cole Porter baffled the MGM music dept by insisting that Stewart not be dubbed. Afterwards he contradicted Jimmy's observation that the song was too good even for him to ruin it by saying that he had done as well as any pro vocalist could. A lot of people in sound's early days, including the musically snobbish Mr Mayer, failed to grasp that singing in musical films is about acting out the lyrics, not standing on a concert stage doing the Caruso or Melba thing. Aided by close-ups, editing and naturalistic surroundings, there is less need to 'project'- indeed, it can be counter-productive. Some Broadway wows proved too strong for the screen, such as Mary Martin or Ethel Merman. Reedy voices with intelligent phrasing could sell a lyric in movies more insinuatingly; Porter's pal Fred Astaire furnished the classic precedent, converting 'Night and Day' from a stage showstopper to a movie hit. Stewart here and Robert Taylor in 'Broadway Melody of 1936' were speak-singers, like Rex Harrison later, and more than adequate in the dramatic situation. Mayer, the operetta buff, should have made the connection with recitative.
Jimmy and Ellie were two of the most decent people to become movie stars, and perhaps a little of their quality comes through in this tender, quiet moment.
The line might have got through had it not been by Porter, who was renowned for trying to slip innuendos into his songs to entertain his sophisticated pals. Moreover, MGM was more censorious than, say, Paramount or Warner. Mayer hated 'filth'.
@@esmeephillips5888 I got a chuckle out of a story told by a performer about Cole Porter's naughty lyrics. He wrote "Let's Misbehave" for a show but the backers insisted it was too suggestive and demanded it be removed. What did he replace it with? "Birds do it, Bees do it..." He used Let's Misbehave in another show later on.
In all me born days I never dared to imagine James Stewart singing. And when I found out he did, I was sure it must have sounded terrible. But I take it all back after hearing this. Thanks for posting! Ya learn somthin' new every day. :)
@@oldhatcinema I don't remember him singing in "Night Passage," but he plays the accordion in it. I've read, though, that while Jimmy played the accordion in real life, his playing in that movie was overdubbed. Alas! (MInd you, he could've sung in "Night Passage"; but I don't remember him having done so...)
@@nunyabizness3777 Now that's too bad! If he played in real life (another fascinating fact I did not know!) I wonder why they dubbed it. I could definitely be wrong about the movie. I just know it was one of his westerns. The song was "You Can't Get Far Without a Railroad".
@@oldhatcinema Ohhhhh yeah! I remember that now, yes! Oh, and he also sang in "The Philadelphia Story" -- when he was drunkenly carrying Hepburn, he sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
When Eleanor (dubbed) sings 'Try to see/Your future with me', Jimmy nods in agreement. In the last shot of the film, they have reconciled and are in a clinch after her first-night triumph. Now he sings that line... and she nods. The best musicals are full of little touches like that, and are worth re-viewing regularly to catch them.
I had a CD of a tribute to Cole Porter and Jimmy Stewart was so funny--he said he approached Cole Porter and said, some of these notes are really high, can you change them?!
Stewart actually sings for the second and last time in his career. According to one Stewart biographer, Jimmy hated this movie more than any other he made, possibly because of his lack of chemistry with the lead actress, but fans have embraced the film as a lot of fun, noting that Jimmy's voice isn't half bad. - Google about Pot O' Gold (1941) on the topic of Jimmy Stewart's singing in the film
There’s no excuse for censorship, especially when the lyrics are good, but..... ‘So worth the yearning for, So swell to keep ev’ry homefire burning for’ just sounds better poeticly in this song. To my ears, that is : )
I guess the line "So sweet to waken with....eggs and bacon" etc...suggests he's gonna sleep with her...and then have breakfast in the morning!! Not in keeping with sex after marriage..!! Danny
Born to Dance was one of the first stereophonic film soundtracks. Rhino Records has the original 2 channel mixes in their soundtrack re-issue, which I assume is how you got the 2 channel version here.
+Sidney Frederickson It was recorded in multichannel sound, as were all MGM musicals of the time. They were all mixed down to mono for theatrical release, however. No one heard this in stereo until the 1990s.
There is a poignancy about this scene that few would have appreciated without inside info or foreknowledge of the players' fates. Jimmy Stewart was shy and a late developer sexually, and Eleanor Powell a resolute non-developer before marriage. He was smitten by her, and his faltering fear that she would prioritise career over marriage in the opening dialogue was heartfelt. She did so, for another seven years: the Virgin Queen of Taps. Stewart had a platonic, unrequited romance with Margaret Sullavan and several flings, but did not marry until he was middle-aged- to a divorcee with a ready-made family. It is hard not to infer that both he and Powell had low sex drives, with a gift for friendship to compensate. Another prophetic moment in 'Born to Dance' comes when Nora Paige, the ambitious hoofer, is bigged up by Una Merkel at the club before going into her 'Rap, Tap on Wood' number. Merkel says sotto voce to Ellie: 'OK, toots, you're on your own.' And how true that was. Ellie was to be a soloist sans pareil: on her own in talent, like no other in her self-crafted persona and unattached to men in her private life, when every cute young thing in Tinseltown was expected to have a beau in tow. As always, one asks how deliberate these echoes of the reality behind the story are. Did the writers seed their scripts with knowing references, or was it the force of the stars' distinctive personalities that shaped fictional parallels? Plots of Golden Age musicals are so bound up with the backstage lives and challenges of the dancers and singers who portrayed aspirants to fame that one's head spins at the genre's reflexivity. No more so than with Powell, whose Hollywood stint can be read as one long flirtation with and teasing of the audience. For so private a person to mock and mesmerize her public so insistently implies an almost sadistic relationship: the psychic counterpart of her colossal power-projection in dance that made the bosses nervous about her 'mannishness'. I can think of no dramatic actress, comedienne or singer who played it quite this way. It must be part of the explanation for her uniqueness. It was the dark obverse of the kindliness everyone who knew her speaks about.
I was surprised to see her quite manly dancing considering that era but that became the reason why I liked it. Her not petite physique, bold presence, moves that were seen as "men's" are what makes her powerful and distinguished. I didn't know that she had been a real idealistic person who believed in hard practising rather than having chain relationships with "significant" men. An actual person to admire.
@@meyay5757 She was her own choreographer and the main arbiter of all the details of her routines, from set design to editing. So she had little time to fool around, even if she had been less strict in her morals.
do you know which park in NY the studio tried to recreate here? It seems to be Central Park, obviously, but I'ld like to know who the statue at the end of the video represents. Lovely video and gorgeous Porter's standard. Thanks!
It was Central Park. Reginald Gardiner, in his US movie debut, plays the cop patrolling it who imitates Leopold Stokowski, the conductor: one of those oddball novelty interludes musicals loved. Eleanor Powell is shown waiting for her date till after midnight. Wouldn't be advisable these days.
what was the na me of the movie where james stewsard goes to a new town , attends a soiree and, at the end of the evening, the people sing a song together, almost as if it was a national anthem. i am blowed if i can recall them ovie but i think it was made inthe late thirties. thank you for your time.
It's 2021 and I still find the Hays Office an extremely offensive institution. Guess it really is true about: IF YOU SPOT IT YOU GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Broadway Classics And the funniest part was that they really should have dubbed Stewart with a professional singer. Loved Jimmy Stewart as an actor, and the bomber pilot in WW2, but his voice just wasn't very good (and was too high).
@@carolgriffith5386 A track was prepped by a professional baritone, Jack Owens, but Cole Porter begged that Stewart should sing it as a tenor (more or less). Porter himself would unabashedly perform such songs as 'Let's Do It' in a weak but amusing voice. He was no purist about his material.
Completely illogical that they didn’t like a reference to sleeping together but were fine with talking about having 2, 3, 4, 5 kids. How exactly is that going to happen?
What's the big deal, why should anyone be surprised> That's the way the Production Code worked. We know that people, even married people, couldn't be shown in the same bed.
I agree, it sounds like an innocent comment but back then it was a big no no. You have to understand the history of movies and the culture back then to see why it would be considered such a scandalous line, enough to get it censored. To me it's just a line, back then it was an implication of sex.
I can't for the life of me, find anything censorable unless it's a reference to breakfast....OMG but then people then read all sorts of interesting things into lyrics, didn't they?
The picture was shot in 1936, just after Joe Breen and his Catholic bluenoses at the Hays Office started cracking down big time. Porter came to Tinseltown with a reputation for sophisticated, risque lyrics, so there was a Code Red out for him. What made New York cabaret and theater patrons snicker wasn't going to get to Peoria if Breen had anything to do with it.
Boy weren't those censors idiots then. Did they think sex wasn't part of every day life to try and keep it off the screens. Singing about sharing an egg and bacon breakfast had to be censored. Pathetic.
James Stewart singing is just beautiful it makes me cry every time his voice is like an angel
Awwww, Jimmy!! I always have and always will LOVE everything he does!! Thank you, Lost Vocals, for this!!
Ugh this man should’ve done more musicals 😭
I love James Stewart he is so beautiful and has a sensational voice and he looks stunning
It's remarkable to realize that this was once the popular culture. In its own way, it encouraged thoughtfulness and literacy. The "star chemistry" here is lovely, he faux shy and awkward and she so, so beautiful and ardent. It's schmaltzy, but only in the best sense. And the sublime tunefulness of Porter's melody, the subtle sexuality of the lyrics--with or without the censored one!
I quite like his singing as the song is so beautiful it overcomes all.
Cole Porter baffled the MGM music dept by insisting that Stewart not be dubbed. Afterwards he contradicted Jimmy's observation that the song was too good even for him to ruin it by saying that he had done as well as any pro vocalist could.
A lot of people in sound's early days, including the musically snobbish Mr Mayer, failed to grasp that singing in musical films is about acting out the lyrics, not standing on a concert stage doing the Caruso or Melba thing.
Aided by close-ups, editing and naturalistic surroundings, there is less need to 'project'- indeed, it can be counter-productive. Some Broadway wows proved too strong for the screen, such as Mary Martin or Ethel Merman. Reedy voices with intelligent phrasing could sell a lyric in movies more insinuatingly; Porter's pal Fred Astaire furnished the classic precedent, converting 'Night and Day' from a stage showstopper to a movie hit.
Stewart here and Robert Taylor in 'Broadway Melody of 1936' were speak-singers, like Rex Harrison later, and more than adequate in the dramatic situation. Mayer, the operetta buff, should have made the connection with recitative.
He didn’t sing that often, but his voice had a special quality. Not great, or stellar, but very natural, true to his character, and personally.
Jimmy Stewart--one of the most talented actors ever--adorable as well!
More talented than Robert Deniro?
@@trhansen3244 Hah, far more talented!
Wonderful to hear Jimmy singing!
Jimmy and Ellie were two of the most decent people to become movie stars, and perhaps a little of their quality comes through in this tender, quiet moment.
I don't think I've ever heard Jimmy Stewart's singing voice. Thanks for posting. Interesting trivia. Such shocking lyrics! ;)
Why trivia?
The line might have got through had it not been by Porter, who was renowned for trying to slip innuendos into his songs to entertain his sophisticated pals. Moreover, MGM was more censorious than, say, Paramount or Warner. Mayer hated 'filth'.
Another track from this film, 'Love Me, Love My Pekinese' by Virginia Bruce, is naughty too.
@@esmeephillips5888 I got a chuckle out of a story told by a performer about Cole Porter's naughty lyrics. He wrote "Let's Misbehave" for a show but the backers insisted it was too suggestive and demanded it be removed. What did he replace it with? "Birds do it, Bees do it..." He used Let's Misbehave in another show later on.
Which lyric was censored?
He's got a beautiful voice.
Great trivia. I wasn't aware of the censorship, but having heard this version I recall having heard the "eggs and bacon" lyric elsewhere. Scandalous!
He sounds like a Disney prince😍
Roma it is me,silly
He does
Maybe Disney princes were meant to sound like him.
Amazing actor , an American war hero and a go for it singer!
Watching this scene right now on TCM Born To Dance 1936 for the first time. Love James Stewart. Never knew he sang
I still wanna marry James, he was such a stud. 😍
Yeah, me too!
In fact, I'd like to marry both of them!
'Tis said that Ginger Rogers, ahem, broke that stud in.
Me too. What a handsome man. Dreamy.
He’s my all time favorite actor.
In all me born days I never dared to imagine James Stewart singing. And when I found out he did, I was sure it must have sounded terrible. But I take it all back after hearing this. Thanks for posting! Ya learn somthin' new every day. :)
He also sings in "Pot O' Gold"
@@nunyabizness3777 Oh, that's cool! I believe he also sang in "Night Passage", was it? One of his westerns.
@@oldhatcinema I don't remember him singing in "Night Passage," but he plays the accordion in it. I've read, though, that while Jimmy played the accordion in real life, his playing in that movie was overdubbed. Alas! (MInd you, he could've sung in "Night Passage"; but I don't remember him having done so...)
@@nunyabizness3777 Now that's too bad! If he played in real life (another fascinating fact I did not know!) I wonder why they dubbed it. I could definitely be wrong about the movie. I just know it was one of his westerns. The song was "You Can't Get Far Without a Railroad".
@@oldhatcinema Ohhhhh yeah! I remember that now, yes! Oh, and he also sang in "The Philadelphia Story" -- when he was drunkenly carrying Hepburn, he sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
When Eleanor (dubbed) sings 'Try to see/Your future with me', Jimmy nods in agreement.
In the last shot of the film, they have reconciled and are in a clinch after her first-night triumph. Now he sings that line... and she nods.
The best musicals are full of little touches like that, and are worth re-viewing regularly to catch them.
I had a CD of a tribute to Cole Porter and Jimmy Stewart was so funny--he said he approached Cole Porter and said, some of these notes are really high, can you change them?!
Stewart actually sings for the second and last time in his career. According to one Stewart biographer, Jimmy hated this movie more than any other he made, possibly because of his lack of chemistry with the lead actress, but fans have embraced the film as a lot of fun, noting that Jimmy's voice isn't half bad. - Google about Pot O' Gold (1941) on the topic of Jimmy Stewart's singing in the film
Oh, what a beautiful song! I love it!
You're a saint to post this!
When Jimmy sings the naughty line, Ellie does her characteristic, silent hunched-shoulders laugh.
He didn't sing the line to her - it was changed before filming.
I'm dense what's the naughty line?
@@susanbinzer3395'So sweet to waken with', implying that might not be with benefit of clergy...
Thanks to the uploader for the great detail!!! I've never heard the original words!
You're welcome - I love these back stories!
The censoring of those lines back in the day,ironic with what we see now.We've gone over the edge....
There’s no excuse for censorship, especially when the lyrics are good, but..... ‘So worth the yearning for, So swell to keep ev’ry homefire burning for’ just sounds better poeticly in this song. To my ears, that is : )
It is, but the censored lyric gives the song a bit of pizzazz, which is wonderful in a song so lyrical!
LOVELY MEMORIES.. I LOVE THIS..
Thank you so much..
Hi Lost Vocals! Just subscribed on the strength of your name! Can’t wait to listen to these “lost vocals” ( That we’re a part of my childhood)
Great! Lots of cool clips already on the channel - check them out.
I first heard this in about 67 & fell in love with it instantly
I guess the line "So sweet to waken with....eggs and bacon" etc...suggests he's gonna sleep with her...and then have breakfast in the morning!! Not in keeping with sex after marriage..!!
Danny
Born to Dance was one of the first stereophonic film soundtracks. Rhino Records has the original 2 channel mixes in their soundtrack re-issue, which I assume is how you got the 2 channel version here.
+Sidney Frederickson It was recorded in multichannel sound, as were all MGM musicals of the time. They were all mixed down to mono for theatrical release, however. No one heard this in stereo until the 1990s.
I think I prefer the uncensored version.
This couldn’t be better!
If Eleanor Powell is singing for herself she's doing a mighty good job!
If you read the note with the clip, it says she is not. She was dubbed in all her films, except for one song.
Majorie Lane(1912-2012) was doing voiceover for Eleanor Powell
She could out dance everybody
There is a poignancy about this scene that few would have appreciated without inside info or foreknowledge of the players' fates. Jimmy Stewart was shy and a late developer sexually, and Eleanor Powell a resolute non-developer before marriage. He was smitten by her, and his faltering fear that she would prioritise career over marriage in the opening dialogue was heartfelt. She did so, for another seven years: the Virgin Queen of Taps.
Stewart had a platonic, unrequited romance with Margaret Sullavan and several flings, but did not marry until he was middle-aged- to a divorcee with a ready-made family. It is hard not to infer that both he and Powell had low sex drives, with a gift for friendship to compensate.
Another prophetic moment in 'Born to Dance' comes when Nora Paige, the ambitious hoofer, is bigged up by Una Merkel at the club before going into her 'Rap, Tap on Wood' number. Merkel says sotto voce to Ellie: 'OK, toots, you're on your own.' And how true that was. Ellie was to be a soloist sans pareil: on her own in talent, like no other in her self-crafted persona and unattached to men in her private life, when every cute young thing in Tinseltown was expected to have a beau in tow.
As always, one asks how deliberate these echoes of the reality behind the story are. Did the writers seed their scripts with knowing references, or was it the force of the stars' distinctive personalities that shaped fictional parallels?
Plots of Golden Age musicals are so bound up with the backstage lives and challenges of the dancers and singers who portrayed aspirants to fame that one's head spins at the genre's reflexivity. No more so than with Powell, whose Hollywood stint can be read as one long flirtation with and teasing of the audience. For so private a person to mock and mesmerize her public so insistently implies an almost sadistic relationship: the psychic counterpart of her colossal power-projection in dance that made the bosses nervous about her 'mannishness'.
I can think of no dramatic actress, comedienne or singer who played it quite this way. It must be part of the explanation for her uniqueness. It was the dark obverse of the kindliness everyone who knew her speaks about.
@Jameson Serono
You are very welcome, sir.
I was surprised to see her quite manly dancing considering that era but that became the reason why I liked it. Her not petite physique, bold presence, moves that were seen as "men's" are what makes her powerful and distinguished. I didn't know that she had been a real idealistic person who believed in hard practising rather than having chain relationships with "significant" men. An actual person to admire.
@@meyay5757 She was her own choreographer and the main arbiter of all the details of her routines, from set design to editing. So she had little time to fool around, even if she had been less strict in her morals.
Extraordinarily well observed!
Jim at his limit of his range .songs in E.P. key .band sound is the best ,they crushed it
Actually, not in Eleanor Powell's key since she was dubbed by Marjorie Lane.
I'd love to see a breakdown of the elements you used to put this together. The orchestra sounds pristine. Was it an original track from the vault?
The stereo comes from the Rhino CD for this film. The censored line was from a mono take included on that same CD.
Well! I never! The nerve of him to even imply that they'd spend the night together and have a breakfast of bacon and eggs. How crude!
I am thoroughly scandalized by this!
Absolutely, to the tower and off with their heads.
@@beaubarri Almost as bad as a glimpse of a chorine's navel.
NWA, Eminem and Kanye had to lie down in a darkened room.
The lyric. "You'd be so grand at the game, so happy and carefree". Write me a better lyric, I dare you.
Great lyric, but it's actually: "We'd be so grand at the game, so carefree together..."
Must be every mans dream to get Eleanor Powell in a park,after dark,well mine anyway!.
do you know which park in NY the studio tried to recreate here? It seems to be Central Park, obviously, but I'ld like to know who the statue at the end of the video represents. Lovely video and gorgeous Porter's standard. Thanks!
I'm thinking it's the Alexander Hamilton statue on the west side of East Drive, behind the Metropolitan. That or the Morse Memorial at 72nd and Fifth.
It was Central Park. Reginald Gardiner, in his US movie debut, plays the cop patrolling it who imitates Leopold Stokowski, the conductor: one of those oddball novelty interludes musicals loved.
Eleanor Powell is shown waiting for her date till after midnight. Wouldn't be advisable these days.
How can you remove vocals in left channel?Tell me please!Thank you!
This was the only musical Jimmy ever made. After listening to him here I can see why, lol! God bless him.
Oh no, he's beautiful here.
'Ice Follies of 1939' was a kind of musical (with skates) but he did not sing, unlike his co-stars, Joan Crawford and Lew Ayres.
what was the na me of the movie where james stewsard goes to a new town , attends a soiree and, at the end of the evening, the people sing a song together, almost as if it was a national anthem. i am blowed if i can recall them ovie but i think it was made inthe late thirties.
thank you for your time.
JOSEPH McBLOGGS are you talking about Its A Wonderful Life??
It's 2021 and I still find the Hays Office an extremely offensive institution. Guess it really is true about: IF YOU SPOT IT YOU GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They dubbed it...and her..with themselves actually. They recorded it earlier and then sang it. So it was them.
Brenda Kent No. This is Jimmy Stewart's voice, but not Eleanor Powell's. She was dubbed by Marjorie Lane.
Broadway Classics And the funniest part was that they really should have dubbed Stewart with a professional singer. Loved Jimmy Stewart as an actor, and the bomber pilot in WW2, but his voice just wasn't very good (and was too high).
Carol Griffith I rather like his voice. He's no Sinatra, but this sound more realistic than if it was dubbed by a pro
@@carolgriffith5386 A track was prepped by a professional baritone, Jack Owens, but Cole Porter begged that Stewart should sing it as a tenor (more or less). Porter himself would unabashedly perform such songs as 'Let's Do It' in a weak but amusing voice. He was no purist about his material.
Thanks for posting! Where did you find this uncensored version?
It was released on CD.
Completely illogical that they didn’t like a reference to sleeping together but were fine with talking about having 2, 3, 4, 5 kids. How exactly is that going to happen?
For some reason, they felt the censored line referenced sleeping together before marriage. Dirty minds....
Actually, Ellie had a very respectable singing voice, but she was no soprano.
What's the big deal, why should anyone be surprised> That's the way the Production Code worked. We know that people, even married people, couldn't be shown in the same bed.
It was censored because it implied the obvious: waking up in the same bed with her, meaning they had sex.
I agree, it sounds like an innocent comment but back then it was a big no no. You have to understand the history of movies and the culture back then to see why it would be considered such a scandalous line, enough to get it censored. To me it's just a line, back then it was an implication of sex.
I can't for the life of me, find anything censorable unless it's a reference to breakfast....OMG but then people then read all sorts of interesting things into lyrics, didn't they?
The picture was shot in 1936, just after Joe Breen and his Catholic bluenoses at the Hays Office started cracking down big time.
Porter came to Tinseltown with a reputation for sophisticated, risque lyrics, so there was a Code Red out for him. What made New York cabaret and theater patrons snicker wasn't going to get to Peoria if Breen had anything to do with it.
"So nice to waken with... have eggs and bacon with" obviously implies that they were sleeping together.
A part of the song
Not in the released film.
...but it wasn't offensive to say to kiss my wife when you see her?
Boy weren't those censors idiots then. Did they think sex wasn't part of every day life to try and keep it off the screens. Singing about sharing an egg and bacon breakfast had to be censored. Pathetic.
That may be but I'd trade 2022 for THOSE days , ANY DAY !
IMHO for this situation in the movie, his voice sounds too effeminate