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Hollywood Loves the Piano

No other television program has ever featured
a cast of characters like this!

Presented at the keyboard playing the great works
of Broadway and the Classics are the likes of...

Did they really perform the fast-paced virtuosi favorites or romantic masterworks we will hear excerpts of in this documentary?

In most cases, No! We will see how Hollywood "faked" the many memorable piano performance scenes in its classic films, from Casablanca to The Seven Year Itch.

Narrated by Richard Dreyfuss, (or similar Hollywood figure associated with music) this is the story of Hollywood's love affair with the piano during the Golden Age of the movies.

Comprised of over 50 film clips from some of the most memorable and cherished films of all time, this documentary goes back to the period from 1925-1960 when Hollywood was influential in depicting American culture at its best.

We learn how the early Hollywood pioneers like Jack Warner, Louis B. Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn, and David O. Selznick incorporated their European culture, and their appreciation of the piano, pianists, and the classical music repertoire into the subject matter of their movies.

Films such as Casablanca, Rhapsody in Blue, The Seven Year Itch, Song of Love, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Camille, All About Eve,  Intermezzo, The Great Lie, Julie,  Deception, An American in Paris, Humoresque, The Unforgiven, Carnegie Hall, Anchors Aweigh, and animated classics like Rhapsody Rabbit starring Bugs Bunny, even horror movies like Peter Lorre's The Beast With Five Fingers all featured some of the great stars of Hollywood, and their instrumental co-star -- the piano.

With amusing Hollywood lore and anecdotal stories about these films and many others, the documentary illustrates how the performances of the stars were synchronized to the real piano performances by the many concert pianists that were lured to Hollywood to work behind-the-scenes on the Hollywood back lots and in the recording studios of the motion picture companies.