Till the Clouds Roll By [1946]

Random Trivia For This Title:

• This film made national headlines in 1973 when it was announced that MGM had neglected to renew its copyright, resulting in the film entering public domain. Because of that, inferior VHS copies appeared a few years later when video became popular.
• The MGM Records soundtrack album made from this film, originally released on a 78-RPM album set, was the first soundtrack album ever made from a live-action film musical. Previously the only movie musical soundtrack released on records was that of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (the authentic soundtrack album of MGM's The Wizard of Oz, with the film cast, was not released until 1956).
• When MGM originally began planning this film, it asked ^[?] Jerome Kern what he thought about Robert Walker being cast. He said it sounded all right, but he wanted to hear his wife's opinion. He phoned her from the office and she told him to stay and play himself and send Walker home to her.
• When ^[?] Jerome Kern was told that MGM wanted to make a movie of his life he told them that, frankly, his life had been so boring they would have trouble making an interesting movie from it. In order to add some drama, the writers invented the Hesslers and especially the hunt for Sally Hessler. Additionally, the script had to be rewritten after ^[?] Jerome Kern died.
• Lena Horne was originally filmed singing both {Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man} and {Bill} in the Show Boat scene, but the studio eventually deleted {Bill}. Judy Garland sings two numbers in the film: {Look for the Silver Lining} and {Who?}. She also sang {Do You Love Me?} but it was cut before release. Her sequences were filmed by her then new husband, Vincente Minnelli.
• Judy Garland, who played real-life singer-dancer ^[?] Marilyn Miller, was pregnant with her first daughter, Liza Minnelli (with her then husband Vincente Minnelli). She was placed behind stacks of dishes while singing {Look For the Silver Lining}, but it was not to "hide her belly" as some have thought, because moments before her number, she is shown walking over to the set and even during her song as she is standing behind the dishes, her abdomen is not disguised.
• Lucille Bremer plays Sally, who is supposed to be many years younger than Robert Walker's character ^[?] Jerome Kern. The actress is actually more than a year older than he.
• Having become popular as a nightclub songstress, Angela Lansbury's singing voice had been bypassed in her two previous MGM films - dubbed by ^[?] Virginia Reece in The Harvey Girls, a sprightly Technicolor musical with Angela scampering through {Oh You Kid} (music by ^[?] Harry Warren, lyrics by Johnny Mercer); and dubbed by Doreen Tryden in The Hoodlum Saint, a downbeat drama which featured two vocalized evergreens: {If I Had You} (music and lyrics by ^[?] Ted Shapiro, ^[?] Jimmy Campbell and ^[?] Reginald Connelly) plus {How Am I to Know}? (music by ^[?] Jack King, lyrics by Dorothy Parker). At Miss Lansbury's insistence, producer ^[?] Arthur Freed, who already had overseen The Harvey Girls, allowed her, in this ^[?] Jerome Kern biopic, to use her own singing voice in the jaunty, set-on-swings production number, {How'd You Like to Spoon with Me?} (lyrics by ^[?] Edward Laska).
• Because of disagreements Robert Walker was having with his MGM bosses, they billed the rest of the cast first, and then "and Robert Walker as ^[?] Jerome Kern".
• ^[?] Irene Vernon's film debut.