Joseph Herman Pasternak was a Hungarian-American film producer in Hollywood. Pasternak spent the Hollywood "Golden Age" of musicals at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, producing many successful musicals with female singing stars like Deanna Durbin, Kathryn Grayson and Jane Powell, as well as swimmer/bathing beauty Esther Williams' films. He produced Judy Garland's final MGM film, Summer Stock, which was released in 1950, and some of Gene Kelly’s early breakthrough roles. Pasternak worked in the film industry for 45 years, from the later silent era until shortly past the end of the classical Hollywood cinema in the early 1960s.
Pasternak in 1957
Pasternak (right) receiving his star on Hollywood Boulevard from Johnny Grant with Gene Kelly on the left on July 29, 1991.
Edna Mae Durbin, known professionally as Deanna Durbin, was a Canadian-born actress and singer, who moved to the U.S. with her family in infancy. She appeared in musical films in the 1930s and 1940s. With the technical skill and vocal range of a legitimate lyric soprano, she performed many styles from popular standards to operatic arias.
Durbin in 1944 (publicity photo for Can't Help Singing)
Durbin on the cover of Yank (1945)
Durbin and cinematographer William H. Daniels on set of For the Love of Mary (1948)