Broadway Melody of 1940 Broadway Melody of 1940 Broadway Melody of 1940 is a 1940 MGM film musical starring Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell and George Murphy. It was directed by Norman Taurog and features music by Cole Porter, including "Begin the Beguine". The film was the fourth and final entry in MGM's "Broadway Melody" series of films, and is notable for being the only on-screen pairing of Astaire and Powell, who were considered the finest film musical dancers of their time. Johnny Brett (Fred Astaire) and King Shaw (George Murphy) are a dance team so down on their luck they're working in a dance
Cole Porter used for the score of "Happy New Year", based on the Philip Barry play "Holiday". The cast of "The Carol Burnett Show" paid a tribute to Porter in a humorous sketch in their CBS television series. "You're the Top: The Cole Porter Story", a video of archival material and interviews, and "Red, Hot and Blue", a video of artists performing Porter's music, were released in 1990 to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of Porter's birth. In contrast to the highly embellished 1946 screen biography "Night and Day", Porter's life was chronicled more realistically in "De-Lovely", a 2004 Irwin Winkler film