“Happ'ly-Ever-Aftering”: Changing Social And
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“HAPP’LY-EVER-AFTERING”: CHANGING SOCIAL AND INDUSTRY CONVENTIONS IN HOLLYWOOD MUSICAL ADAPTATIONS, 1960-75 BY MEGAN BOLANDER WOLLER DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology with a concentration in Cinema Studies in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Gayle Sherwood Magee, Chair Professor Jeffrey Magee Associate Professor Christina Bashford Associate Professor Anustup Basu ABSTRACT This dissertation explores seven Hollywood adaptations of Broadway musicals from the 1960s and early seventies. Though generally considered beyond the “Golden Age” of film, this period produced some of the most enduring and well-loved film musicals of any decade. Furthermore, they can all be seen as products of their time. The 1960s were a highly volatile time in American history as well as within the film industry. Socio-cultural and political factors, such as the Cold War, feminism, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and the gay rights movement, all impacted American society and popular culture. Furthermore, the studio system continued to break down and with it the Hollywood Production Code. Towards the end of the decade, the so-called New Hollywood filmmakers introduced new ways of American filmmaking. Through seven case studies – West Side Story (1961), The Music Man (1962), Bye Bye Birdie (1963), The Sound of Music (1965), Camelot (1967), Paint Your Wagon (1969), and Cabaret (1972) – I place film adaptations of musicals in their socio-political and film industry situation by analyzing the changes made in the translation from stage to screen, delving into the possible reasons for the alterations. In every chapter, I discuss the approach to fidelity and use of cinematic techniques. Each of the chapters then focus on different issues: gender and ethnicity in West Side Story, regionalism and politics in The Music Man and Bye Bye Birdie, politics, feminism, and the folk revival in The Sound of Music, New Hollywood and the sexual revolution in Camelot and Paint Your Wagon, and discussion of Cabaret as an experimental, adult musical that can be seen as the culmination of the decade. An in-depth study of the musicals from the 1960s and early seventies provides a reassessment of the genre during this period as dynamic and very much in tune with the myriad changes. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Jill McAllister Award for excellence in opera studies, established in memory of Jill McAllister by her husband Stuart Levy, provided support for this project in 2010 and 2012. I would like to thank my advisor Gayle Magee for all of her support over the past six years and for guiding me from the beginning of my work on West Side Story through the completion of this project. It has been a fruitful and enjoyable journey, and I could not have done it without all of the advice and valuable feedback. Thanks also to my dissertation committee, Jeffrey Magee, Christina Bashford, and Anustup Basu, who offered insightful suggestions and perspectives that have strengthened this dissertation. It has been a joy! Many thanks to the participants of the Harvard-Princeton Musical Theater Forum in 2011 and 2012 for comments in the early stages of researching that helped shape my dissertation. Caryl Flinn generously read portions of my The Sound of Music chapter and offered suggestions for which I am immensely grateful. I would also like to acknowledge my friends and colleagues at the University of Illinois for listening to me talk about musicals all the time, and especially Steve Wilson and John Stanislawski for reading and providing comments on my work. Heartfelt gratitude to my family for endless love, encouragement, and a shared passion for music. A special thanks to my parents – my mom who instilled a love of film musicals in me from a very young age and my dad who unintentionally gave me the initial idea for the focus on the Midwest connection in The Music Man and Bye Bye Birdie chapter. Finally, I have so much love and gratitude for my husband, friend, and colleague Alex. He has become nearly as familiar with these films as me despite a decided distaste for the genre, discussed my ideas for what surely amounts to many hours, and first convinced me to think more seriously about Paint Your Wagon – to say that I couldn’t have done this without his love and support is an understatement. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………….. 1 CHAPTER 1: Seeds of Change: West Side Story (1961)...……………………………………. 30 CHAPTER 2: A Family Affair: The Music Man (1962) and Bye Bye Birdie (1963)………….. 91 CHAPTER 3: The Last Hurrah: The Sound of Music (1965)…………..…………..……….... 166 CHAPTER 4: The End of an Era? Camelot (1967) and Paint Your Wagon (1969)……......… 229 CHAPTER 5: All Hell Breaks Loose! Cabaret (1972)……………….……..…………….…. 291 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………...……………………..….. 349 APPENDIX A: Basic Film Information and Plot Synopses………....……………………….. 356 APPENDIX B: Stage to Screen Song Comparison……...………………………………….... 361 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………..…………………………………………………. 366 FILMS REFERENCED……………………..………………………………………… 384 iv INTRODUCTION While scholars tend to view the 1960s and later as beyond the “Golden Age” of film musicals, the decade produced a number of highly successful and socially relevant musical adaptations. From 1960 to the early 70s, no less than thirty-nine film musical adaptations were released. These film adaptations took Broadway, off-Broadway, and West End musicals as their sources. In this dissertation, I consider adaptations of Broadway musicals through seven case studies – West Side Story (1961), The Music Man (1962), Bye Bye Birdie (1963), The Sound of Music (1965), Camelot (1967), Paint Your Wagon (1969), and Cabaret (1972) – and investigate how film musicals embody the time period of their production and initial release in myriad ways. The end of the Hollywood Production Code is a key process and event that can be seen to define my chosen decade, both symbolically and in actual practice. The Code itself privileged those films that espouse family values and repressed any aspects deemed unsavory. The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) instituted the Production Code nicknamed the Hays Code for MPPDA President William H. Hays in 1930.1 The Code restricted the depiction of drug use, sex, and vulgar language on film.2 However, the MPPDA did not really put the Code into effect until four years after it was written. Pre-Code films, including musicals, allowed for a certain freedom in the depiction of violence and sexuality. This atmosphere allowed for more sexual freedom in musicals upon which a number of musical stars, such as Maurice Chevalier, based their early careers. In Love Me Tonight (1932) for instance, 1See Thomas Doherty, Hollywood’s Censor: Joseph I. Breen and The Production Code Administration (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007) for a detailed discussion of the Code Administration and its effects. 2A version of the Code can be found in John Belton, ed., Movies and Mass Culture (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996), 135-52. 1 Chevalier sings that “passion’s in my breast” and he would “like to have a little son of a Mimi bye and bye” to Princess Jeannette, whom he has just met.3 The Hollywood Production Code began to impact the content of films towards the mid- 1930s. Pressure from religious groups, specifically Catholic Church leaders, caused the Administration to enforce the Hays Code in 1934. Films made during this transitional period tend to feature a hybrid of bawdy humor and new toned-down allusions. Throughout the remainder of the thirties and forties, the head of the Production Code Administration, Joseph Breen, dictated what could and could not appear on film. In the 1950s, the Code Administration revised the restrictions in an effort to maintain some semblance of authority in the film industry, however. The Production Code still had some impact on the language and how sexual references could be made. By 1960, the Code began to lose hold, and was officially replaced by the MPAA ratings system in 1968.4 I argue that due to the effects of the end of the Code two trends emerged in film musicals: an adherence to Code ideals and an exploration of previously non-sanctioned themes and depictions. Film Musicals and Selection Process As musicals helped to define the film studios, it comes as no surprise that they also began to wane alongside classical Hollywood in the fifties and sixties. Yet a detailed study of the period reveals that the reality was much more complicated. Despite the decline in production, the musical remained a vibrant genre that continued to interface with societal issues and often resonate with audiences. Some of the factors that I explore in connection with the changing face of the film musical adaptation include changing demographics, the rise of television, the precepts 3Samuel Hoffenstein, Waldemar Young, and George Marion Jr., Love Me Tonight. DVD. Directed by Rouben Mamoulian (New York: Kino Video, 2003). 4Mark Wheeler, Hollywood Politics and Society (London: BFI Publishing, 2006), 63-4. 2 of New Hollywood cinema, and the increasing cultural importance of rock and pop music. As these factors became more prominent, the institution of Broadway no longer held the cultural sway it once had. And yet, incredibly successful Broadway adaptations, such as West Side Story (1961), My Fair Lady (1964), and The Sound of Music (1965) suggested for a time that the Hollywood musical was still thriving. These adaptations brought existing musicals to wider audiences. More importantly, they interacted with Broadway conventions, industry upheaval, and the socio-cultural moment in meaningful ways. Of course, the concept of genre and generic conventions experiences a crisis throughout the decade of the sixties and into the seventies.