Music for Millions
Encyclopedia
Music for Millions is a 1944 musical comedy film
directed by Henry Koster
. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1946.
), age 6, arrives in New York to stay with her sister Barbara Ainsworth (June Allyson
), who lived together with a group of girls, her co-players in a symphony orchestra. As the orchestra prepares to go on a tour of army camps, a telegram is received informing them of the death of Barbara's soldier husband. The girls decide to keep it from her until after her baby is born.
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
directed by Henry Koster
Henry Koster
Henry Koster was born Hermann Kosterlitz in Berlin, Germany. He became a film director and later moved to Hollywood. Koster's father, a salesman, left home when Henry was a young man...
. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1946.
Plot
"Mike" (Margaret O'BrienMargaret O'Brien
Margaret O'Brien is an American film and stage actress. Although her film career as a leading character was brief, she was one of the most popular child actors in cinema history...
), age 6, arrives in New York to stay with her sister Barbara Ainsworth (June Allyson
June Allyson
June Allyson was an American film and television actress, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was a major MGM contract star. Allyson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Too Young to Kiss . From 1959–1961, she hosted and occasionally starred in her own CBS anthology...
), who lived together with a group of girls, her co-players in a symphony orchestra. As the orchestra prepares to go on a tour of army camps, a telegram is received informing them of the death of Barbara's soldier husband. The girls decide to keep it from her until after her baby is born.
Cast
- Margaret O'BrienMargaret O'BrienMargaret O'Brien is an American film and stage actress. Although her film career as a leading character was brief, she was one of the most popular child actors in cinema history...
as Mike - José IturbiJosé IturbiJosé Iturbi was a Spanish conductor, harpsichordist and pianist. He appeared in several Hollywood films of the 1940s, notably playing himself in the 1943 musical, Thousands Cheer and in the 1945 film, Anchors Aweigh...
as Himself - Jimmy DuranteJimmy DuranteJames Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...
as Andrews - June AllysonJune AllysonJune Allyson was an American film and television actress, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was a major MGM contract star. Allyson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Too Young to Kiss . From 1959–1961, she hosted and occasionally starred in her own CBS anthology...
as Barbara Ainsworth - Marsha HuntMarsha Hunt (actress)Marsha Hunt is an American film, theater, and television actress who was blacklisted by Hollywood movie studio executives in the 1950s.-Career:...
as Rosalind - Hugh HerbertHugh HerbertHugh Herbert was a motion picture comedian. He began his career in vaudeville, and wrote more than 150 plays and sketches.-Career:...
as Uncle Ferdinand - Harry Davenport as Doctor
- Marie WilsonMarie Wilson (American actress)Katherine Elisabeth Wilson , better known by her stage name, Marie Wilson, was an American radio, film, and television actress. She may be best remembered as the title character in My Friend Irma.-Career:...
as Marie - Larry AdlerLarry AdlerLawrence "Larry" Cecil Adler was an American musician, widely acknowledged as one of the world's most skilled harmonica players. Composers such as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Darius Milhaud and Arthur Benjamin composed works for him...
as Larry - Ben LessyBen LessyBen Lessy was an American television and film actor. He was born in New York, New York, United States.-Career:Lessy appeared in 32 films and television programs between 1951 and 1981...
as Kickebush - Connie GilchristConnie GilchristConnie Gilchrist was a stage, film and television character actress.Born Rose Constance Gilchrist in Brooklyn, New York...
as Travelers Aid Woman - Katharine Balfour as Elsa
- Helen Gilbert as Helen
- Mary ParkerMary ParkerFor other articles about people named Mary Parker, see Mary Parker Mary Parker of Andover, Mass., was executed September 22, 1692, with several others, for witchcraft in the Salem witch trials. She was 55 years old and a widow. Mary's husband, Nathan, died in 1685...
as Anita - Madeleine LebeauMadeleine LeBeauMadeleine LeBeau is a French actress.-Early life:...
as Jane - Ethel GriffiesEthel GriffiesEthel Griffies was an English actress of stage, screen, and television....
as Mrs. McGuff - Eddie Jackson as Singer
- Jack Roth as Drummer
Soundtrack
- Clair de LunSuite bergamasqueThe Suite bergamasque is one of the most famous piano suites by Claude Debussy. Debussy commenced the suite in 1890 at age 28, but he did not finish or publish it until 1905.-History:...
- Music by Claude DebussyClaude DebussyClaude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
- Performed by Larry AdlerLarry AdlerLawrence "Larry" Cecil Adler was an American musician, widely acknowledged as one of the world's most skilled harmonica players. Composers such as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Darius Milhaud and Arthur Benjamin composed works for him...
on harmonica - Also performed by José IturbiJosé IturbiJosé Iturbi was a Spanish conductor, harpsichordist and pianist. He appeared in several Hollywood films of the 1940s, notably playing himself in the 1943 musical, Thousands Cheer and in the 1945 film, Anchors Aweigh...
on piano
- Music by Claude Debussy
- Symphony No. 5 in E Minor (The New World): 4th movement
- Music by Antonín DvorákAntonín DvorákAntonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
- Conducted by José Iturbi
- Music by Antonín Dvorák
- Piano Concerto in A MinorPiano Concerto (Grieg)The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, composed by Edvard Grieg in 1868, was the only concerto Grieg completed. It is one of his most popular works and among the most popular of all piano concerti.-Structure :The concerto is in three movements:...
- Music by Edvard GriegEdvard GriegEdvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
- Performed by José Iturbi
- Music by Edvard Grieg
- The March of the Toys
- from Babes in Toyland
- Music by Victor HerbertVictor HerbertVictor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...
- Waltz in E MinorWaltz in E minor (Chopin)The Waltz in E minor is a waltz for solo piano by Frédéric Chopin. It was composed circa 1830 and published in 1868.It was the first of Chopin's posthumously published waltzes not to be given a posthumous opus number. It appears in Brown's catalogue as B.56, in Kobylańska's catalogue as KK IVa/15,...
- Music by Frédéric ChopinFrédéric ChopinFrédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
- Performed by José Iturbi
- Music by Frédéric Chopin
- Hallelujah Chorus
- from The Messiah
- Music by Georg Friedrich Händel
- Toscanini, Iturbi and Me
- Written by Harold SpinaHarold SpinaHarold Spina was an American composer of popular songs. His best-known work happened in the early 1930s, when he collaborated with lyricists Johnny Burke and Joe Young on songs such as "Annie Doesn't Live Here Anymore", "You're Not the Only Oyster in the Stew", "My Very Good Friend the Milkman" ,...
, Walter Bullock and Jimmy DuranteJimmy DuranteJames Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...
- Written by Harold Spina
- At Sundown
- Written by Walter DonaldsonWalter DonaldsonWalter Donaldson was a prolific United States popular songwriter, composing many hit songs of the 1910s and 1920s.-History:...
- Written by Walter Donaldson
- Umbriago
- Written by Jimmy Durante and Irving Caesar
- Jam Session
- Music by Calvin JacksonCalvin JacksonCalvin Jackson was an American jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader....
- Music by Calvin Jackson