Easter Parade: The Inside Story

Have you seen the movie about a famous celebrity named Don who gets back at his partner by plucking an up-and-coming young woman off the street and turning her into a star through a series of musical numbers, only for the two to fall in love in the proces?

No, I'm not talking about Singin' in the Rain, but Easter is this Sunday and a yearly tradition for classic film fans is watching the 1948 musical Easter Parade to ring in the holiday. Easter Parade is a fascinating film, because in some ways it feels like it was meant to be the prototype for Singin' in the Rain and if you think about what might have been, you realize we would have gotten a much different picture than the one we got. 

Easter Parade follows Don Hewes, a Broadway star who learns that his dance partner, Nadine, played by Ann Miller, is striking out on her own. So he chooses a young woman performing in a local bar to train and become his next partner. Her name is Hannah Brown, played by Judy Garland. 

This film was actually the brain child of Irving Berlin himself, who wanted a jukebox musical titled "Easter Parade" to be set around a bunch of his songs. Never mind that we'd already done this several years earlier with Holiday Inn and would go on to do it once more in 1954 with White Christmas AND There's No Business Like Show Business. In fact, there are, like, a dozen or more films all featuring the music of Irving Berlin. The man was the soundtrack of Old Hollywood.

Now, almost no main character is played by their original casting choice and it's kind of easy to tell. Gene Kelly was originally supposed to play Don, but he had broken his ankle while playing volleyball. Still, you can tell the character was written with Kelly in mind—Don is a brash, arrogant, and demanding drill sergeant of a teacher. Just ask Debbie Reynolds.

This film was meant to be a reunion for Kelly and Garland, since they'd been such a perfect match for the Pirate one year earlier, and For Me and My Gal in 1942. In fact, it was Kelly himself who suggested Astaire in the first place. He wound up calling Astaire later and asking him to come out of retirement to play the role, telling him, "Fred, you'll be doing me a favor, 'cause they think I'm a bum. Mayer thinks I broke my leg on purpose. Please do it!" And Astaire agreed, mainly because he'd wanted to work with Judy Garland again. Though some say the two didn't know each other prior to working on this film, they'd actually performed together during the war and had done some radio work together. 

To add to the Pirate-ness of Easter Parade, producer Arthur Freed asked Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett to write the script for this film after having saved the almost unfilmable version of the Pirate that had been written by Anita Loos and Joseph Than. Sidney Sheldon was brought on to lighten the tone.

Meanwhile, Cyd Charisse was meant to play Nadine, but she'd sustained injuries to her knees and had to bow out. Kelly and Charisse would reunite several years later in, you guessed it, Singin' in the Rain. Even the part of Jonathan Harrow III, played by Peter Lawford, was originally intended for fellow Rat Pack member Frank Sinatra.

And even the director's chair wasn't safe. Garland's husband, Vincent Minelli, was slated to direct the film originally, but her psychiatrist said it wouldn't be a good idea for the two to work together after their near disaster making the Pirate together, so Charles Walters was brought onboard.

But even with that change, the making of Easter Parade still faced a bit of drama. Ann Miller was in a back brace during most of her numbers after being thrown down the stairs by her husband while pregnant at the time. 

As for Garland, she'd only been released from a mental health facility in Massachusetts just before rehearsals for Easter Parade started. She'd tried taking her own life around the time the Pirate had wrapped in July of '47 and was in poorly condition, but she rallied during the filming of Easter Parade. She actually turned things around so much, she wound up doing reshoots for The Pirate while she was filming this picture. 

But unlike Summer Stock, which almost didn't get finished due to Garland's medical concerns, or Annie Get Your Gun, The Barkleys of Broadway, and Royal Wedding, three films in which she was replaced, Easter Parade was mostly a breeze to shoot. And speaking of Summer Stock, it's been rumored that a deleted number from Easter Parade was repurposed for Summer Stock. In actuality, the deleted number was called "Mr. Monotony" and it featured Garland clad in a black fedora and matching jacket. That look was used again in Summer Stock for a different number--"Get Happy," which has now become synonymous with the actress and her performance.

Now, before we wrap things up, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the incomparable Jules Munshin, who plays the waiter. His performance, pantomiming every delectable detail of the making of his restaurant's famous salad is my favorite part of the film. But this role was more than just Munshin's screen debut.

It was a screen TEST. This was something MGM did on occasion to gauge how the public would respond to certain actors and how they played alongside tried and true stars. Munshin's success in Easter Parade led to two more roles the following year alongside Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in On the Town and Take Me Out to the Ball Game. In fact, one actress who was given a screen test debut was none other than five year old Margaret O'Brien, who appeared in the 1941 musical Babes on Broadway--alongside Judy Garland. She'd go on to appear with her again in 1944's Meet Me in St. Louis.

Easter Parade was a huge hit for MGM and it earned an Oscar win for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture. It wound up beating out another movie musical--The Pirate, also produced by Arthur Freed for MGM and starring Judy Garland. If you'd like to watch it yourself this weekend, you can snag Easter Parade on Blu-ray on Amazon, or on Video on Demand. You can also stream it on YouTube for free with ads.