50 Fun Facts About Easter Parade Movie

Easter Parade missed Easter 1948 and finally opened in which season?

Summer. Recasting and other delays meant the Easter musical was not ready for the holiday, and it reached cinemas more than three months late.

Which director, then married to Judy Garland, was removed from Easter Parade days into rehearsals?

Vincente Minnelli was replaced on the advice of Garland's psychiatrist, who felt the couple should not work together again so soon after their last film had strained the marriage.

Who directed Easter Parade?

Charles Walters, a former dancer, thought the script made its hero a heel, and a new writer was brought in to lighten it.

Who produced Easter Parade for MGM?

Arthur Freed began as a lyricist: he wrote the words to 'Singin' in the Rain', sung in a 1929 film revue, more than twenty years before he produced the musical named after it.

Who wrote the songs in Easter Parade?

Irving Berlin first offered the idea to 20th Century-Fox, which balked at his price; MGM paid him $600,000 for his songs, his name and his story advice.

Which star was cast opposite Judy Garland in Easter Parade but broke his ankle before filming?

Gene Kelly told MGM he had been hurt in rehearsal, and only later admitted that he broke the ankle playing ball.

Which business did Fred Astaire launch during the retirement Easter Parade ended?

A chain of dance studios opened under his name in 1947. Before saying yes to the film, he phoned the injured star he was replacing to check that he didn't mind.

In Easter Parade, Don and Hannah work their way up through which kind of theatre?

Vaudeville is where the pair flop with a feathered ballroom routine, then click once Don builds comic numbers around Hannah instead.

On stage, Judy Garland often reprised Easter Parade's tramp duet, then sang which song still in the costume?

Over the Rainbow became her quiet finale from her 1951 run at New York's Palace Theatre, sung sitting at the edge of the stage in the tramp outfit.

Which crooner was announced for Easter Parade's cast in 1947 but never appeared in the film?

Frank Sinatra was named in early casting reports along with Kathryn Grayson and Red Skelton, but all three parts had vanished by the time filming began.

In Easter Parade, what is the name of Ann Miller's character, who leaves Don to go solo?

Nadine Hale signs a solo contract without telling Don, then pulls him into one of their old dances on the night his new act triumphs.

Ann Miller took over her Easter Parade role from which dancer, sidelined by a leg injury?

Cyd Charisse had to give up the part, and waited five years to become Astaire's leading lady, in The Band Wagon.

Judy Garland's tuxedo jacket, first worn in a number cut from Easter Parade, became famous in which song?

Get Happy was added to Summer Stock after Garland had finished her other scenes: she came back to film it in the half-tuxedo from the deleted number.

In Easter Parade, what is Hannah's job when Don picks her as his new partner?

A chorus dancer in a restaurant floor show: Don, drowning his sorrows at the bar, picks her at random to prove he can replace his old partner with anyone.

In Easter Parade, what problem does Hannah reveal at her first rehearsal with Don?

Left-right confusion: Hannah can't tell one leg from the other at rehearsal, and Don's attempt to restyle her as an elegant ballroom dancer ends in a fiasco.

In Easter Parade, what exotic stage name does Don first give Hannah?

Juanita comes with a wardrobe to match, but at the act's first show her feathered gown moults all over Don and the routine falls apart.

In Easter Parade, under what billing do Don and his new partner finally become a hit?

Hannah & Hewes is the billing they adopt once Don stops styling her as a copy of his old partner and builds the act around her own talents.

In Easter Parade, for which famous Broadway revue do Don and Hannah audition?

The Ziegfeld Follies wants the pair, but Don turns the offer down when he learns that his former partner is the show's star.

In Easter Parade, which live animal is among the anonymous gifts sent to Don?

A bunny in a top hat comes with flowers and a chocolate egg: Hannah is wooing Don with the kind of Easter presents he once showered on his old partner.

On which New York street do Don and Hannah stroll at the end of Easter Parade?

Fifth Avenue was a set: MGM built about two blocks of the street on its backlot for the film's parade scenes.

Which Easter Parade screenwriter later became a bestselling thriller novelist?

Sidney Sheldon came to thrillers late: he won an Oscar for a comedy script the year this film came out, and created I Dream of Jeannie before his first novel.

Which Academy Award did Easter Parade win?

Best Original Music Score, in the category then called Scoring of a Musical Picture, went to Johnny Green and Roger Edens for their scoring, not to the man who wrote the songs.

Easter Parade's first writers, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, had recently co-written which Christmas classic?

It's a Wonderful Life was less than a year old, yet MGM still had the married team's finished Easter Parade script reworked by another writer.

Which Judy Garland solo was filmed for Easter Parade but cut before release?

Mr. Monotony became a serial casualty: its songwriter tried it again in the stage shows Miss Liberty and Call Me Madam, and it was dropped from both.

Which camera effect lets Fred Astaire dance out of time with the chorus behind him in Easter Parade?

Slow motion, matched to a chorus singing and dancing at normal speed, was billed by MGM as a first, even though the number is meant to be live on a theatre stage.

Jules Munshin, the head waiter in Easter Parade, played one of three sailors on leave in which 1949 musical?

On the Town came a year after his film debut in Easter Parade, where his big moment is tossing an elaborate salad entirely in mime.

Which song is Ann Miller's big solo tap number in Easter Parade?

Shakin' the Blues Away was her showcase in her first MGM film, which began an eight-year run in the studio's musicals for her, including Kiss Me Kate.

In which Easter Parade number do Fred Astaire and Judy Garland perform dressed as tramps?

A Couple of Swells was turned out in about an hour, after the producer rejected the gentle walking song first written for the spot.

The moulting feather gown in Easter Parade spoofs a dress Fred Astaire's partner wore dancing to which 1935 song?

Cheek to Cheek, in Top Hat, is the target: his partner's ostrich feathers kept flying off into his face as they danced, which infuriated Astaire on set.

Which number does Fred Astaire perform in a toy shop early in Easter Parade?

Drum Crazy has him playing every drum in the shop to distract a small boy from the toy they both want, so that he can walk off with it.

Which Easter Parade song do Peter Lawford and Judy Garland sing together?

A Fella with an Umbrella has Johnny sheltering Hannah on her way to rehearsal; he later confesses that he fell in love with her during that rainstorm.

Which number does Fred Astaire perform with a chorus to open his own show in Easter Parade?

Steppin' Out with My Baby found a second life in 1993, when Tony Bennett's video of it won MTV airplay; he called it a bona fide hit.

Which US state does Judy Garland's character long to go back to in an Easter Parade song?

Michigan is the farm home she pines for, and the song is a small anachronism: the story is set around 1912, but the tune dates from 1914.

Which accessory does Easter Parade's title song celebrate?

A bonnet is the star of the lyric: the real New York parade behind the song began as a stroll after church to show off new spring outfits and hats.

Easter Parade's producer learned the job as an associate producer on which 1939 Judy Garland film?

The Wizard of Oz was his apprenticeship: once it was finished, MGM gave the former songwriter his own unit, which went on to make Easter Parade.

Which 1933 Broadway revue introduced the song 'Easter Parade'?

As Thousands Cheer gave new Easter words to a tune from 1917, a wartime cheer-up number called 'Smile and Show Your Dimple'.

Who sang 'Easter Parade' in the 1942 film Holiday Inn, six years before Judy Garland and Fred Astaire?

Bing Crosby sang it in a film about an inn that opens only on holidays, with a song for each one; Fred Astaire co-starred, but the Easter song was Crosby's.

Easter Parade's director made his feature debut with which college musical, released months earlier?

Good News starred Peter Lawford as a college football hero, and director and actor were reunited within months on Easter Parade.

Who replaced Judy Garland opposite Fred Astaire in The Barkleys of Broadway, planned as their Easter Parade follow-up?

Ginger Rogers had not made a film with him for ten years; the reunion became the pair's last picture together and their only one in colour.

Judy Garland was meant to rejoin Fred Astaire in which 1951 musical, where he dances on the ceiling?

Royal Wedding cast her to replace a pregnant June Allyson, but she missed days through illness, the part passed to Jane Powell, and MGM released her from her contract.

Ann Miller of Easter Parade made her last film appearance in which 2001 David Lynch mystery?

Mulholland Drive brought the old tap star back to the big screen after decades away, as Coco, a landlady with an air of vintage Hollywood glamour.

With which film veteran did Ann Miller star in the Broadway hit Sugar Babies from 1979?

Mickey Rooney shared the bill in the burlesque revue that at last made her the star: in films, she said, she had always been the brassy showgirl, never the lead.

Peter Lawford, Johnny in Easter Parade, later married into which famous political family?

The Kennedys became his in-laws in 1954, when he married Patricia; her brother John won the presidency six years later, making the actor brother-in-law to a president.

In which city was Easter Parade's Peter Lawford born?

London was his birthplace; at 14 he put an arm through a glass door, and the injury that kept him out of the war left him free to fill Hollywood's shortage of young actors.

Easter Parade was shot in which colour film process?

Technicolor shows off every costume, including one that misbehaved: the red dye in a feather on Garland's hat ran down her face until the plume was coated in Vaseline.

Fred Astaire retired after which 1946 musical, before Easter Parade?

Blue Skies was to be his farewell, but he later said he had meant only a mental retirement, a rest from the strain of inventing new dance ideas.

Jimmie Dodd, a cab driver in Easter Parade, became the grown-up host of which 1950s children's TV show?

The Mickey Mouse Club made him its master of ceremonies, 'Mousegetar' in hand, and he wrote the show's famous theme march himself.

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

That's Entertainment! III was built from outtakes and unfinished numbers out of the MGM vaults, and one of its hosts was Easter Parade's own Ann Miller.

Easter Parade was meant to reunite which 1948 musical's team?

The Pirate was still unfinished when Easter Parade began, so Garland shuttled between the two for weeks, shooting retakes for one while rehearsing and filming the other.

Easter Parade's leading man earned an Oscar nomination in his seventies for which 1974 disaster film?

The Towering Inferno brought the great dancer a supporting-actor nomination for a straight dramatic part; his only Oscar had been an honorary one for his musicals.