50 Fun Facts About Easter Parade Movie

In what year was the film Easter Parade released?

It opened on June 30 and premiered in New York on July 8, becoming the year's top-grossing musical.

Which studio made Easter Parade?

It was the second-highest grossing MGM musical of the 1940s, behind only Meet Me in St. Louis.

Who directed Easter Parade?

It was only Walters's second feature as director; the former Broadway dancer had made his debut with Good News months earlier.

Who produced Easter Parade for MGM?

Freed's unit made most of MGM's great musicals, from Meet Me in St. Louis to Singin' in the Rain.

Who wrote the songs in Easter Parade?

All sixteen musical numbers are his, mixing old catalogue tunes with new ones written for the film.

Which actor was originally cast opposite Judy Garland but broke his ankle before filming?

He was replaced by Fred Astaire, who had announced his retirement two years earlier and was coaxed back.

How long had Fred Astaire been retired from films when he was offered Easter Parade?

He would go on to 'retire' several more times over the following decade while making classic musicals.

What is the name of Fred Astaire's character?

Hewes is a Broadway hoofer whose partner walks out on him at the top of the film.

What is the name of Judy Garland's character?

Don plucks her out of a restaurant floor show to prove he can make anyone a star.

Peter Lawford plays Don's best friend. What is the character's full name?

Frank Sinatra was considered for the role before it went to Lawford.

What is the name of the dance partner, played by Ann Miller, who walks out on Don for a solo career?

The role was Ann Miller's major MGM debut after years at RKO and Columbia.

Ann Miller replaced which dancer, who withdrew after tearing ligaments in her knee?

Charisse would get her Astaire pairing five years later in The Band Wagon.

In what year is Easter Parade set?

The period setting was the reason one number was cut as too risqué.

At which restaurant does Don drown his sorrows and first spot Hannah?

Mike the bartender there, played by Clinton Sundberg, later hears Hannah's own woes.

What dancing handicap does Hannah suffer from when Don starts training her?

Don's first attempt to remake her in Nadine's image flops, so he lets her be herself.

What exotic stage name does Don initially give Hannah?

He buys her a new wardrobe to match, and the act bombs.

Under what name does the duo finally become a hit?

The billing puts her name first, a sign of how far Don's ego has come.

For which famous show do Don and Hannah audition, running into Nadine there?

Don turns the Follies down rather than share a bill with his ex-partner.

What live animal arrives among the anonymous gifts sent to Don near the end?

Flowers and a chocolate egg come with it, echoing the Easter presents Don bought at the start.

On which street do Don and Hannah walk in the closing Easter parade?

He slips a diamond ring onto her left hand as they stroll.

Which Easter Parade screenwriter later became a bestselling thriller novelist?

The trio won the Writers Guild award for Best Written American Musical for the script.

Which Academy Award did Easter Parade win?

Johnny Green and Roger Edens collected the Oscar for the scoring.

What was Easter Parade's approximate worldwide box office?

It cost about $2.66 million and was the highest-grossing musical of 1948.

Which Judy Garland number was cut from the film for being too risqué for its period setting?

She sang it in a tuxedo jacket, fedora and black nylons; audiences finally saw it in That's Entertainment! III in 1994.

Why can Easter Parade's musical numbers never be remixed into stereo?

Only a monaural composite track survives, the same fate that befell White Christmas six years later.

Who plays François, the maître d'hôtel?

Munshin went on to be the third sailor with Kelly and Sinatra in On the Town the next year.

Which of these is Ann Miller's big solo tap number?

Studio publicists claimed she could tap 500 times a minute.

In which number do Astaire and Garland appear dressed as tramps?

Garland kept it in her stage act for the rest of her life.

Which song had the composer originally written for the tramp scene before being asked for something funnier?

The replacement was reportedly written in about an hour, and became one of the film's most loved numbers.

Which number does Astaire perform in a toy shop early in the film?

He dances his way into stealing a toy bunny from a little boy.

Which song do Peter Lawford and Judy Garland perform together in the rain?

It is Lawford's only real singing spot in the film.

Which song, later a Tony Bennett standard, does Astaire perform with a chorus and dancers?

Bennett's 1993 version got a video onto MTV, and his later duet with Christina Aguilera was Grammy-nominated.

Which US state does Judy Garland sing about wanting to go back to?

'I Want to Go Back to Michigan' is one of the older Berlin catalogue songs revived for the film.

In what year was the song 'Easter Parade' first published?

It was a rewrite of a 1917 tune, 'Smile and Show Your Dimple', with new Easter lyrics.

The melody of 'Easter Parade' was recycled from which earlier Berlin song?

The 1917 original was a 'cheer up' song for a girl whose man had gone off to World War I.

Which Broadway revue introduced the song 'Easter Parade'?

Marilyn Miller and Clifton Webb sang it first.

Who sang 'Easter Parade' on film in Holiday Inn six years before Garland and Astaire?

Holiday Inn was the same 1942 film that introduced 'White Christmas'.

The film's director made his directing debut with which musical, released just before Easter Parade?

He would earn his only Best Director Oscar nomination for Lili in 1953.

Astaire and Garland were meant to reunite in The Barkleys of Broadway. Who replaced Garland?

It became the tenth and last Astaire-Rogers film, and the only one in colour.

Why did Judy Garland drop out of The Barkleys of Broadway?

The film had gone into rehearsals under the working title You Made Me Love You before she left.

What was Ann Miller's birth name?

Her last screen role was in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive in 2001.

With whom did Ann Miller star in the Broadway hit Sugar Babies from 1979?

The burlesque tribute earned her a Tony nomination decades after her MGM heyday.

Peter Lawford later married into which famous political family?

He wed Patricia Kennedy in 1954 and became a Rat Pack fixture alongside Sinatra.

Where was Peter Lawford born?

The English-born actor became a naturalised American and one of MGM's busiest juveniles.

Which cable channel has traditionally aired Easter Parade on Easter Sunday?

The film first reached American television in the mid-1950s.

What is Easter Parade's running time?

Sixteen musical numbers are packed into that hour and three-quarters.

Which small-part actor from Easter Parade went on to lead TV's The Mickey Mouse Club?

Dodd wrote the Mickey Mouse March and hosted the show through the 1950s.

Which 1994 compilation film finally showed audiences the tuxedo number cut from the film?

Outtakes and alternate takes of the number were later added to the DVD.

What approval rating did Easter Parade hold on Rotten Tomatoes when it had 22 reviews?

Critics then and now praised the Astaire-Garland pairing above the thin plot.

Where did Easter Parade hold its premiere on July 8, 1948?

The film first aired on American television in the mid-1950s as MGM began exploiting its film library.