Stephen Foster composes “Oh Susanna“ (excerpts from Harmony Lane, 1935)

Stephen Foster (Douglass Montgomery) composes “Oh Susanna“ for his first love Susan (Evelyn Venable), and then everybody is singing it. Harmony Lane is a biographical movie directed by Joseph Santley (1935) on Stephen Foster (1826--1864) early success, decline and death. “Oh Susanna“ was first published in 1848. This video contains two scenes from the movie showing the composition process. Between the piano lesson scene and the birthday party scene, there was still another scene unrelated to the composition, hence it was omitted in this video; but you can see it in the original movie The movie is in the public domain.