Tin Pan Alley | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Walter Lang |
Produced by | Kenneth Macgowan |
Written by | Pamela Harris (story) Robert Ellis Helen Logan |
Starring |
Alice Faye Betty Grable Jack Oakie John Payne |
Music by | Alfred Newman |
Cinematography | Leon Shamroy |
Edited by | Walter A. Thompson |
Distributed by | 20th-Century Fox |
Release date
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Running time
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94 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Tin Pan Alley is a 1940 musical film starring Alice Faye and Betty Grable as vaudeville singers/sisters and John Payne and Jack Oakie as songwriters in the years before World War I.
Alfred Newman received the 1940 Academy Award for his work on the film. This was his first of nine Oscars.
Before filming began, there was said to be a feud between Faye and Grable, although the two actresses had never met. On the first day of production, the actresses got along quickly and became lifelong friends. A similar incident was reported to have happened with Grable and Marilyn Monroe while filming How to Marry a Millionaire. Like the earlier incident, the two actresses got along and became friends.
Tyrone Power and Don Ameche were considered to play the leading roles in the film. Scheduling conflicts took them out of the running and the roles went to Payne and Oakie.
This film was featured in the M*A*S*H television series episode "Alcoholics Unanimous."
In the opening sequence many old songs can be heard, but once the title card comes on, it is "The Darktown Strutters Ball" that you hear, interwoven with "you say the sweetest things (baby)".
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: