The Broadway Melody is an early musical motion picture, released on 1 February, 1929.
1929 magazine ad
The plot involves the romances of musical comedy stars. Anita Page and Bessie Love play sisters on Broadway both wooing the same man, played by Charles King. Love was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role. The film was written by Norman Houston and James Gleason from a story by Edmund Goulding and directed by Harry Beaumont. The film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Original music for the film was written by Arthur Freed & Nacio Herb Brown. The George M. Cohan classic "Give My Regards To Broadway" was also given it's talkie debut in the film.
A silent film version was also released, for there were still many motion picture theaters without sound equiptment at the time. For showings in big-city theaters, some prints had sections in two-strip Technicolor.
The film was quite successful at the time, and is often considered the first complete example of the Hollywood musical. It was the top grossing picture of 1929, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture for that year.
The movie was so popular, that two more movies with similar titles, Broadway Melody of 1938 and Broadway Melody of 1940, were released. The movie was also remade in 1940 as Two Girls on Broadway.
