42nd Street stars Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler head a musical salute to West Point in Flirtation Walk (1934).

Dick Powell plays an eccentric millionaire who hires a gold digger (Ruby Keeler) to run his business in the musical Colleen (1936).

Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell star in 42nd Street (1933) featuring the dazzling choreography of Busby Berkeley.

Ruby Keeler is already a star and British to boot in the Warner Brothers musical Ready, Willing and Able (1937).

Real-life husband and wife Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler star in the musical melodrama Go Into Your Dance (1935).

The quintessential backstage musical, 42nd Street traces the history of a Broadway musical comedy, from casting call to opening night. Warner Baxter plays famed director Julian Marsh, who despite failing health is determined to stage one last great production, Pretty Lady. Others involved include Pretty Lady star Dorothy Brock (Bebe Daniels); Dorothy's sugar daddy (Guy Kibbee), who finances the show; her true love Pat (George Brent); leading man Billy Lawlor (Dick Powell); and starry-eyed chorus girl Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler). It practically goes without saying that Dorothy twists her ankle the night before the premiere, forcing Julian Marsh is to put chorine Peggy into the lead: You're going out there a youngster, but you've got to come back a star! Delightfully corny, with hilarious wisecracking support from the likes of Ginger Rogers, Una Merkel, and George E. Stone, 42nd Street is perhaps the most famous of Warners' early-1930s Busby Berkeley musicals. Based on the novel by Bradford Ropes (which was a lo

The second talkie version of the Avery Hopwood's theatrical war-horse {~The Golddiggers of Broadway,} Gold Diggers of 1933 was the second of three back-to-back 1933 Warner Bros. musicals benefiting from the genius of Busby Berkeley. The basic plot is retained from the Hopwood play: Showgirls Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler and Aline McMahon attempt to find financial backing for the new show planned by producer Ned Sparks. Songwriter Dick Powell, an incognito man of wealth, offers to put up the money, a fact that brings down the wrath of his older brother Warren William, who despises show folk. Attempting to buy off the three girls, William is placed in a compromising position by the crafty Blondell and is compelled to bankroll the musical himself. The oddest aspect of Gold Diggers of 1933 is the fact that the mood of the songs is wildly at variance with the plot. The film begins with dozens of chorus girls (led by Ginger Rogers) happily chirping We're In the Money, a rehearsal number interrupted when the finance m

A look behind the scenes of the Dick Powell-Ruby Keeler musical Flirtation Walk (1934).