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The final chapter turns to the subject of gender and ethnic assimilation in Cukor’s films of the 1950s, the last years in which the director would find regular work. Within a communist-baiting era heading into the long Cold War, Hollywood films of the 1950s suppressed but nonetheless (or necessarily) addressed familiar fears in new ways, from attention to a postwar version of melting-pot politics to modernized versions of gender roles for “ethnic” women. Cukor’s most successful films of the decade reveal similar concerns, despite enormous differences in focus and style. Born Yesterday (1950) and It Should Happen to You (1952) are urban romantic comedies; Bhowani Junction (1956) is an Indian epic; and Wild is the Wind (1957) is an Italian immigrant melodrama in a rustic setting.

Betty Comden and Adolph Green suddenly found themselves thrust into the limelight in New York in 1939 when they formed, with Judy Holliday and two other friends, a sketch-comedy group named the Revuers. They performed initially at the Village Vanguard, and strong critical response meant that they were soon performing in larger and more upscale venues, such as the Rainbow Room and Carnegie Hall. The group’s rise to the top seemed to be assured when they got a offer to appear in a movie, but it fell through shortly after they traveled to California. Undaunted, they secured another project, but their work in that ended on the cutting room floor. As 1944 wound down Comden and Green returned to New York, wondering what would come next.

Betty Comden and Adolph Green struggled with getting the screenplay for the movie version of Bells Are Ringing produced, but eventually the project went before the cameras with Judy Holliday reprising her stage performance under the direction of Vincente Minnelli. After this the writers found that their work as performers was taking them to television and specifically two high-profile network specials. They also began work on another musical with Jule Styne, an adaptation of Garson Kanin’s novelette Do Re Mi. The story, about some ex-cons trying to go legit in the jukebox business, starred Phil Silvers and proved to be such a hit that President-elect John F. Kennedy felt it necessary to take it in just days before his inauguration.

The nightclub act called The Revuers is the stuff of legend–frequently mentioned in chronicles of the Broadway musical but little discussed in any detail. The group began in 1938 and included Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Judy Tuvim (later known as Judy Holliday), John Frank, and Al Hammer. Bernstein was sometimes their accompanist. The Revuers thrived within the commercial worlds of nightclubs and radio. Their scripts lampooned highbrow culture and championed the working class, and the group often performed in mixed-race nightclubs, making politically progressive choices about where they worked. This chapter analyses their skits and comedy style, which had strong resonances in the later and better-known writing of Comden and Green.

Betty Comden’s and Adolph Green’s early years in Brooklyn and the Bronx, respectively, included school plays and professional theatergoing. They were both inspired to strive for lives as professional actors, and as they entered their 20s both found some work as performers. In Green’s case his work (although outside of the city) led to friendships, with Leonard Bernstein and Judy Holliday, that would have a lasting impact on his and Comden’s careers.