There's No Business Like Show Business is a
20th Century Fox film that was released on
December 16,
1954. The title is borrowed from the
famous song in the musical
Annie Get Your Gun. It stars
Ethel Merman,
Donald O'Connor,
Marilyn Monroe,
Dan Dailey,
Mitzi Gaynor, and
Johnnie Ray. It was directed by
Walter Lang and written by
Lamar Trotti (story) and
Phoebe Ephron and
Henry Ephron. The movie was Ethel Merman's first film in
widescreen; it was filmed in
CinemaScope.
The film depicts the traveling, singing and dancing Donahue Family, with Merman and Dailey as the parents, and O'Connor, Ray, and Gaynor as their adult children. It proved to be a disappointment both commercially and critically, but it remains the only film in which Merman sings that song (although she did reprise it in the
1967 television version of "Annie Get Your Gun") "Show Business" was an extremely expensive movie. It did not make back its cost, but it did attract a considerable audience.