although there was little of the joan crawford's actual skating in "the ice follies of 1939", mgm sent out press releases to announce that she was rigorously training to sing in the film. (crawford had already sung on-screen in a few early musicals like "the hollywood revue of 1929" and "montana moon".) the releases even suggested that crawford was so impressive that after performing her six songs this film, she was considering making her debut at the metropolitan opera. when the film premiered, however, her songs had been reduced to two, both of which were dubbed by a professional singer. crawford would later claim that her vocals had been cut under orders from jeanette macdonald, who was afraid of being supplanted as mgm's resident singing star.