Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960) forged a remarkable, multifaceted career as a librettist, lyricist, playwright, director, and producer. He wrote Carmen Jones, Carousel, Show Boat, and, with longtime collaborator Richard Rodgers, Oklahoma , South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. Hugh Fordin enjoyed complete access to the Hammerstein archives and conducted numerous interviews with family and colleagues like Rodgers, Berlin, Robbins, and Sondheim. The result is the definitive biography of a creative giant, who changed forever the texture of American...

M-G-M's Greatest Musicals (originally published as The World of Entertainment Hollywood's Greatest Musicals) is not a biography of Arthur Freed (1894-1973), producer of the most outstanding series of musicals in motion picture history, but a turbulent, behind-the-scenes, film-by-film account of the making of his movies (which, to the exclusion of all else, were his life). From 1940 to 1970, under the auspices of M-G-M's celebrated Freed Unit, Hollywood's master actors, writers, directors, choreographers, composers, and set designers created The Wizard of Oz, Girl Crazy, Meet...