Philip Rubenstein
‘Have You Heard, It’s in the Stars’: The Making of “High Society”

What do you get when you cross Sinatra and Crosby in song for the first time, add a touch of Grace Kelly in her final movie, then sprinkle in the great Louis Armstrong and his band for good measure? Why, only one of Hollywood’s most “swelligent, elegant” musicals ever! Yet the critics were hostile when High Society was released in 1956—“flimsy,” “dated,” and even “strictly plebeian” were some of the insults hurled. Many of them dismissed it as an unnecessary musical remake of the much-loved The Philadelphia Story. The public, however, begged to differ, and High Society became one of MGM’s most successful musicals of the decade. Let’s discover how the movie’s stellar cast came together, explore the dark themes that lie beneath its glamour, and get the lowdown on one of the most iconic duets in movie musical history.