Bradford Ropes Explained

Bradford Ropes (January 1, 1905 – November 21, 1966) was a novelist and screenwriter whose work includes the novel 42nd Street that was adapted into the 1933 film of the same name, which then became a Tony Award-winning stage musical.^[1] His next novel, Stage Mother in 1933 was also adapted to film,^[2] He also wrote many Western stories, screenplays for Roy Rogers and Rex Allen, and contributed to films starring Abbott & Costello and Laurel & Hardy.

Ropes was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He died in the Wollaston section of Quincy, Massachusetts.

Ropes wrote in 1932 that America was still waiting for the "Uncle Tom's Cabin of the chorus girl."^[3]

Works

Novels

• 42nd Street (1932)
• Stage Mother (1933)
• Go Into Your Dance (1934)

Films (screenplays unless noted)

• 42nd Street (novel, 1933)
• Stage Mother (novel and screenplay, 1933)
• Go Into Your Dance (novel, 1935)
• Hooray for Love (contributor to treatment, 1935)
• Meet the Boyfriend (1937)
• The Hit Parade (1937)
• Circus Girl (1937)
• Lord Jeff (story, 1938)
• Rancho Grande (1940)
• Melody Ranch (1940)
• Gaucho Serenade (1940)
• Melody and Moonlight (1940)
• Sing, Dance, Plenty Hot (1940)
• Hit Parade of 1941 (1940)
• Hullabaloo (idea, 1940)
• Angels with Broken Wings (1941)
• Glamour Boy (1941)
• Ridin' on a Rainbow (1941)
• Ice-Capades Revue (1942)
• Joan of Ozark (additional dialogue, 1942)

• Ship Ahoy (story, 1942)
• True to the Army (1942)
• The Man from Music Mountain (1943)  - starring Roy Rogers
• Hands Across the Border (1944)  - starring Roy Rogers
• Hi, Good Lookin'! (1944)
• The Cowboy and the Senorita (story, 1944)  - starring Roy Rogers
• Swing in the Saddle (1944)
• Steppin' in Society (adaptation and screenplay, 1945)
• Sunbonnet Sue (story, 1945)
• Why Girls Leave Home (1945)
• Song of Arizona (story, 1946)  - starring Roy Rogers
• The Time of Their Lives (1946)
• Nothing But Trouble (additional dialogue, 1947)  - starring Laurel & Hardy
• Buck Privates Come Home (story, 1947)  - starring Abbott & Costello
• Pirates of Monterey (story, 1947)
• Flame of Youth (1949)
• The Arizona Cowboy (1950)  - starring Rex Allen
• Belle of Old Mexico (1950)
• Redwood Forest Trail (1950)  - starring Rex Allen

Further reading

• Maya Cantu: Greasepaint Puritan : Boston to 42nd street in the queer backstage novels of Bradford Ropes, Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2024,

Notes and References

1. Book: 42nd Street. registration. 12. bradford ropes.. Rian. James. James. Seymour. May 18, 1980. Univ of Wisconsin Press. Internet Archive.
2. Book: Barrios. Richard. A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film. 1995. Oxford University Press. 9780195088113. registration. 396. May 18, 2018. en.
3. Book: Graham, T. Austin. The Great American Songbooks: Musical Texts, Modernism, and the Value of Popular Culture. January 21, 2013. OUP USA. 978-0-19-986211-5. Google Books.