The Harvey Girls

Infobox Film
name = The Harvey Girls


caption = theatrical poster
director = George Sidney
Robert Alton (musical number)
producer = Arthur Freed
writer = Samuel Hopkins Adams (novel)
Film story:
Eleanore Griffin
William Rankin
Screenplay:
Edmund Beloin
Nathaniel Curtis
Harry Crane
James O'Hanlon
Samson Raphaelson
Additional dialogue:
Kay Van Riper
starring = Judy Garland
John Hodiak
Angela Lansbury
Virginia O'Brien
Ray Bolger
Marjorie Main.
music = Harry Warren (music)
Johnny Mercer (lyrics)
Lennie Hayton (score)
cinematography = George J. Folsey
editing = Albert Akst
distributor = MGM
released = 18 January 1946
runtime = 102 min.
country = USA
language = English
budget = $2.5 million (est.)
gross = $5.2 million
amg_id =
imdb_id = 038589

"The Harvey Girls" is a fy|1946 MGM musical film based on a 1942 novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams about Fred Harvey's famous Harvey House restaurants. Directed by George Sidney, the film stars Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Angela Lansbury, Virginia O'Brien, Ray Bolger, and Marjorie Main. It won an Academy Award for Best Song for "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe", written by Johnny Mercer and Harry Warren. The film was a product of the Arthur Freed unit at MGM.

Plot

A group of "Harvey Girls", new waitresses for Fred Harvey's pioneering chain of Harvey House restaurants, travels on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad to the western town of Sandrock. On the trip, they meet Susan Bradley (Judy Garland) who is traveling to the same town to marry the man whose beautiful letters she received when she answered a "lonely hearts" ad. Unfortunately, when she gets there, the man turns out to be an "old coot" who doesn't match up at all to her expectations – but he also doesn't want to get married as much as she doesn't want to marry him, so they agree to call it off. When she learns that the letters were written as a joke by someone else, the owner of the local saloon, Ned Trent (John Hodiak), she confronts him and tells him off, in the process endearing herself to him.

Susan joins the Harvey Girls, and is soon their leader in fighting against the attempts by Trent's business partner, Judge Sam Purvis (Preston Foster) to scare them off, and the animosity of the dance hall girls/prostitutes, lead by Em (Angela Lansbury), who is in love with Trent and sees Susan as a rival. Trent comes to see the value of the Harvey House and other trappings of civilization, and tells Purvis to leave them alone, but Purvis continues with his campaign of intimidation, finally burning down the restaurant. Trent offers his saloon as a replacement, and Em and the dance hall girls leave town. Susan, thinking that Trent is leaving too, gets on the train, but Em, seeing that Susan loves Trent so much she's willing to give up everything for him, stops the train and points out Trent riding towards them on his horse. The film ends with their wedding in the desert, surrounded by the Harvey Girls.

Cast

*Judy Garland as "Susan Bradley"
*John Hodiak as "Ned Trent"
*Ray Bolger as "Chris Maule"
*Angela Lansbury as "Em"
*Preston Foster as "Judge Sam Purvis"
*Virginia O'Brien as "Alma"
*Kenny Baker as "Terry O'Halloran"
*Marjorie Main as "Sonora Cassidy"
*Chill Wills as "H.H. Hartsey"
*Selena Royle as "Miss Bliss"
*Cyd Charisse as "Deborah"
*Ruth Brady as "Ethel"
*Jack Lambert as "Marty Peters"
*Edward Earle as "Jed Adams"
*Morris Ankrum as "Rev. Claggett"
*Stephen McNally as "Goldust" McClean"
*Virginia Rees as "Singing voice for Angela Lansbury"
*Marion Doenges as "Singing voice for Cyd Charisse"

;Cast notes
* This was the first speaking role on film for Cyd Charisse.
* Byron Harvey Jr., the grandson of Fred Harvey who was at the time of filming the president of the Fred Harvey Company, had an uncredited role as a train conductor.

Production

"The Harvey Girls" was originally conceived by MGM as a dramatic vehicle for Lana Turner, but Roger Edens of the Arthur Freed unit decided after seeing the musical "Oklahoma" that the story should be reworked as MGM's western musical with Judy Garland as its star. Unfortunately, Garland wanted to work with Fred Astaire on "Yolanda and the Thief", which was being directed by her husband at the time, Vincente Minelli, and was not interested in the part. Edens managed to convince her that the part in "Yolanda" wasn't big enough for her, and promised that "Harvey Girls" would be specifically created to showcase her talents.Frank Miller [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=777&category=Articles "The Harvey Girls" (TCM article)] ]

Ann Sothern and Lucille Ball was supposed to have parts in the film at one point, and Edward Arnold was scheduled to play Judge Purvis.TCM [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=777&category=Notes Notes] ]

"The Harvey Girls" filmed from 12 January through 4 June fy|1945, [IMDB [http://imdb.com/title/tt0038589/business Business data] ] a rather long production period. Studio filming was at MGM's Culver City studios, and location shooting took place at the Iverson Ranch in Victorville and Chatsworth near L.A., in Las Vegas, New Mexico at the Castaneda Harvey House (a National and State Historic Landmark of New Mexico), and in Monument Valley. [IMDB [http://imdb.com/title/tt0038589/locations Filming locations] ]

Although Angela Lansbury is a fine singer in her own right, her voice was considered unsuitable for the character she played, a low-down saloon singer, and as a result all of her singing in the film was dubbed by Virginia Rees. Cyd Charisse, who had her first speaking role in the film, also had her singing dubbed, by Marion Doenges. [TCM [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=777&category=Trivia Trivia] ]

Virginia O'Brien, a comic actress known for her deadpan style of singing, was pregnant at the time "The Harvey Girls" was filmed, and as a result some of her scripted scenes with Ray Bolger were never filmed, because her condition was becoming difficult to hide, while others that were filmed were cut from the final print. This accounts for O'Brien's and Bolger's characters more or less disappearing from the film after O'Brien sings "Wild Wild West". Bolger was burnt by steam during the filming of "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Sante Fe".

"The Harvey Girls" had its American release on 18 January 1946.

Production Credits

*Art Direction - William Ferrari & Cedric Gibbons
*Set Decoration - Mildred Griffiths & Edwin B. Willis
*Costume Design - Irene Gibbons, Helen Rose, Valles
*Makeup Artist - Dorothy Ponedel
*Production Manager - Dave Friedman
*Assistant Director - George Rhein
*Sound Director - Douglas Shearer
*Special Effects - Warren Newcombe
*Choreographer - Robert Alton
*Musical director - Lennie Hayton
*Orchestrator- Conrad Salinger

ongs

The songs in "The Harvey Girls" were all written by Harry Warren (music) and Johnny Mercer:

*"In the Valley (Where the Evening Sun Goes Down)"
*"Wait and See"
*"On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe"
*"Oh, You Kid"
*"It's a Great Big World"
*"Swing Your Partner Round and Round"
*"The Wild, Wild West"
*"The Train Must Be Fed"

By far the biggest hit from the score of "The Harvey Girls" was "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe". MGM released the song to record companies even before shooting was finished on the film, and it became an instant hit dominating the airwaves through the summer and fall of fy|1945, with versions by Bing Crosby with Six Hits and a Miss, Judy Garland and the Merry Macs, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra with the Sentimentalists, and, the most popular, Johnny Mercer and the Pied Pipers. [Mercer's version entered the "Billboard" charts on 5 July 1945, and stayed on it for 16 weeks, including seven straight weeks as #1 between 28 July and 8 September. Crosby's entered the charts on 19 July and stayed ten weeks, going as high as #4, while Dorsey's came on on 2 August and stayed for six weeks, peaking at #6. Garland's hit the "Billboard" #10 position on 20 September. The song was also number 1 on "Your Hit Parade" for eight weeks running.

In shooting the number for the film, Garland reportedly did the entire song up to the tempo change in one take, twice.

Cut from the film were three other songs written by Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer for it: "March of the Doagies," "Hayride" and "My Intuition." "Doagies" was a production number featuring Judy Garland, and "My Intuition" was a duet for Garland and John Hodiak. Both of those number were filmed, while "Hayride", a duet for Garland and Ray Bolger was prerecorded but not filmed.]

Awards

"On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer. In addition, Lennie Hayton's score was nominated for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture, but did not win.

Notes

External links

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* [http://www.thejudyroom.com/discography/soundtracks/harveylp.html The Judy Garland Online Discography "The Harvey Girls" pages.]