More fictional than factual biography of Stephen Foster. Songwriter from Pittsburgh falls in love with the South, marries a Southern gal (Leeds), then is accused of sympathizing when the Civ... Read allMore fictional than factual biography of Stephen Foster. Songwriter from Pittsburgh falls in love with the South, marries a Southern gal (Leeds), then is accused of sympathizing when the Civil War breaks out.More fictional than factual biography of Stephen Foster. Songwriter from Pittsburgh falls in love with the South, marries a Southern gal (Leeds), then is accused of sympathizing when the Civil War breaks out.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 1 nomination total
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Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsThe film's final scene is wholly inaccurate; there was no performance by E.P. Christy on the day that Foster died. In reality, Christy actually died nearly two years before Foster; he committed suicide by throwing himself from a window at his home in New York City in May 1862; Foster himself died in January 1864.
- Quotes
Stephen Foster: [he whistles a version of Oh! Susanna] That ending isn't right yet.
Jane McDowell Foster: You know, I think the Negroes would finish it like this
[she whistles the tune]
Stephen Foster: Why, that's right! How did you know?
Jane McDowell Foster: You forget, I was brought up on Negro music.
Stephen Foster: I wish I'd been. As I boy in Pittsburgh, I heard just enough of it to want to hear more. I'd a colored nurse you know. Sometimes, she'd take me down to their little church by the river, I heard "Sweet Chariot", "Roll Jordan", all the rest.
Jane McDowell Foster: There's nothing like them, is there?
Stephen Foster: No. They have something all their own. It's... well, it's music from the heart. From the heart of a simple people. That's why it moves you like it does. And by jingo, it's the only real American contribution to music. I wonder...
Jane McDowell Foster: Wonder what?
Stephen Foster: Why no one's taken the trouble to write it down; to develop the material and compose original music in the same mood.
Jane McDowell Foster: Well, why don't you, Stephen?
Stephen Foster: Why don't I? Well, why don't I?
Jane McDowell Foster: You can, I'm sure. You have a wonderful feeling for it.
Stephen Foster: If I do, it'll be your fault. You'll have to take the blame for it. Because you'll be the music. You'll be all the songs I'll ever write. Without you, I don't think I could write them. I think they'd just, well they'd just die.
Jane McDowell Foster: Then we mustn't let them die.
- Crazy credits[prologue] This is the strange story of a Northern youth to whom the Southland brought immortal inspiration.....Though his stormy life is long forgotten, his simple words and simple music live on in the hearts of the whole American people.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Fresh Hare (1942)
- SoundtracksCurry a Mule
Written by Sidney Lanfield & Louis Silvers
Two years after Swanee River was out, Foster and other songwriters of his era had a revival of sorts as the American Society of Composers and Publishers got into a wing ding battle with the radio and record industry and banned its music from broadcast and vinyl. What was done was that a lot of music that was in the public domain got revived in all kinds of strange ways. Swing versions of various classic and folk melodies invaded the airwaves. Country type music got it's own licensing agent in Broadcast Music Incorporated set up as a rival to ASCAP. It all got settled before Pearl Harbor and the country moved on to more important disputes. But Swanee River as a film gave Foster kind of a leg up on some of his other public domain contemporaries.
Don Ameche, fresh from another biographical triumph in Alexander Graham Bell, makes a charming, talented, but weak of character Stephen Foster. The man who created some of the most beautiful melodies ever composed, was no businessman as other reviewers pointed out. He also suffered from alcoholism which led to his early demise. Andrea Leeds is his patient and loving wife for whom I Dream of Jeannie was composed.
As was also pointed out by another reviewer, there was no such thing as ASCAP to protect the creators of melody from exploitation. What Al Jolson's E.P. Christy did to Stephen Foster insofar as his first song hit, Oh Susanna is concerned was not only true, but quite the norm. What Christy did was also decide maybe he ought to cut Foster in on the profits to keep the creative spigot flowing.
Jolson as Christy was the premier minstrel artist of his day when that form of entertainment was acceptable and popular. Of course Jolson got his start in minstrel shows and damage to his reputation has come because he never would discard the black-face. This is the only time on film that Jolson plays a real life character and he sings the Foster songs with feeling and the inimitable Jolson style.
By dint of the fact that his songs were minstrel show material and some and only some glorified the old South, Foster himself has come down as damaged goods in these politically correct days. That's a pity because items like Beautiful Dreamer, Old Dog Trey, My Old Kentucky Home are the stuff of genius.
It's not the complete truth, but Swanee River still holds up as a nice account of America's premier melody maker of his century.
- bkoganbing
- Jan 12, 2008
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Swanee River: The Story of Stephen C. Foster
- Filming locations
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $285,100
- Runtime1 hour 24 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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![Don Ameche, Hall Johnson Choir, Al Jolson, and Andrea Leeds in Swanee River (1939)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOTQxZGZhYjctN2UwMC00NTg2LTgyMTYtZTFiMjU4MGJiYTdiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNDcxNDkxMjA@._V1_QL75_UX90_CR0,1,90,133_.jpg)