Orem Library

An assortment of MGM theatrical shorts spanning two decades and showcasing big bands, classic comedians and vaudeville greats.

Rare musical performances: Django Reinhardt with Stéphane Grapelli and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France in Jazz hot (1939), Duke Ellington and the Cotton Club Orchestra featured in Black and tan (1929), Louis Armstrong in Copenhagen, 1934, and a 1929 performance from the Utica Jubilee Singers.

A collection of popular dance and song numbers from the Golden Age of the MGM musicals including scenes and numbers cut from their original films.

Offers an alphabetical survey of the most popular film musicals in history, with commentaries, synopses, behind-the-scenes information, and lists of songs and cast members for each film.

One of Hollywood's earliest -- and most peculiar -- musicals, The Great Gabbo stars von Stroheim as an egotistical ventriloquist who casts a Svengali-like spell upon an ingenue (Betty Compson), against a backdrop of singularly strange numbers (including "Icky" and the spider-and-fly-themed "Caught in a Web"). Director James Cruze (The Covered Wagon) allowed von Stroheim to endow the character with his signature flourishes, resulting in a wicked cocktail...

Eleven films designed to influence, including a vintage promotional film of a French-dubbed Laurel & Hardy, theatrical advertisements featuring Michel Simon and Jacques Tati, a 1938 George Pal puppet animation, three WW-II era musical shorts, two political campaign films, and the National Film registry selection Master Hands, a paean to the 1936 Chevrolet automobile.

St. Louis 1903. The well-off Smith family has four beautiful daughters, including Esther and little Tootie. Seventeen-year-old Esther has fallen in love with the boy next door who has just moved in. He, however, barely notices her at first. The family is shocked when Mr. Smith reveals that he has been transfered to a nice position in New York, which means that the family has to leave St. Louis and the St. Louis Fair.

An intoxicating blend of wartime romance and brightly colored musical, the film depicts an original world "where Bresson meets the Beatles" (Variety).