Observations on Film, Music and Imagery of the Pas

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Mountains of Manhattan
2008-04-06 15:27:00
From a May 1927 press release for the Gotham production "Mountains of Manhattan " ---"There is nothing more spectacular or fascinating than the world famous skyline of New York City and the producers have taken a keen psychological advantage of this and utilized it for the background of a very strong drama.""The title of the picture, too, is most appropriate as it applies to the towering pinnacles of concrete and steel which form the 'Mountains of Manhattan.'""The story deals with the rise of Jerry Nolan, who is typical of the present day American artisan. Jerry has ambitions which are fired by the skyscrapers on which he works. He studies new methods of engineering and then when opportunities present themselves, he is smart and capable enough to seize them.""Charles Delaney portrays the role of Jerry, and he is exactly what the imagination would depict as the right type. Dorothy Devore is both daring and charming in the role of the boss builder. An old favorite, Kate Price, hi...

Caught Short
2008-04-02 13:08:00
We're Running Late!But...Vitaphone Varieties will return with a new post this coming weekend!Thanks for your patience, and to all who have e-mailed!###
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"The Talkie Is Improving"
2008-02-27 01:30:00
"Before the picture business went talkie," said actress Betty Compson in late 1929, "its players seldom gave a great deal of study to their roles. They arrived at the studio in the morning, made up and went on the set.""There, a director told them to walk through a door and appear startled. They seldom had occasion to know why they were startled, who was startling them, or what they were to do next.""The talkies have changed all this. The weeks of rehearsal before the picture goes before the cameras, attentive study of lines, and a full knowledge of the story tends to get the player more into his part than the silent film ever did. The result is better acting, better characterizations and a more convincing story."In mid-December of 1928, Hollywood columnist Dan Thomas had this to say of Compson's first talking picture, "The Barker," --- a part talking First National Vitaphone feature that, while having survived --- remains peculiarly elusive --- in a piece titled "The Talkie Is Imp...

"Not Quite Decent"
2008-02-03 20:49:00
Joan Blondell (left) will figure in the feature item for this entry, a casual examination of the inexplicably lost 1933 Warner Bros. pre-code potboiler "Convention City," --- but we'll open this post with a glance at an earlier but equally lost title, Fox's 1929 synchronized part-talkie, "Not Quite Decent."Directed by Irving Cummings, featuring Louise Dresser, June Collyer and Allan (pre-"Rocky") Lane, and released in April of 1929, "Not Quite Decent" was described plainly in period press material distributed to newspapers:"'Not Quite Decent' is a talking picture in the sense that it has Fox Movietone sequences in generous amount.""Based on the story by Wallace Smith, 'The Grouch Bag,' it tells, primarily, the story of Mame Jarrow (Louise Dresser,) a former big-time vaudeville singer who has reached her mid-forties and is still an entertainer but not of the stage -- rather, she appears in an underground speakeasy of which she is half owner.""Mame is just as young in spirit as...

"The Midnight Taxi"
2008-01-15 02:30:00
Although the approach of midnight meant quite something else to actor Ralph Graves and co-star Helene Costello in the 1929 Nat Levine produced silent serial "The Fatal Warning," the poster art detail at left will serve well to open this first post of the New Year --- a year we approach with at least some of the same odd intermingling of curiosity, fear and excitement that can be seen in Mr. Grave's painted visage.We'll ring up 2008's curtain with a 1930 recording of "My Sing Song Girl" which was previously offered in these pages in a definitive rendition by LeRoy Shield --- but this version, by the Colonial Club Orchestra, wins points for sheer originality (and the inclusion of a bit of Tchaikovsky!)Arriving in September of 1928, Warner Bros.' part-talking "The Midnight Taxi " was deemed worthy enough to warrant theater bookings into December of 1930 --- and would be remade by the same studio in 1937, but we focus our attention on the elusive earlier edition which remains largely...

"Ill-Assorted Companions"
2007-12-31 00:55:00
As whatever celestial clockwork mechanism that propelled 2007 is about to wind down to a sputtering and decidedly anticlimactic halt, this lull seems an opportune time to explore items old and new --- before venturing into whatever unknown territory the new year will bring.Enviably oblivious to life as it is in 2007, Alice White (left) is as unavoidable a presence in the realm of the early talking film as Al Jolson --- and it's rather interesting to discover that opinions of her appeal were as divided in 1929 as they are now, when she's discussed at all, that is.In a syndicated newspaper piece dating from August of 1929, writer Dan Thomas puts it out there in a profile that could --- with little alteration -- serve adequately today to describe some of the dubious talents we inexplicably embrace today."How does she do it? She can't act and she's dumber than all get out! Those, and a few more things even less complimentary, have been whispered around Hollywood about Alice White fo...
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A Yuletide Frolic II : Sinners' Holiday
2007-12-17 01:11:00
Greetings of the Season!For this entry, it's all about music and imagery --- and we'll set aside observation, analysis and criticism for the long winter days ahead.Some interesting items are planned for the coming weeks and months --- including a feature-length examination of the infamous and seemingly lost 1933 pre-code scorcher "Convention City," so stay tuned!Don't try to explain the image at left --- I can't either! Likewise, for this free-form entry, don't try to connect up the images with the audio and commentary --- just let it roll over you and enjoy this holiday offering, dear readers!We'll begin with two magnificent recordings by Ben Black & His Orchestra dating from August of 1927, the incredibly lush and melodic "Moonlit Waters" and an odd re-working of the solemn and familiar "Going Home" tricked up in evening clothes and appearing here as "Sailing On." The rustle of silk, highly scented floral arrangements, and the shuffle of feet across a polished ballroom f...
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Present and Unaccounted For
2007-11-25 01:30:00
While we'll never know what was being said or heard when the wonderful snapshot to the left was taken, let's see if we can't replicate a bit of their vibrant good cheer for this entry --- a small assortment of items originally slated for the last post ("Crystal Girl") but dropped owing to the length of the feature story.Before straying too far off from the topic of the previous entry --- that of the lost 1929 First National film "Paris" --- now is as good a time as any to mention Irene Bordoni's other 1929 film appearance, in the Warner Brothers revue "Show of Shows" and the topic of missing or deleted footage from this mammoth production.A much earlier post from November of 2006 ("Neither Here Nor There, But...") detailed a bit of footage missing from surviving prints of "Show of Shows" in the form of a spoken introduction to the Georges Carpentier, Alice White and Patsy Ruth Miller sequence, but what else is absent from the print commonly seen today?I've long been puzzled by...
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"Crystal Girl"
2007-11-22 15:34:00
"A moonbeam, a June beam - a rare Tiffany gem!A flower, a bower, a new rose on the stem!"So go the lyrics for the elaborate "Crystal Girl " production number depicted left, which served to kick off a series of Technicolor musical revue sequences in the now lost 1929 First National motion picture "Paris."Directed by Clarence Badger, and starring stage legends Irene Bordoni and Jack Buchanan, "Paris" is one of a maddening clutch of missing (the term "lost" seems unduly gloomy and hopeless) musical films of 1929 and 1930 that would, were they still with us, serve to document a number of stellar stage performers of the 1920's at their peak --- before age, shifting public tastes, drastically changing musical forms and motion picture production codes would alter these personalities forever --- leaving us instead with later film work that, in most cases, barely hints at the qualities that so captivated audiences.Fannie Brice, Ted Lewis, Sophie Tucker --- and, in this instance, Irene Bordon...

"Dancing the Devil Away"
2007-11-07 17:28:00
Terrors, both real and imagined, hold sway in this entry, so pull up your collar --- steady your trembling hand as you reach for a flickering candle --- and let us furtively amble down the darkened hallways of other days."See and Hear Spook Music!" was one of numerous print lures used to publicize the 1928 Warner Bros. film "The Terror," which holds the honor of being the first sound horror film with dialogue --- and the sad distinction of also being a lost (and much sought after) film as well.From prepared press releases distributed to newspapers at the time of the film's release, and from scattered local reviews, we can gain an impression of the lost film with some sense of immediacy:"In 'The Terror,' mystery thriller at the __________ this week, the opening titles are announced by a masked man in formal dress with the admonition that no one is to leave the theater until the picture is finished. This warning was totally unnecessary because after 'The Terror' began, the fans...
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A Ghost that Walked
2007-10-31 00:49:00
In February of 1928, theater audiences in Kansas City, Missouri were visited by old friends whom they once knew as a family of entertainers --- but folly, fate and whim had long since broken this family apart.While Eddie Foy could be seen upon the stage, his eldest son Bryan was in Hollywood --- working feverishly to refine and adapt the new Vitaphone talking picture process in his role of notable film director --- and Foy's remaining six children could be seen and heard as mechanical shadows on the talking picture screen in early Vitaphone output --- this at a time when the process was finding its way and beginning to emerge from its infancy and fast gaining confidence.Two years earlier, in 1926, the sad and not entirely unfamiliar plight of the Foy Family was thought interesting enough to warrant exposure in print via a syndicated news story:"Eddie Foy, for fifty years the most celebrated clown on the American stage, and the proudest father in the profession, is watching with t...
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"Sweeping the Clouds Away"
2007-10-22 18:01:00
The first anniversary of this blog arrives on October 26th, and I couldn't let the occasion pass without prefacing this entry with a few personal thoughts and observations.First and foremost, is my gratitude to you --- the reader. Your support and encouragement speaks volumes for the topics discussed here, proving what I always felt from the first --- that the films and personalities of the early sound motion picture era could be, and are, as much a topic of interest as the silent era that preceded it and the "Golden Era" of Hollywood that would follow it.Although the number of visitors to these pages is a source of immense satisfaction, I can't say as I'm wholly surprised that --- as of this writing --- over 40,000 individuals have found their way here either to be informed or entertained, or to discover a chapter in film history that had been largely relegated to the shadows and odd corners in decades past.It's a credit to the artists and creative minds behind the material in ...
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The Orchestra Augmented
2007-10-09 20:02:00
Just as we began to believe we knew all there was to know about "The March of Time," MGM's unreleased follow-up to the studio's 1929 "Hollywood Revue," there comes more to learn --- more to consider.Seeing as there doesn't seem to be a single comprehensive study of the film in one place (bits of information are as scattered as the celluloid husk of the production that remains today) these pages seem as good as any to serve as a depository for information. An imperfect research venue to be sure, but far better than none at all.A good deal of what we know today about "The March of Time" was painstakingly pieced together by Jonas Nordin, a Stockholm sound-engineer who, not unlike myself, considers himself something of an Entertainment Archaeologist. Jonas was instrumental in fine-tuning much of what I've written about "The March of Time," and, via a recent communication, provides us with additional insight:"Apparently, 'The March of Time' was indeed complete when shooting finis...
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Old Man Trouble
2007-10-07 18:28:00
A minor inconvenience...Beginning with the next post, a new file server will be employed to host audio files for "Vitaphone Varieties," a move prompted by the erratic performance of the one currently in use.Please note that until all audio files are transferred to the new server, your ability to listen to audio links contained within past blog posts may well be hampered by slow downloads or error messages.I hope to complete the transfer of files to the new server within a few days and ask for your patience until then. Once completed, readers will enjoy faster downloads and no bandwidth restrictions --- resulting in, I believe, a much improved "Vitaphone Varieties" experience for all concerned.Watch this space for a new post early this week!###

"Ne Plus Ultra"
2007-10-01 05:46:00
It's always fun to explore early talkies that are lost or obscure, and here we have one that's both lost and obscure, the RayArt production "The Heart of Broadway," which seems to have bowed sometime in very early 1929 and skittered across a handful of screens before vanishing --- apparently forever --- by spring of that year.As described in a Connellsville, Pennsylvania newspaper:"Bobby Agnew, always a favorite with film fans, certainly holds up his record in 'The Heart of Broadway,' the new Rayart drama of night life which opened at the Paramount Theater today. He has the role of Billy Winters, a 'hoofer' in a cabaret, who, because he believes the girl he loves has killed a man in self protection, confesses to the crime himself to save her from the Tombs. She is innocent of the crime as well, and how the whole tragic affair is straightened out and those two youngsters find their happiness affords splendid fare.""Above all, the picture is realistic, and to those who enjoy th...
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"It Doesn't Have To Be Lobster"
2007-09-25 23:56:00
A new season of "Vitaphone Varieties" posts --- and one which will feature a more prolific posting schedule --- must begin with apology for the delay, due entirely to file server outages that did not permit uploads, curbed downloads and refused inquiries as to why. (Indeed, if any reader can recommend a reliable file-server, do let me know?)Kicking things off, two of the finest recordings of two melodies from a film that should seem an old friend, if not a close acquaintance, by now.Here's Jean Goldkette & His Orchestra letting loose in richly spirited and lush renditions of: "Painting the Clouds With Sunshine," and "Tip Toe Thru the Tulips," from -- need you ask? -- "The Gold Diggers of Broadway."Captured here by the camera lens as it looked on a random day in 1919 --- a neatly arranged and sedate phonograph store window --- at a time when the owner would be hard pressed to imagine a day when his shop, it's product line and likely the entire structure that the shop inhabited...
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Pleasure Bound
2007-08-31 03:39:00
Late summer of 1912. The sun still warms and heats but the warmth doesn't cling as it did only weeks before. The tree leaves, once lush and soft, now rustle crisply in the breeze sweeping in from the ocean only a few blocks away. End of season at Coney Island's Luna Park."Dardanella" (1919) - CalliopeThis mother and her young son, about to enjoy a hot-dog (tongs are barely visible in the counter clerk's right hand) are, I believe, stopping for a bite to eat before venturing homeward. No child --- of 1912 or 2007, would be easily convinced to pause outside the gates of such a wonderland for food --- and even if persuaded, their attention would surely be intently fixed upon the entrance and the pleasures behind it. No, this young fellow seems content, a bit wistful and perhaps a bit bored at this point. He's had his day. Autumn is ahead --- and school, two elements that could easily result in his pensive pose. Hence, perhaps, this end-of-summer fling provided by an underst...
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"A Summer Idyll"
2007-08-16 05:39:00
A stretch of Coney Island in the early years of the last century, and the slower pace that summer dictates was as much in place then as it is now.Numerous e-mails from anxious readers prompts and encourages me to return to my post and to assure readers that August and September will be represented by at least two entries each!It's pleasant to lose yourself in photos such as the one seen here, in which the grouping and body language suggests a young couple (far left) on a seaside outing in the company of one or the other's formidable mother (center) and a younger, unmarried sister (right.) A jacket and sweater draped across the back of the bench indicates the morning would have been an unseasonably cool one --- but the presence of bathers wading in the surf hints at the fact it also warmed up nicely. A wrapped box on the edge of the bench looks to be chocolates or similar sweets (a peace offering for Mother perhaps?) and sister seems to have temporarily flung aside the folded n...
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"Big Whoopee Show"
2007-07-15 02:34:00
We enter this installment in the cheerful company of Bessie Love, Cliff Edwards and one very lucky ukulele! The trio suggests a swift, soaring, swooping, varied and light-hearted pace is in order for this entry and we'll insure that happens with our very first musical selection:"When Erastus Plays His Old Kazoo" (1927)The artists here are the Savoy Orpheans, and you won't likely find a more merry, bright and tight orchestration of this infectiously gleeful tune than this one. Just try keeping still during this one!Interestingly, a 1929 newspaper item concerning the (then) new trend of talkie stars appearing on phonograph records, and mentions that Bessie Love would be stepping before the microphone for a disc of vocalizing and ukulele strumming --- but alas, I can find no listing suggesting any such recording was released. Perhaps one of the many 78rpm experts to visit these pages can offer further information?Some three years earlier, in October of 1926, the multi-talented Bes...
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"The Battle Cry of Syncopation"
2007-07-09 05:48:00
Looking at us, as we look at her --- Sophie Tucker --- on the set of the 1929 Warner Bros. & Vitaphone production "Honky Tonk," a film considered to be lost. Not misplaced, but left to slowly decay and fall away into the same abyss of nothingness that ultimately claims all that is not tended to --- looked after --- preserved.Tucker is seen here with her personal pianist Teddy Shapiro, and the pair gamely plays along with the Warner Bros. publicity machine --- hoping to make the best of what Tucker deemed a bad situation, a bad script and what she expected to be a bad film.As she gazes at the lens, she couldn't have known we'd be returning her glance some seventy-eight years in the future --- but that knowledge would have, doubtless, pleased the entertainer immensely. And, when you come right down to it, the fact that picture elements for her film "Honky Tonk" have apparently vanished would have also likely pleased her too, cruel though that may seem to us from our vantage poin...
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"Eyes Front - Ears Wide Open - and Listen!"
2007-06-26 08:25:00
The magnificent bit of artwork at the left is detail from an insert poster for the 1928 Fox thriller "A Thief in the Dark," which is one of countless films that appeared at the end of the silent era with little fanfare, did whatever box-office business it was expected to do, and then simply vanished into the chasm of lost films from which few ever manage to climb out from, or even wave a feeble hand from some dark corner on the globe to confirm it's survival and signal for help."A Thief in the Dark" doesn't appear to have been especially memorable, or profitable either for that matter, but it does seem to have been finely crafted and wonderful entertainment for the scant few weeks the Spring and Summer of 1928 that it flitted across cinema screens before leaving this world, presumably forever.Archive database descriptions of the film, as per normal, effectively strip away the aura of mystery and intrigue that both Fox and the film itself manufactured, so let's instead attempt to ...
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"Wonderful Days and Arabian Nights"
2007-06-10 03:21:00
Let's open this entry with an electrifying, albeit sadly brief, stretch of melody from the 1930 Paramount film "Love Among the Millionaires":"Rarin' to Go!" "Motorcars are kind of tame,although you're stepping on High...I want to glide an aereoplane,and fly 'er up to the sky!Who wants to be a bird in a cage?This is the great electrical age!Turn on the juice,I'm on the loose,I'm rarin' to go!"It's so typical a mid-1929/mid-1930 Paramount screen moment --- unexpected and exhilarating, springing up out of barren, familiar territory and then, it's all over much too quickly and the viewer is left wondering if any similar moment is to come --- but it seldom, if ever, does.The sequence is aptly described in The New York Times' review of the film: "With characteristic abandon, Clara Bow becomes the clown, although one is to understand that there are tears and heartbreak beneath the make-up, when she arises at her fiances party and sings rowdily so that the son of the railroad pr...
More About: Days , Wonderful , Arabia , Arabian , Arab

Banj-O-Reno
2007-05-23 22:25:00
To open this entry, a musical prologue of sorts to set a mood, a pace and firmly chase away any lingering wisps of gloom that might still be clinging about!"Banjoreno," performed by the Dixieland Jug Blowers, dates from late December of 1926, and it's entirely unlike the sort of tune you're probably now imagining. Nearly impossible to describe, it's as cheering as it is haunting --- and tuneful as it is deceptively simple. Try it."Banjoreno" (1926) The Dixieland Jug BlowersSeeming an old friend by now, Irving Kaufman returns to put over "That's Why I Love You," precisely as he did in August of 1926 --- his unmistakable voice in beautiful form and, while dainty little melodies often suffered when paired with Kaufman's thundering pipes, this one is a love match!"That's Why I Love You" (1926) Irving KaufmanAn early glimpse of Colleen Moore's 1928 First National film "Happiness Ahead" can be had in the following studio generated publicity placement from early May of that year...
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Bury My Heart at the Loew's Kings
2007-05-19 21:12:00
My parents, both aged nineteen. It's December of 1948, and they'd be married the following year --- on New Year's Eve of 1949.Hard work, military service and more hard work would chip away at the 1950's, and by the close of that decade they were still childless.As 1960 dawned, I arrived.Mom would pass away in 2002, and Dad would follow five years later, on May 10th of this year.Both played important roles in nurturing my love for vintage film, and I thought it only fitting to reminisce a bit here about just that --- despite the topic being far removed from the usual sort of thing I'm accustomed to writing. I was greatly surprised, touched and heartened to note the public comments posted on this Blog's last entry --- and even more so by the many more private notes of sympathy and encouragement sent to me via e-mail by readers of these pages, most of whom I've never communicated with before, truth be told.I'm hopeful that readers may enjoy this somewhat scattered recollecti...
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A Necessary Pause....
2007-05-10 17:33:00
Owing to the loss of a family member,"Vitaphone Varieties" will pause postingsfor approximately one week.~Thank-You...~~Jeff C. - "Vitaphone Varieties"###
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"Crook Talk" & Other Diversions
2007-05-06 03:30:00
"I handed the moll my rod and the ice, and told her to ditch it so that the pointed-toe dick couldn't give me the rap!"So says actor Monte Blue in the late 1929 Warner Bros. crook drama, "Skin Deep." Directed by Ray Enright, the six-reel talkie appears to have long since vanished, although a surviving set of Vitaphone discs for the film's foreign release version allows us some faint notion of the film's mood and pace.Based upon "Lucky Damage," a short story by Marc Edmund Jones, and first filmed by Thomas Ince for a 1922 silent version starring Milton Sills and released by First National, newspapers in May of 1929 carried an item mentioning that Warner Bros. had successfully "acquired the motion picture rights to the property as a vehicle for Monte Blue," a simple deal indeed given the association between First National and Warners at the time.In conjunction with the 1929's film release in Fresno, California, a local newspaper prepared a thumbnail biographical sketch of actor Mo...
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Time Step
2007-05-03 05:30:00
O. O. McIntyre's syndicated newspaper column, "New York Day By Day" pondered a great many topics in the entry for September 14th of 1934. He expressed his fondness for Shirley Temple and Patsy Kelly, and observed that Paul Whiteman's mustache is always under control. He called attention to the fact that there's none spryer than Adolph Zukor, and that Cecil B. DeMille is the most meticulous of dandies. Also, as was typical of this gentle writer, he turned his sentimental and observant eye on slivers of daily New York City life that either often went unobserved and unappreciated, and also those that were missed by their absence from it."I came upon an early hot chestnut vendor today on West 34th Street. These silent street corner salesmen, hovering over their little jet of charcoal, are my favorite metropolitan characters. They suggest the long wintry nights of good reading to come, humblest of all merchants in the brashest of cities. So grateful for the occasional sale. I suspect ...
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Enigmarelle & Co.
2007-04-20 19:58:00
Much to the disappointment of Frank Fay and Ned Sparks fans around the globe, print ads for the Pathe feature "Night Work" hailed Eddie Quillan as "1930's Drollest Comedian." In an uneasy example of enthusiasm grasping for just the right wording, the ad copy continues on..."Eddie Quillan, young master of fun and clean romance who has flashed across the movie horizon like a breath out of entertainment heaven, tickles you in one of the most unusual fun-stories ever written for the screen. A laugh a foot, a sigh every once in a while, chuckles and wet eyes galore! See it -- you'll enjoy it!"Released in mid-1930 and booked into theaters around the country as late as November of 1931, "Night Work" is one of those films which continues to be tagged as "lost" on various internet databases, but which is very much with us.... not perhaps, quite a "breath out of entertainment heaven" but very much a "fun and clean romance."Compared favorably to Quillan's 1929 hit, "The Sophomore," th...
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Then As Now
2007-04-12 05:30:00
No "feature story" for this entry --- instead, a number of diverse items of interest of no particular time and place except the distant past.We start with the vivid poster artwork for "New York Nights," actress Norma Talmadge's first talking film, released just as an exhausted and deflated 1929 stepped aside for the far more serious-minded 1930 to take over.It's always interesting to compare studio-manufactured publicity with actual period reviews, but --- interestingly, "New York Nights" fared just as well in the eyes of imaginary and actual reviewers. And this in spite of the fact that a seemingly unfounded legend has long since attached itself to the film (and Miss Talmadge) that suggests her voice was so tainted by a distinctive Brooklyn accent that the film was all but laughed off the screen by public and critics alike --- accounting for its failure at the box office. Nonsense, apparently.Curiously, studio-prepared newspaper inserts for the film opted for odd wording that sug...
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"Why Bring That Up?"
2007-04-02 05:47:00
The veil of time lifts --- and we behold performer Mr. Edgar Atchison Ely, circa 1897, in character as "The Future Dude." With little effort, we can picture Mr. Ely sitting at a writing desk in a hotel lobby or room --- or perhaps on a train speeding towards his next play date, opening a pasteboard box fresh from Robinson & Roe, Photographers. As would most any entertainer --- then or now --- envisioning their presumed success and audience adulation, he can't resist inscribing the card to an admirer, which he does in a somewhat shaky but elegant hand of the sort simply doesn't exist anymore.Then, perhaps admiring the effect but regretting writing across the image portion of the card --- and also wisely remembering his employers, he inscribes the card again along the bottom --- exhaling in despair as his pen malfunctions midway through.Imagined though this scenario is --- for the card could have been pre-inscribed and then signed again in the presence of a friend or fan who then ...
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