This marked the premiere screening of Ray Bolger's deleted dance routine from The Wizard of Oz (1939), an occasion that later inspired the making of That's Entertainment! III (1994), which was comprised of many scenes that had been deleted from their respective release prints.
Director Jack Haley Jr.'s screen credit is shown over footage of his father, Jack Haley, in the role of the Tin Woodsman in The Wizard of Oz (1939). This was a reprise of the tradition Haley had begun with his screen credit in That's Entertainment! (1974).
To showcase the most performers while still accommodating a reasonable running time, the film includes a multitude of well-known players, including Elvis Presley, Joan Crawford, Betty Grable, Judy Holliday, Dean Martin, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, June Haver, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Lucille Ball, and Esther Williams, appearing only in overview montage sequences.
Based on the expense and, in some cases, lack of studio cooperation in opening their vaults for the project, Jack Haley Jr. openly admitted that his final selection of film footage was drastically different from what he and executive producer Gene Kelly had envisioned. An approximation of the original material can be found in Tony Thomas' complementary book, "That's Dancing!", which features photos and captions of the footage Haley and Kelly had earmarked for inclusion. Similarly, more than thirty publicity stills were issued in the film's press kits, some of which depict scenes that ultimately do not appear in the finished film (e.g, June Haver and Gene Nelson performing the title song from I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now (1947).
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