Related Directory Categories
- Roberta (8)
- Flack, Roberta (3)
- Roberta Williams Anthology, The (3)
- Education (3)
- K-12 (3)
- Bondar, Roberta (2)
- Beta, Roberta (1)
- Jawerbaum, Roberta (1)
- Business and Economy (1)
- Financial Services (1)
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Roberta
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Roberta | |
|---|---|
 Roberta movie poster |
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| Directed by | William A. Seiter |
| Produced by | Pandro S. Berman |
| Written by | Jerome Kern Otto Harbach (musical Roberta) Alice Duer Miller (novel Gowns by Roberta) |
| Starring | Irene Dunne Fred Astaire Ginger Rogers Randolph Scott |
| Music by | Max Steiner Jerome Kern |
| Cinematography | Edward Cronjager |
| Editing by | William Hamilton |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
| Release date(s) | March 8, 1935 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 106 min |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Roberta was a 1933 Broadway musical, with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Otto Harbach, which starred Tamara Drasin (billed as Tamara), Bob Hope, George Murphy, Lyda Roberti, Fred MacMurray, Fay Templeton, Ray Middleton (billed as Raymond E. Middleton), and Sydney Greenstreet. Hope, Murphy, MacMurray and Greenstreet were not yet the Hollywood stars they would soon be, and Middleton was not the Broadway leading man he would become after Annie Get Your Gun. The musical was based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller.
The play was made into a film in 1935 by RKO starring Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and what some probably feel is a miscast, non-singing Randolph Scott in Middleton's role. The play notably features the famed songs Yesterdays, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, You're Devastating, and The Touch of Your Hand. The 1935 film version omitted The Touch of Your Hand (sung by a minor character), and You're Devastating (originally Middleton's big song in the show), but added the Kern songs I Won't Dance and Lovely to Look At, which became so popular that they are now always included in revivals and recordings of Roberta.
In 1952, MGM remade Roberta under the title Lovely to Look At. This remake also included the additional songs written for the 1935 film. It starred Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Red Skelton, Ann Miller, and Zsa Zsa Gabor and was made in Technicolor.
Roberta is the only Fred Astaire - Ginger Rogers film to ever be remade. In the 1952 version, their roles were theoretically taken by Marge Champion and Gower Champion. However, the plot and characters of the 1952 film bore no resemblance at all to those in the original show or the 1935 movie.
The show was also presented on television in a highly adapted, modernized 1969 NBC color telecast. This production was presented by Bob Hope, who reprised his original stage role, inserting many new, then-topical jokes about current events. Others in the cast included Michele Lee, John Davidson (entertainer), and Janis Paige (who sang I Won't Dance with a male chorus).
| Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers |
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Flying Down to Rio (1933) • The Gay Divorcee (1934) • Roberta (1935) • Top Hat (1935) • Follow the Fleet (1936) • Swing Time (1936) • Shall We Dance (1937) • Carefree (1938) • The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) • The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) |
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