what was hi end in the past ??....south pacific for example.

[manning1]

ive always been intrigued by the music productions on these films of that era with lots of music and many from that era like carousel.... lots of good songs also.
for example the bali hi song in south pacific.
excellent songwriting imho.
how they did what must have been pretty complex music productions at the time amazes me.
does anyone know how they did these productions for music in that era ??
or lets say Bing Crosbys white christmas and many other films of the era
laden with music productions.
then there were the brilliant rodgers n hammersteins also.
what was considered hi end gear at that time ??
and how did the audio engrs at that time do these complex productions ??
imho it was a tremendous era of very good songs which still stand up today.
all done with none of the gear we have today and no softsynths....lol.
i hope some old timers respond cos i'm really curious how they went about recording this amazeing music.