Joe May, in fact, had been directly responsible for getting Wilder to America in the first place. When May departed Germany in 1933, he immigrated directly to Los Angeles, becoming a producer at Columbia Pictures, while Wilder moved to Paris. Wilder kept in touch, sending May his screenplays; one of them prompted May to entice Columbia to pay for Wilder's move to the United States. When that script was not produced, Wilder went to Mexico so he could return to the U.S. on a new visa. By this time, May had moved to the Fox Film studio and was partnering with Erich Pommer on Music in the Air, which they hired Wilder to co-write.
The script was an adaptation of an operetta by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein III that had opened on Broadway in 1932 and run for 342 performances -- a witty, romantic trifle set in Bavaria. One of the actors from the Broadway production, Al Shean, was imported for the film version to reprise his role as Dr. Walter Lessing, launching him on a ten-year run in Hollywood as a character actor. Shean was a famous vaudeville artist and also the great-uncle of the Marx Brothers, for whom he wrote much of their early material.
But the main star of Music in the Air was Gloria Swanson, the (at the time) twice-Oscar-nominated silent screen star whose film appearances were growing fewer and farther between. She was no longer a major draw, however, and this picture -- a major Christmas release that opened at Radio City Music Hall -- was a flop. Swanson announced her retirement but returned to movie theaters seven years later in the RKO comedy Father Takes a Wife (1941). After nine more years, she made a stunning, Oscar-nominated comeback with her most famous movie, Sunset Blvd. (1950), in which she was directed by Billy Wilder, who by now had evolved into one of the top writer-directors in the business. (Following Sunset Blvd., Swanson appeared sporadically in films and television shows for another fifteen years.)
Despite its commercial failure, Music in the Air received some good reviews, with The New York Times deeming it "a skillfully photographed work which includes among its ballads, songs, and snatches some of the most distinguished melodies of this cinema season... Miss Swanson makes an agreeable return to the screen as the prima donna. The years have not scarred her loveliness, and in addition she possesses a pleasing voice and a gift for light comedy."
According to Swanson biographer Tricia Welsch, a heavy iron object fell onto Swanson's head one day during filming, knocking her out, and "Fox exploited the accident for publicity purposes, extolling Gloria's gameness."
A few months after the release of this picture, Fox Film Corporation merged with Twentieth Century Pictures to form 20th Century-Fox.
By Jeremy Arnold
