‘On The Town’, First Musical Shot On Location
Picture Parade #2…’On The Town’, First Musical Shot On Location
This 1949 film starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Betty Garrett was the first musical to be shot on location. Not all of it, but all of the outside scenes, were shot over a five day period in Manhattan.
It rained three of those days, but that was not the biggest problem. Both Sinatra and Kelly were at the peek of their fame and keeping fans away was the real problem. To help camouflage things, taxis and not limousines were used to get to locations, and the camera was hidden in a station wagon for street scenes. A broom handle was used as sound boom on the street.
When the movie debuted at Radio City Music Hall, the lines were the longest in the theater’s history. Oh… and Sinatra was so skinny, he had to wear butt pads to fill out the seat of his sailor suit. He tried very hard to keep this a secret, but word got out on the set and Gene Kelly teased him relentlessly. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
During the ‘New York, New York!’ number that starts the film, scenes were shot all over Rockefeller Plaza including the rooftop observation level on the 70th floor. This was a 3-strip Technicolor production (one of the last), so shooting with the giant Technicolor camera on the streets of NYC was a real challenge, not just because of the star power of Sinatra and Kelly.