10. The birth of the Hollywood musical in 1929
Beginning in the 1930s and continuing to the present day, the Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, known the world over as MGM, has been synonymous with the musical motion picture, with lavish song and dance numbers, often adapted from a Broadway production of the same name. The first, which enjoyed a success which led to the production of others, was directed by Harry Beaumont, who could be called the father of movie musicals. It was called, with somewhat little inspiration, The Broadway Melody, and it contained a Technicolor sequence as part of the original release, long since lost. It was the first sound film to win the coveted Best Picture of the Year award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, not yet known as the Oscar.
Although Beaumont never managed to replicate his triumph, he continued to make musicals for several years for MGM and other studios. Musicals became a form of film which were considered a matter of taste, though several won the Best Picture award in the years since. Among them were West Side Story; The Sound of Music; My Fair Lady; Oliver!; and Going My Way, which featured Bing Crosby, who had once polished his acting chops in silence for Mack Sennett. Animated musicals have been presented as well, some clearly targeted at juveniles with others meant for a wider distribution among audiences. Harry Beaumont is not as widely known as Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, or Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, but he was the first, with the backing of MGM, to unleash a musical production in a Hollywood film, creating an entirely new entertainment genre in 1929.