{ "id": "ep6ha1qh78", "slug": "theres-no-business-like-show-business", "title": "There's No Business Like Show Business", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.musical-music", "label": "Musical and music films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.musical-music" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.musical-music.musical-films-of-the-1930s-to-1960s", "label": "Musical films of the 1930s to 1960s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.musical-music.musical-films-of-the-1930s-to-1960s" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.musical-music.musical-films-of-the-1930s-to-1960s", "label": "United States · 1946 to 2000: Musical films of the 1930s to 1960s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.musical-music.musical-films-of-the-1930s-to-1960s", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946", "label": "United States · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.musical-music", "label": "Musical and music films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.musical-music" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.musical-music.musical-films-of-the-1930s-to-1960s", "label": "Musical films of the 1930s to 1960s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.musical-music.musical-films-of-the-1930s-to-1960s" } ] } ], "excerpt": "There's No Business Like Show Business is a 1954 Twentieth Century-Fox CinemaScope musical directed by Walter Lang, starring Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, Johnnie Ray, and Marilyn Monroe, with an Irving Berlin score including \"Heat Wave\" and three Oscar nominations.", "snippet": "There's No Business Like Show Business is a 1954 Twentieth Century-Fox CinemaScope musical directed by Walter Lang, starring Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, Johnnie Ray, and Marilyn Monroe, with an Irving Berlin score including \"Heat Wave\" and three Oscar nominations.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.musical-music.musical-films-of-the-1930s-to-1960s", "markdown": "# There's No Business Like Show Business\n\n**There's No Business Like Show Business** is a 1954 American musical comedy-drama directed by Walter Lang for Twentieth Century-Fox, with a score by [Irving Berlin](https://www.edgepedia.org/irving-berlin) and a cast led by [Ethel Merman](https://www.edgepedia.org/ethel-merman), Dan Dailey, Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, Johnnie Ray, and [Marilyn Monroe](https://www.edgepedia.org/marilyn-monroe). It follows the Donahues, a vaudeville family whose act grows from a husband-and-wife duo into The Five Donahues, and it was produced in CinemaScope and De Luxe color as part of Fox's widescreen push against television.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/51374)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | New York premiere 16 December 1954; Los Angeles opening 25 December 1954; produced mid May to late August 1954[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/51374) |\n| Format | CinemaScope widescreen, De Luxe color, Western Electric stereophonic sound, 117 minutes on 14 reels[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/51374) |\n| Principal cast | Ethel Merman (Molly), Dan Dailey (Terrance), Donald O'Connor (Tim), Mitzi Gaynor (Katy), Johnnie Ray (Steve), Marilyn Monroe (Vicky Parker)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/51374) |\n| Music | Score by Irving Berlin; only two new songs, with the rest drawn from more than fifty years of his catalog[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/51374) |\n| Cost | Fox paid $500,000 for Berlin's songs and participation[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/51374) |\n| Awards | Three Academy Award nominations: Costume Design (Color), Scoring of a Musical Picture, and Motion Picture Story[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/449831/theres-no-business-like-show-business) |\n| Finances | Reported budget $4.3 million against a reported $7.1 million worldwide gross[3](https://filmdb.co.uk/box-office/movie/theres-no-business-like-show-business-1954-box-office) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story\n\nThe film opens in 1919, when Terrance and Molly Donahue are a husband-and-wife vaudeville team. As the years pass their act becomes The Five Donahues with the addition of children Steve, Katy, and Tim. Molly, worried that a nomadic life will harm the children, persuades Terrance to send them to a Catholic boarding school, from which they repeatedly try to run away.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/51374)\n\nAs adults the children go their own ways. Steve decides to become a priest, while Katy and Tim join a show starring Victoria Parker, a hat-check girl Tim has met; the parents resume performing as a duo while the family faces personal upheaval.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/theres_no_business_like_show_business) [Voice-over](https://www.edgepedia.org/voice-over) narration by Merman and Dailey as Molly and Terry runs intermittently through the picture.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/51374)\n\n## The Berlin score\n\nThe title song came from *Annie Get Your Gun*, the 1946 Broadway show Berlin wrote for Ethel Merman, and it became a kind of anthem for theater people after Merman first sang it onstage.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/449831/theres-no-business-like-show-business) The sheet music was published by the Irving Berlin Music Corporation in 1946, credited to Berlin as composer and lyricist.[5](https://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/collection/205/053)\n\nBerlin's deal with Fox had a tangled history. In May 1951 he intended to sign a three-picture contract supplying original stories and complete scores; by February 1952 Fox had paid $500,000 for the use of his songs and his participation, but in March 1953 he called off the negotiations, which were close to signing, because he wanted complete autonomy over his future projects.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/51374) Although news items reported five new songs for the picture, only two appeared in the completed film, \"A Man Chases a Girl Until She Catches Him\" and \"A Sailor's Not a Sailor 'Till a Sailor's Been Tattooed.\" The remaining songs were written over more than fifty years, some for Broadway shows and earlier Fox films; \"If You Believe,\" sometimes listed as new, had according to studio publicity been written twenty-five years earlier, though it had never been presented onscreen before.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/51374)\n\nThe production numbers use Berlin standards including \"Alexander's Ragtime Band,\" \"A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody,\" \"When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam,\" and \"Remember.\" The best-remembered number is Monroe's languorous delivery of \"Heat Wave,\" a song originally intended for Merman, performed in a black bra and a flamenco skirt split almost to the waist. \"Anything You Can Do,\" from *Annie Get Your Gun*, was filmed with Merman and Dailey but cut from the final print.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/449831/theres-no-business-like-show-business)\n\n## Production and CinemaScope\n\nFox put the film into production as a showcase for [CinemaScope](https://www.edgepedia.org/cinemascope), the anamorphic widescreen process it had debuted with *The Robe* in September 1953 as an answer to television. By [April 1954](https://www.edgepedia.org/april-1954) about 3,500 theaters had CinemaScope screens, a number that grew to 13,500 a year later, and film historians call 1954 to 1956 the \"CinemaScope Rebound.\"[6](https://cinemontage.org/the-cinemascope-rebound/) The film's opening titles read \"Darryl F. Zanuck presents A CinemaScope Production Irving Berlin's There's No Business Like Show Business,\" and the print used [Bausch & Lomb](https://www.edgepedia.org/bausch-and-lomb) lenses.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/51374)\n\n**Marilyn Monroe's casting.** Monroe, on the brink of superstardom after *Gentlemen Prefer Blondes* and *How to Marry a Millionaire* (both 1953), balked at the script and at competing with Merman, O'Connor, Gaynor, and Dailey, and Fox considered [Sheree North](https://www.edgepedia.org/sheree-north) as a replacement. Monroe agreed to appear in exchange for the promise that her next film would be a version of *The Seven Year Itch*, directed by [Billy Wilder](https://www.edgepedia.org/billy-wilder).[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/449831/theres-no-business-like-show-business) She refused costumes designed by Miles White and insisted that Travilla create new ones, including the \"Heat Wave\" outfit; Travilla's designs for her showgirl characters are noted by the Academy Museum as playing a role in shaping her public image.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/449831/theres-no-business-like-show-business) • [7](https://www.academymuseum.org/programs/detail/theres-no-business-like-show-business-019fce21-c0ea-edc0-5900-434e9905ca52)\n\nMerman, who had limited film success despite her Broadway stardom, took top billing after the success of Fox's 1953 *[Call Me Madam](https://www.edgepedia.org/call-me-madam-1953-film)*, which had also starred O'Connor and been directed by Lang.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/449831/theres-no-business-like-show-business)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nThe film was not well received at the time by the public, who probably felt the Berlin and Merman style had become outdated, though it is now considered a prime example of the big, splashy musical of its period.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/449831/theres-no-business-like-show-business) It received three Academy Award nominations for 1954: Costume Design (Color) for Charles LeMaire, Travilla, and Miles White; Scoring of a Musical Picture for Alfred Newman and Lionel Newman; and Motion Picture Story for Lamar Trotti, winning none.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/449831/theres-no-business-like-show-business) • [3](https://filmdb.co.uk/box-office/movie/theres-no-business-like-show-business-1954-box-office) On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 67% Tomatometer from 12 reviews and a 57% audience score.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/theres_no_business_like_show_business)\n\nThe film belongs to a mid-1950s Fox practice of resuscitating standards by Rodgers and Hart and Irving Berlin in CinemaScope musicals, part of the classical Hollywood musical's long function of glorifying American entertainment itself.[8](https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/server/api/core/bitstreams/dc025ed7-0374-5694-8ca9-3b0b7ce64253/content) Monroe's \"Heat Wave\" number has been described by one scholar as presenting the symbolic theft of the song by the younger Monroe from its intended star.[9](https://www.lespressesdureel.com/file/ouvrage/5983/extrait_pdf_5983.pdf) The film remains in circulation through streaming, Blu-ray, and retrospective screenings, including a Monroe centenary program in 2026.[10](https://www.palacecinemas.com.au/events/monroe-100)\n\n## References\n\n1. [There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/51374)\n2. [Roger Fristoe, \"There's No Business Like Show Business,\" Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/449831/theres-no-business-like-show-business)\n3. [There's No Business Like Show Business (1954) Box Office, FilmDB](https://filmdb.co.uk/box-office/movie/theres-no-business-like-show-business-1954-box-office)\n4. [There's No Business Like Show Business, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/theres_no_business_like_show_business)\n5. [There's No Business Like Showbusiness, Levy Sheet Music Collection, Johns Hopkins University](https://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/collection/205/053)\n6. [The CinemaScope Rebound, CineMontage](https://cinemontage.org/the-cinemascope-rebound/)\n7. [There's No Business Like Show Business, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures](https://www.academymuseum.org/programs/detail/theres-no-business-like-show-business-019fce21-c0ea-edc0-5900-434e9905ca52)\n8. [Calling the Tune: Hollywood and the Business of Music, Griffith University](https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/server/api/core/bitstreams/dc025ed7-0374-5694-8ca9-3b0b7ce64253/content)\n9. [Les Presses du Réel, book excerpt on film musicals](https://www.lespressesdureel.com/file/ouvrage/5983/extrait_pdf_5983.pdf)\n10. [Monroe 100, Palace Cinemas](https://www.palacecinemas.com.au/events/monroe-100)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Musical and music films (individual works) › Musical films of the 1930s to 1960s*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/theres-no-business-like-show-business", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/theres-no-business-like-show-business.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"There's No Business Like Show Business\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/theres-no-business-like-show-business. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[There's No Business Like Show Business](https://www.edgepedia.org/theres-no-business-like-show-business)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/theres-no-business-like-show-business](https://www.edgepedia.org/theres-no-business-like-show-business). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"There's No Business Like Show Business\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/theres-no-business-like-show-business. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "There's No Business Like Show Business is a 1954 Twentieth Century-Fox CinemaScope musical directed by Walter Lang, starring Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, Johnnie Ray, and Marilyn Monroe, with an Irving Berlin score including \"Heat Wave\" and three Oscar nominations." }