Ray June, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer during the early and classical Hollywood cinema. His best-known films are Babes in Arms and Funny Face. June attended Columbia University but did not graduate. His experience as a cameraman in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War I was instrumental to his success in Hollywood.
Ray June (right), filming The Secret Garden, 1949
Babes in Arms is the 1939 American film version of the 1937 coming-of-age Broadway musical of the same title. Directed by Busby Berkeley, it stars Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, and features Charles Winninger, Guy Kibbee, June Preisser, Grace Hayes, and Betty Jaynes. It was Garland and Rooney's second film together as lead characters after their earlier successful pairing in the fourth of the Andy Hardy films. The film concerns a group of youngsters trying to put on a show to prove their vaudevillian parents wrong and make it to Broadway. The original Broadway script was significantly revamped, restructured, and rewritten to accommodate Hollywood's needs. Almost all of the Rodgers and Hart songs from the Broadway musical were discarded.
Theatrical release poster
The performance of Mickey Rooney received widespread acclaim, with 19-year-old Rooney garnering a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, becoming the second-youngest Best Actor nominee.