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Produced for PBS's Great Performances series and narrated by New York cabaret favorite Michael Feinstein, The Great American Songbook overflows with standards, all culled from movies produced between the 1930s and the early post-WWII era. Paying homage to the pantheon of popular tunesmiths, the program offers full-song clips featuring such legendary performers as Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Al Jolson, Fanny Brice, Ethel Merman, Lena Horne, and Fred Astaire. All the great composers and lyricists are represented: George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, and others. A treasure trove surveying melodic gems from the Gilded Age to the heyday of Broadway and beyond, this is one songbook you'll open again and again.

All Movie Guide

Musician and historian Michael Feinstein is your host for this whirlwind look at the golden age of American popular song, from the '30s through the '50s. The Great American Songbook offers a look at the significant trends in music and the styles of the great tunesmiths of the day, as well as presents dozens of vintage film clips of such artists as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, and many more performances of the great songs celebrated in this film. Along the way, The Great American Songbook also chronicles the history of the American movie musical and how Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley learned to work together. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 085393738525
• Source: WARNER HOME VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
• Presentation: B&W
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Français, Español
• Time: 2:55:00
• Sales Rank: 13,649

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