April in Paris (1952). The title song (with music by Vernon Duke) is used in a number of contexts throughout this frothy Doris Day-Ray Bolger musical. One of five features on the DVD release, The Doris Day Collection.

Bloomer Girl. On May 28, 1956, NBC-TV broadcast a color presentation of the hit 1944 Broadway musical (lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Harold Arlen, book by Sig Herzig and Fred Saidy, based on a play  by Dan and Lilith James). The broadcast, with a cast including Barbara Cook, Keith Andes and Paul Ford, was … Continue Reading ››

Gay Purr-ee (1962). Feature-length musical cartoon about a French country cat who goes to Paris in the Gay 1890's, with the voices of Judy Garland, Robert Goulet, Red Buttons, Hermione Gingold and others. The songs by Yip and Harold Arlen include "Paris Is a Lonely Town," "Mewsette" and "The Money Cat." Warner Bros. 24497.

I Could Go on Singing (1963). Judy Garland's last film. Harburg and Arlen wrote the title song which she sings in the finale.

Finian's Rainbow (1968). Starring Fred Astaire and Petula Clark, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Includes all the songs from the original 1947 stage musical except "Necessity," the cutting of which is discussed by Coppola in one of the extra features.

The Great Man's Whiskers (1973) (aka The Grate Mans Wiskurs) Yip's last movie project, filmed in 1969 but not shown until 1973. Based on a one-act play by formerly blacklisted writer Adrian Scott, it is based on the true story of a little girl who wrote to President Lincoln urging him to grow a beard. Yip … Continue Reading ››

Paper Moon (1973). Based on Addie Pray, a best-selling novel, this movie's title is taken from the well-known Yip Harburg-Harold Arlen song "It's Only a Paper Moon" (1932). In an extra feature ("The Next Picture Show") on the Paramout DVD, director Peter Bogdanovich explains how and why he changed the title of his project, with … Continue Reading ››

A Quip with Yip and Friends (1976; video released in 1990). An episode of PBS's Anyone for Tennyson? ("Ogden and Dorothy, Phyllis and Yip") in which Jack Lemmon, Cynthia Herman and Jill Tanner recite five of Yip's verses from Rhymes for the Irreverent, concluding with Lemmon's spoken rendition of the lyric to "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"

All You Need Is Love: The Story of Popular Music (1976), a landmark TV series from the late 1970’s, features several clips of Yip Harburg (parts 7 and 12) who, along with several of his peers from the mid-20th century era of Broadway-Hollywood-Tin Pan Alley songwriting, was interviewed especially for this project.

Look to the Rainbow (1997). On April 6, 1997, Pete Seeger and friends launched the opening of the Yip Harburg Auditorium at P.S. 19 in New York City’s Lower East Side, near where Yip grew up. Other participants in the ceremony were State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and District 1 Superintendent Dori Collazo-Baker. … Continue Reading ››