Assuming you’re a big fan of movie musicals, here’s where it all started. And though you probably remember the excerpts that appeared in That’s Entertainment, here’s your chance to take it all in.

The Broadway Melody is hugely important for at least two reasons: The film’s advertising slogan was not hype – ALL TALKING! ALL SINGING! ALL DANCING! Yes, this was the very first movie musical.

Second, it was one of the first movie “backstagers,” a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a Broadway musical. In doing that, the film gave us a species whose colorful history includes everything from 42nd Street (1933) and the Golddiggers series to The Bandwagon and even Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz (1979), which we shared two months ago. I could offer countless examples—that’s how popular the species became not only in America but all over the world.

In 2024, The Broadway Melody looks and sounds primitive in lots of ways—but don’t let that stop you from checking out what its creators were so boldly inventing in 1929. Here we have an essential artifact of our popular culture.