Plot: Molly and Terry Donahue, plus their three children, are The Five Donahues. Son Tim meets hat-check girl Vicky and the family act begins to fall apart.

Irving Berlin's There's No Business Like Show Business is a 1954 American musical comedy-drama film directed by Walter Lang. It stars an ensemble cast, consisting of Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor, Marilyn Monroe, Dan Dailey, Johnnie Ray, and Mitzi Gaynor.

The title is borrowed from the famous song in the stage musical (and MGM film) Annie Get Your Gun. The screenplay was written by Phoebe Ephron and Henry Ephron, based on a story by Lamar Trotti;[4] and the movie was Fox's first musical in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color.

O'Connor later called the film the best picture he ever made.

Production

In the months before the filming of the movie, Marilyn Monroe had been placed on suspension from 20th Century-Fox after refusing to accept the leading role in a film version of a Broadway musical titled The Girl in Pink Tights. During her suspension, she married baseball star Joe DiMaggio and the two honeymooned in Japan, during which time she entertained American soldiers in Korea. Fox had intended to cast Sheree North in There's No Business Like Show Business, going so far as to screen-test North in Monroe's own studio wardrobe. When Monroe returned to California, her Fox suspension was lifted, and studio executives offered her a role in the ensemble cast of There's No Business Like Show Business as a replacement project for having refused to make Pink Tights. Monroe initially refused to make There's No Business Like Show Business just as she had for the previous project until Fox assured her that her next vehicle would be The Seven Year Itch.[9] She also demanded a pay increase of $3,000 a week.

Ethel Merman had first sung "There's No Business Like Show Business" in the original Broadway production of Annie Get Your Gun in 1946 and would go on to sing it again in the 1967 television broadcast of the subsequent Lincoln Center revival of that musical comedy.

Donald O'Connor had separated from his wife of ten years. She and Dan Dailey, who played O'Connor's father, were dating during the shooting of the film. After filming wrapped, the O'Connors divorced and shortly thereafter Gwen Carter and Dan Dailey married.

One day, Marilyn Monroe's husband, Joe DiMaggio, visited the set. He refused to be photographed with Monroe, but insisted on being photographed with Ethel Merman, whom he called "my favorite star."

Marilyn Monroe was promised the lead role in The Seven Year Itch (1955) if she appeared in this film to boost its box-office potential. The role of Vicky was written especially for this purpose, and songs such as "Heat Wave," originally intended for Ethel Merman, were reassigned to her.

As Vicky passes Tim in the beginning of the movie, he says to her, "Well, if it isn't Ethel Barrymore!" Gene Kelly said the same thing to Debbie Reynolds in Singin' in the Rain (1952), in which Donald O'Connor also starred.

Top-billed Ethel Merman was concerned that audiences might focus on Marilyn Monroe's stunning figure rather than Merman's vocals in the film's finale. She specifically requested that costume designer Travilla design a gown that would allow Ethel to compete with Marilyn. The result was a white satin dress with "wings" atop its bodice, that gave the illusion that Merman was at least as "busty" as Monroe.

"Anything You Can Do" (music and lyrics by Irving Berlin), sung by Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Donald O'Connor and Mitzi Gaynor, was originally slated for the number the Donahues perform in the Florida nightclub once Tim (O'Connor) gives "Heat Wave" to Vicky (Marilyn Monroe). The quartet was cut from the film, though the footage still exists, and the Donahues can be seen in the number's costumes as they watch Monroe singing "Heat Wave" from the wings.

Johnnie Ray, who plays the older son Steve, was a popular singing star of the early 1950's, and had recently had a chart-topping hit with his version of "Cry." According to screenwriters Henry Ephron and Phoebe Ephron, 20th Century Fox hired Ray for this film, hoping that the singer could duplicate the success of Frank Sinatra, and become a major movie star. Then they discovered that, unlike Sinatra, Ray couldn't dance or act! The studio's solution was to have the Ephrons rewrite the film so that Steve Donahue leaves the family act early on to become a priest, as a way to "get [Ray] off-screen as quickly as possible." Movie-goers did not respond well to Ray's acting debut, and this remains the one and only major film in which he ever appeared.

During the filming of the scene where Donald O'Connor and Marilyn Monroe were kissing, there were over 1,000 onlookers who had drifted over from other sets.