Fifty Million Frenchmen is a musical comedy written by Cole Porter and produced by Warner Bros. President Harry Warner[1] on Broadway in 1929. It was made into a movie which debuted in 1931.
The title is a reference to a hit song of 1927, "Fifty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong", by Willie Raskin, Billy Rose, and Fred Fisher. The lyrics of this humorous song compared free attitudes in 1920s Paris with the censorship and prohibition in the United States.
Songs in the show
The show's best known songs include I'm Unlucky at Gambling, You Don't Know Paree, You Do Something to Me, Find me a Primitive Man and The Tale of the Oyster. While not as well known as Porter's later musicals, the show does offer witty numbers and memorable lyrics.
Synopsis
The musical's plot is consistent with the standard boy-meets-girl plots of musical comedies of the first half of the twentieth century. The musical's plot concerns Peter Forbes, a young American millionaire who journeys to Paris and bets his friend Billy Baxter that he can live without his money for a month, and in doing so, get engaged with Looloo Caroll, a woman whom he adores. In the process of trying to woo Looloo penniless, he endures lots of humiliation as a gigolo, a magician and a tour guide.
The Broadway show
Fifty Million Frenchmen opened a month after the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The show opened with William Gaxton as Peter and Susan Owen as Looloo. The show received rave reviews and ran for seven months.
Hollywood film versions
Fifty Million Frenchmen was made into a movie in 1931 by Warner Brothers, directed by Lloyd Bacon and filmed entirely in Technicolor. The cast included Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson, William Gaxton, Helen Broderick, John Halliday, Claudia Dell, Lester Crawford, and Evalyn Knapp. Oddly enough, the songs were omitted from the 1931 film, because the public had temporarily grown tired of musicals.
In 1934, a two-reeler entitled Paree, Paree was made from the musical, and this version did bring back several of its songs. It starred a singing Bob Hope in the William Gaxton role.
Later productions
The show was restored in 1991 by Tommy Krasker and Evan Halile for a concert production at the 14th Street Y in New York.
In 2002 the show was presented, by the Discovering Lost Musicals charitable Trust in a concert production at The Royal Opera House's Linbury Stduio Theatre, in London.
APPLAUSE! Musicals Society is presenting a concert production February 13-16, 2008 at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby, British Columbia. director: Scott Ashton Swan
References
- ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 148.
External links
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