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The Dream Factory is a podcast about the sometimes magical, sometimes terrifying world of MGM studios during Hollywood's golden age. Join host Derek Lajeunesse and fellow movie fans as they reawaken the ghosts of MGM, deep diving into people and the films that defined an era of moviemaking.
14 Episodes
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Oh no, our last Harvey Girls episode! Will the straight-laced waitresses prevail or will the saloon girls dance away with the men of Sandrock? They have a big dancing party to fight it out! Conor Grant joins me one last time as we wrap up our analysis of the 1946 Judy Garland film. Our main goal is trying to piece together the heavily edited last act of this film, we had to be forensic experts for this! Plus we get the Dorothy and Scarecrow reunion we’ve always longed for (we missed them most...
Our latest episode exploring the MGM musical The Harvey Girls finally turns our attention to the other women in the cast: the deadpan and fabulous singer Virginia O’Brien and the gifted dancer soon to be MGM superstar Cyd Charisse. The movie is forging ahead and Conor and I are trying to keep up with the numerous characters and even more numerous cut scenes plus some cool filming locations! And we end with a fabulous fight scene between the good Harvey girls and the sassy saloon girls. Than...
In this episode of our breakdown of the MGM classic The Harvey Girls, I’m once again joined by Conor to sing the praises of some incredible women who contributed so much to this film. Plus we discuss what happens when “Judy gets the meat”! Musical arranger turned author Kay Thompson was a key member of the Freed unit at this time, adding the stylish sophistication to the unit that is unmistakably present in The Harvey Girls. The legendary Angela Lansbury played the villainous showgirl Em at j...
The Harvey Girls dissection continues as Conor and I discuss the scenes that follow the epic “On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe” musical number where our heroine Judy Garland meets her fiance via correspondence for the first time and realizes she’s been catfished! We also explore the lives of some of the film’s key character actors (Chill Wills!) and discuss the young upstart director of this movie, George Sidney. We also explore the climate of MGM in 1945 and the growing power of the musi...
If The Harvey Girls is remembered for anything it’s the incredible music number “On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe.” Conor and I discuss the entire 8.5 minute cinematic extravaganza in detail, highlighting the cast and musical geniuses behind the scenes who make this rousing, Oscar-winning moment come to life onscreen. The term “deep dive” was invented for episodes like this as we explore unsung performers like Dorothy Tuttle, Ben Carter, Eleanor Bailey, Dorothy Raye, all of whom hav...
Our deep dive into the 1946 MGM musical The Harvey Girls continues with the first few scenes of the film where we meet the bulk of the cast and the Harvey girls themselves! Hear about some of the actresses who filled these roles and the character building moments that ensue from matrimonial ads to saloon girls to chicken sandwiches. Conor Grant from the @thegarlandgab and I also discuss what it took to be an actual Harvey Girl in the 19th century and what brought some of these women out west ...
Thanks for listening to the Dream Factory! This week we’re finally entering into the film itself chatting about the main titles of The Harvey Girls as well as Judy’s first musical number “In the Valley” which she sings hanging off the back of a moving train! Conor (@gethappyconor from @thegarlandgab) and I love talking about our leading lady and her unparalleled voice and lipsyncing abilities. We also get into some of the more technical aspects of how main titles worked in the old Hollywood...
Welcome to the first episode of our breakdown of the 1946 film The Harvey Girls. Starring our favourite gal Judy Garland, this Technicolor fun-fest has everything we love about MGM musicals; great songs, colourful settings and wonderful performers. Set in the 1890s American west, a group of wholesome waitresses attempt to “settle” a wild frontier town with just the help of some steak, coffee and some singing and dancing! Conor Grant from The Garland Gab joins me for our initial thoughts and p...
In our second of two episodes discussing the amazing legacy of Judy Garland's MGM career, Conor from the Garland Gab and I pick up in the mid-40s and break down her most difficult years at MGM culminating in her leaving the studio in 1950 under a cloud. These overview episodes are to provide a wider context as our next episodes we will do in-depth breakdowns of the production of two Garland Technicolor classics. Thanks for listening! Derek Instagram: @thedreamfactorypod bio.site/th...
Before we get super nerdy with our movie breakdown episodes, I am joined by Conor of the fabulous podcast The Garland Gab for part one of our overview of Judy Garland's 15 years working at MGM. To start our season focused on two of the movies from the one-of-a-kind talent Judy Garland, we are going to get chatty about her full movie career while at MGM. We start with our first introductions to Judy then trace here career from her first auditions with the the studio to her biggest hit wh...
For our third and final MGM history episode, Nate and I conclude our look at a movie company that was a small city unto itself in Culver City. Riding high in the mid-40s, the studio faced external forces that threaten its existence by the end of the decade. New stars like Lana Turner, Hedy Lamarr and Van Johnson enter the scene after the exit of MGM stars like Garbo, Shearer and Crawford and the tone of MGM changes with the war. At this time producer Arthur Freed forever puts MGM musicals on ...
Episode two of our deep dive into the history of movie factory MGM is here! I am once again joined by Nate and together we travel back to the Culver City of over 80 years and further explore who were the artists who created these movies throughout Metro's reign as a film giant. The shock of Thalberg's death in 1936 rocked the studio and paved the way for L.B. Mayer's to be the singular leader of MGM into the profitable late '30s and into the war years. Mayer's vision changes the directi...
Welcome to the Dream Factory! For our first episodes we are taking a documentary style approach to the history of the first 50 years of MGM. I am joined by movie buff Nate Hallett to explore the history of the people and films that were the backbone of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during Hollywood's Golden Age. We start before the establishment of the studio in 1924 to the events and people who made the creation possible. We trace early MGM successes and the bumpy transition to the talkies...
Coming in early June 2025...The Dream Factory! Please enjoy this excerpt from an upcoming episode. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was an exceptional movie studio that existed at a special moment in film history, the classic Hollywood era of the 1920s-1950s. This new podcast is a chatty deep dive into the whirling world of MGM in its heyday. Known today primarily for their fabulous output of musicals, MGM was a dominant force in old Hollywood where the greatest stars of the era were matched by an unparal...
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