Ironically, the Second World War was a boon for the movie industry. People flocked to the warm darkness to escape into a comforting reality. Music played a hefty part: the big bands led by Glenn Miller swung away the blues; songwriters like Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer provided rich material. Universal studios, catering to the kid jitterbuggers provided lots of singing films studded with lovely dancing girls; and visual juke boxes, or “soundies”, provided alternative pop with likes of Fats Waller, Cab Calloway and lots of rhythm and blues performers. Warners and Fox brought back the glorious past with Yankee Doodle Dandy and Hello Frisco, Hello. And Irving Berlin hit the nostalgic button hard with his classic screen song/hymn “White Christmas”. Every movie made money. After the war box office, soon to be hit hard by television, slumped and a golden age of movie musicals was over.