ADOLPH GREEN

Adolph Green was born in New York City in 1914. In the late 1930s he met Betty Comden, and they formed a decades long partnership (in business only) that resulted in the creation of some of the best loved movie and Broadway musicals, and which "brought back" movie musicals after the War, and made MGM the leader in making those musicals. The 1930s movie musicals were led by those made at Warner Brothers by Busby Berkeley. But in the dark days of World War II musicals became far less popular. In 1947, after several years on Broadway, Comden and Green wrote the screenplay for Good News, the cheerful collegiate musical starring June Allyson and Peter Lawford. Two years later they did the screen adaptation of On the Town, the classic story of three sailors on leave in New York, starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin, Ann Miller, Vera-Ellen, and Betty Garrett. Comden and Green had done this as a play on Broadway, but the movie version had almost entirely different songs, except for "New York, New York". Three Years later they made the classic Singin' In the Rain, starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds, considered by many to be the finest movie musical ever. Comden and Green spent the rest of their careers alternating between movies, Broadway, and TV, which included adding some songs to the classic 1954 TV adaptation of Peter Pan, starring Mary Martin. He passed away in 2002 at the age of 87.