The MGM Project

IT'S A GREAT LIFE Release date   December 6, 1929 History The Duncan Sisters started their career in 1911 as a famous vaudeville act before hitting it big on Broadway. They were best known for the show Topsy and Eva, a musical comedy based on the characters from Uncle Tom's Cabin. A silent film version was made in 1927, sparking interest in the Duncan Sisters beginning a film career. Their next screen collaboration would be this film,  It's a Great Life , loosely based on an MGM sound film released only 10 months prior,  The Broadway Melody . While Variety gave It's a Great Life a lukewarm review, calling it "good lightweight clowning and divertissement," the film unfortunately did not do as well at the box office as The Broadway Melody , and the film put an abrupt end to any other potential films for the Duncan Sisters. They would appear in the unfinished 1930 ensemble film The March of Time  among a few other film and TV appearances, but this was the only f...

  SO THIS IS COLLEGE Release Date November 8, 1929 History So This is College is  MGM's first college musical film, and would become a predecessor to films such as Good News . College culture was at a crux when this film was released. According to the US Census, in 1910, 37,200 bachelor degrees were awarded in the country. In 1930, by comparison, this number had more than tripled to 122,500 degrees. After the Great Depression hit in 1929, while the numbers would still continue to increase over the years, colleges faced great challenges in staying open with factors such as the economic situations for potential attendees and their families and the unavailability of grant money that previously kept higher education institutions running. So This is College  doesn't address any of these issues specifically as production started in March 1929, months before Black Thursday (October 24th) crashed the stock market. The film was released a few weeks after the crash, on November 8th...