How a 1939 musical became a lost piece of political satire

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: When Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland starred in the 1939 hit Babes in Arms, they ended the film with a bold impression of the Roosevelts. This segment vanished for decades following the President's death, only to be recovered and restored in the 1990s from a forgotten 16-mm reel.

Directed by Busby Berkeley, Babes in Arms was a significant departure from its 1937 Broadway source material. Hollywood producers discarded nearly all original Rodgers and Hart songs, retaining only a few tracks like Where or When. To fill the void, the Arthur Freed unit commissioned new music, including Good Morning, which would later gain fame in Singin' in the Rain. The film captured the energy of its young leads, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, who were already established as a successful pairing following their work in the Andy Hardy series.

The plot centers on a group of children attempting to save their vaudevillian parents from professional failure by staging their own show. Despite the lighthearted premise, the production was technically ambitious. Musical numbers were recorded in stereophonic sound, though audiences of the time only heard monaural versions in theaters. The film was a massive commercial success, earning over $3.3 million globally and securing a profit of $1.5 million. It also earned two Academy Award nominations, including a Best Actor nod for 19-year-old Rooney.

The controversial finale, which contrasted the youngsters' performance with themes of fascism and featured impressions of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, was excised from the 1948 reissue. This decision reflected the shifting political climate following the President's death. For years, the footage was presumed lost until its eventual discovery. Today, the film remains a testament to the MGM studio system's ability to pivot from stage to screen, blending vaudeville nostalgia with the high-gloss production values that defined the era's musical cinema.

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