Behind the scenes of 1954 MGM's "Rose-Marie" (in Cinemascope)

 

The musical comedy Rose-Mary, by Friml, Stothart, Harbach and Hammerstein II, opened at Imperial Theater on Broadway in 1924, the day after Dawes Plan went into effect and the first New York-Rome transatlantic cable was begun. So popular has the show remained that 30 years later you have only to shout two words "Rose" and "Marie" in that order to a group of two or more adults and one is bound to shout back, or sing back, off key, "I love you!" 

MGM made Rose-Marie intro a silent movie starring Joan Crawford in 1928, then remade it in 1936 with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. In 1954, MGM gave it a third go-around, with a revamped plot. 

The new Cinemascope Rose-Marie is bigger and better than ever. It has scenery shot in the Canadian Rockies and the California High Sierras, and 72-year-old Rudolph Friml himself collaborated on two new tunes. Bigger than ever before, the famed Indian Dance (image above) took a month's reheartsal and $200.000 to shoot on the biggest sound stage in the world.

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images and info provided by the LIFE Magazine / LIFE Magazine International / LIFE Magazine Atlantic ARCHIVE from the Zetu Harrys Collection