{"id":133,"date":"2016-05-12T18:33:43","date_gmt":"2016-05-12T18:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/performerstuff.wpengine.com\/?p=133"},"modified":"2020-03-21T03:08:53","modified_gmt":"2020-03-21T03:08:53","slug":"theatre-in-film-42nd-street-1933","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/theatre-in-film-42nd-street-1933\/","title":{"rendered":"Theatre in Film: 42nd Street (1933)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-one-full fusion-layout-column fusion-column-last fusion-spacing-yes\" style=\"margin-top:;margin-bottom:;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper\"><div align=\"center\"><div class=\"imageframe-align-center\"><span class=\"fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-1 hover-type-none\"> <img alt=\"\" class=\"img-responsive\"\/><\/span><\/div><\/div><h3>Theatre in Film:\u00a0<em>42nd Street<\/em> (1933)<\/h3>\n<hr><font size=\"2\" color=\"grey\"><span style=\"border:1px solid ;-webkit-border-radius:50%;-moz-border-radius:50%;border-radius:50%;-moz-box-shadow: 0 0 3px rgba(0,0,0,.3);-webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 3px rgba(0,0,0,.3);box-shadow: 0 0 3px rgba(0,0,0,.3);margin-right:25px;float:left;\" class=\"fusion-imageframe imageframe-glow imageframe-2 hover-type-none\"><a class=\"fusion-no-lightbox\" href=\"http:\/\/performerstuff.com\" target=\"_self\"> <img src=\"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/12710766_10205760398984857_7629319873256247331_o-e1459537652369.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"img-responsive\" style=\"-webkit-border-radius:50%;-moz-border-radius:50%;border-radius:50%;\"\/><\/a><\/span><p>Written by Ashleigh Gardner<\/p>\n<p>May 10, 2016<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/font>\r\n<br>\r\n<div style=\"margin-left:36pt;text-align:left\"><p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve been in love with theatre for my entire life, but it wasn\u2019t until a few years ago that I began to truly appreciate film as its own art form. This series features films that display theatre and the lives of actors, directors, writers, and dancers who inhabit the stage.\u00a0So if you\u2019re itching to watch a film that knows <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">your <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">life in theatre, check out <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i>42nd Street, <\/i>our first film, featured below.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-one-full fusion-layout-column fusion-column-last fusion-spacing-yes\" style=\"margin-top:;margin-bottom:;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper\"><br><h4><em>42nd Street<\/em>\u00a0(1933)<\/h4>\n<div class=\"fusion-video fusion-youtube\" style=\"max-width:600px;max-height:350px;\"><div class=\"video-shortcode\"><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/f2OaJv0NBB8?wmode=transparent&autoplay=0\" width=\"600\" height=\"350\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><br><p><b>Directors: <\/b>Lloyd Bacon and\u00a0Busby Berkeley<br \/>\n<strong>Starring:<\/strong>\u00a0Warner Baxter,\u00a0Ruby Keeler,\u00a0Dick Powell, and\u00a0Ginger Rogers<\/p>\n<br><h4>What happens:<\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the depth of the Great Depression in 1933, Pennsylvania native, Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler), goes to New York and auditions for a new Broadway musical, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pretty Lady<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. She is taken under the wing of two well-known chorus girls; she\u2019s also fawned over by two men &#8212; the show\u2019s ingenue lead and a vaudeville actor who is secretly dating the show\u2019s female lead, Dorothy Brock (Bebe Daniels). Peggy must fill in for Dorothy on opening night after a series of mishaps, and Peggy finds her place in the spotlight after weeks of doubting herself.<\/span><\/p>\n<br><h4>Why it matters:<\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An essential thing to know about this film is the year in which it was released &#8212; 1933. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">42nd Street <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is a Pre-Code film &#8212; it was released before the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Motion_Picture_Production_Code\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><u>Motion Picture Production Code<\/u><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (or the \u201cHays Code\u201d). Adopted in 1930, but not strictly enforced until 1934, the Code greatly restricted what could and could not appear in film, specifically explicit or implicit references to sexuality, infidelity, questionable morals, drugs, violence, miscegenation, or political dissonance (to name a few). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">42nd Street <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">breaks the first four (drugs in respect to alcohol); the movie was brazen compared to the films that came after it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When the girls, including Peggy, must stand in a line-up for the director Julian Marsh (Warner Baxter) to make cuts, the girls must lift their skirts high above their knees to their upper thigh; right before Peggy\u2019s first entrance during the opening night performance, a kick-line of dancers is shot from below, revealing the underwear of the chorus girls; in a later scene onstage, the camera moves beneath and between the legs of the chorus dancers, showing the inside of over a dozen women\u2019s legs. These kind of scenes and shots were not uncommon before 1933, but after the Code began being enforced, they ceased altogether. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">42nd Street <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">features many aspects of theatre that make our industry what it is: embarrassing casting calls where we&#8217;re judged based on physical appearance, long rehearsals with tired directors, complicated relationships (and love triangles) among castmates, and emergencies that require us to fill in at, literally, the last minute.<\/span><\/p>\n<br><p style=\"text-align: left;\">This film is featured in Part I of &#8220;Theatre in Film&#8221;.\u00a0See below for the others in Part I.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/?p=342\"><strong><em><u>Stage Door<\/u><\/em>\u00a0(1937)<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/?p=343\"><strong><em>Les Enfants du Paradis<\/em> (<em>Children of Paradise<\/em>) (1945)<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/?p=346\"><strong><em>All About Eve<\/em> (1950)<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/theatre-in-film-limelight-1952\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><em>Limelight<\/em> (1952)<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">*Banner image from\u00a0<em>42nd Street.\u00a0<\/em>Copyright\u00a0\u00a9 1933 Warner Bros. Pictures.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><hr \/>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><strong>Ashleigh Gardner<\/strong>\u00a0received her AA in Theatre\/Drama\/Dramatic Arts\u00a0from Valencia College and\u00a0her Bachelors Degree in English Literature and\u00a0Masters Degree in Literary, Cultural, and Textual Studies from\u00a0the University of Central Florida. She is a playwright and an actor.\u00a0<\/em><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [...]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[259,265],"tags":[83,318,8,308,319,82,80,10,81,14],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}