Born in the early 1930s and brought to maturity in the 1940s, the Hollywood musical came into its own in the '50s. There were, of course, the superb Broadway adaptations: Kiss Me Kate (1953), Oklahoma (1955), The King and I (1956), The Pajama Game (1957), and South Pacific (1958) among others. But the true gems were original properties featuring both old and new musical material. The best of these were certainly An American in Paris (1951), Singin’ in The Rain (1952), The Band Wagon (1953), White Christmas and A Star Is Born (1954), High Society (1956), Funny Face (1957), and Gigi (1959).

Hollywood also continued to use art music composers during the '50s to excellent effect, Leonard Bernstein's score to Elia Kazan's 1952 masterpiece On The Waterfront and Ellington's score to Otto Preminger's 1959 Anatomy of A Murder being two of the best examples.

Dick Hyman and his Small Band are joined by Terry Burrell and Ian Whitcomb in an afternoon tribute to the Hollywood musical and classic art music scores.