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Good evening and welcome to the gold news of Hollywood. This is a lovely novel, State
Fair, by Phil Stoll. State Fair was filmed in 1933 for the first time with Will Rogers,
Janet Gaynor and Lou Ayres. In the 1940s Fox of course had the rights to it and Darrell
F. Zaneck said, I want a musical version of State Fair. He was inspired by the success
of Oklahoma, so inspired that he asked Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II to prepare
State Fair as a musical. They loved the idea even as they were working on Carousel. Here
are the leading players, Jean Crane and Dana Andrews, a lovely pair and they're charming
in the film. Vivian Blaine, whose finest hour came in Guys and Dolls on stage and screen
and Dick Hames who at this time was a rival to Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. There are
some scene stealers, Faye Bainter and Charles Winninger as the parents. You'll love them,
you'll love Donald Meek as the judge and watch out for William Marshall, that's him on the
right. He was the husband of Michelle Morgan, the great French actress when he made this
film and he later married Ginger Rogers. State Fair with the Academy Award winning song,
it might as well be Spring. I hope you love it.