july 30 movie: Gold Diggers of 1933. Skipping ahead to tonight's movie, the delightful Gold Diggers of 1933. Coincidentally, a couple of weeks ago Kevin wrote into my show and requested Ginger Rogers singing "We're In the Money", which is the opening number in this movie, and I was crushed that I didn't have it on CD because it's such a fun number. Then TCM showed it a few days ago so I could record it and get the song for my show! Thanks TCM!
This was an early Busby Berkeley musical, with racy pre-code situations and dialogue. Here's an example:
"I look better in clothes than any of you. If Barney could see me in clothes --"
"He wouldn't recognize you."
The movie features incredible, deliriously strange numbers, like "Petting in the Park" (which I've written about before) and "The Forgotten Man." This time I'm including a clip of a quiet, sweet moment: Dick Powell serenading Ruby Keeler & accompanying himself on piano. Be sure to watch to the end, when Powell and Keeler blow kisses to each other. So adorable!
link if you don't get the right video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBkE6TOmMEU
I wasn't sure if Powell was really playing the piano in that clip, though it sure looks like it. While Googling to find out if he played piano, I discovered that he grew up in the same small town as my first boyfriend: Mountain View, Arkansas, population 2,876. Back then my boyfriend told me that no one famous had ever come from Mountain View except Grandpa from Hee-Haw. (Grandpa had a restaurant right down the road from the shop where my boyfriend's parents made mountain dulcimers.) How could he have neglected Dick Powell? Powell's childhood home is on Main Street, and I was right there in the late 80s! We went to the town square, I probably walked right past Powell's house. I wish I had known. Well, I didn't know who Dick Powell was back then, but don't confuse me with facts.
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