Vincente Minnelli(1903-1986)
- Director
- Additional Crew
- Music Department
Born Lester Anthony Minnelli in Chicago on February 28 1903, his father
Vincent was a musical conductor of the Minnelli Brothers' Tent Theater.
Wanting to pursue an artistic career, Minelli worked in the costume
department of the Chicago Theater, then on Broadway during the
depression as a set designer and costumer, adopting a Latinized version
of his father's first name when he was hired as an art-director by
Radio City Music Hall. The fall of 1935 saw his directorial debut for a
Franz Schubert revue, At Home Abroad. The
show was the first of three, in the best
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. spirit, before
receiving Arthur Freed's offer to work at
MGM. This was his second try at Hollywood -- a short unsuccessful
contract at Paramount led nowhere. He stayed at MGM for the next 26
years. After working on numerous
Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland
vehicles, usually directed by
Busby Berkeley,
Arthur Freed gave him his first directorial
assignment on
Cabin in the Sky (1943), a risky
screen project with an all-black cast. This was followed by the
ambitious period piece
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
whose star Judy Garland he married
in 1945. Employing first-class MGM technicians, Minnelli went on
directing musicals --
The Band Wagon (1953) - as well as
melodramas --
Some Came Running (1958) - and
urban comedies like
Designing Woman (1957),
occasionally even working on two films simultaneously. Minnelli is one
of the few directors for whom Technicolor seems to have been invented.
Many of his films included in every one of his movies features a dream
sequence.