"The Best Sound in Town"

Paramount's "The Cocoanuts" was selected as the grand re-opening feature for the Metropolitan Theater in Circleville, Ohio --- a theater which clearly had some issues with disc based sound reproduction systems, as revealed in the delightful ad to the left. Although Irving Berlin's "When My Dreams Come True" was to emerge as the hit from the filmed version of the 1926 stage musical, it's ultimately dreary when compared to "The Monkey Doodle-Doo," which --- oddly, wasn't widely recorded at all.

A lush version of "When My Dreams Come True" that hails from Australia, featuring a female vocalist who does as well or better than Mary Eaton.

"When My Dreams Come True" (1929) - Australia

As hot a tune as Paul Whiteman's band ever approached, "The Monkey Doodle-Doo" was recorded under the house-band alias "Busse's Buzzards" for Columbia in the last days of 1925. To quote the movie ad, "to miss it is a regret."

"The Monkey Doodle Doo" (1925)


Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer spared no expense advertising and promoting "The Broadway Melody," a landmark film which well deserved whatever boasting rights the studio could muster up. Theaters that booked the film had access to a wide array of ad copy, including one clever bit of advertising showmanship in the form of what looked to be an honest to goodness Western Union telegram from MGM to the theater owner, granting them --- above all other theaters in the area --- the right to show the film based upon their individual sterling qualities as presenters of fine motion pictures. Although this gimmick probably fooled as many newspaper readers as it was supposed to, audiences would arrive in droves with or without it.

It's interesting to note in the ad at left that even the smallest of local theaters presented the film with a specially recorded Overture (by New York's Capitol Theater Orchestra), discs of which seem to have fallen by the wayside.

Commercial recordings of the film's tunes are as many and varied as they are familiar, so here's two lesser known renditions of the title tune.

The first, by incredibly prolific songster Irving Kaufman (was there a record label he didn't record for?) is surprisingly restrained for a vocalist with a voice that could rival a klaxon and burst from the grooves of even the cheapest of dime-store discs.

"The Broadway Melody" (1929)

Odd though the combination is, Hawaiian guitars don't seem especially out of place in the second version, by a group calling themselves "The Four Aces," on the bargain Velvet-Tone label.

"The Broadway Melody" (1929) - The Four Aces

Little more than a scant minute or so in length, a fragment of recently discovered Technicolor footage will eventually allow us a glimpse --- for the first time in over seventy-five years --- of what so captivated audiences and critics alike when the Warner Bros. all-Technicolor production "On With the Show!" first premiered.

The prognosis is somewhat more optimistic for Warners' other smash-hit all-Technicolor release of 1929, "The Gold Diggers of Broadway," a film that seems intent upon slowly putting itself back together after decades of assisted exile from the world of the living.

British dance orchestras seem to have had a remarkable knack for producing the best 78rpm medleys from early musicals, and what follows are three of the best.

The first is a selection of tunes from "On With the Show" recorded by the Broadcast Dance Orchestra in late 1929. Included: "Welcome Home," "Am I Blue?," "Birmingham Bertha," "Let Me Have My Dreams," and the unfortunate "Lift A Julep To Your Two Lips.

Selections from "On With the Show" (1929)

From "Gold Diggers of Broadway," a two-sided medley (joined into one file here) quite unique in that it covers just about every tune performed in the film (aside from incidental scoring), three of which were never commercially recorded in the United States to my knowledge. Although the sonic quality is a bit thin, it's a remarkable compilation of diverse melody and rhythm. Included is: "In a Kitchenette," "What Will I Do Without You?," "The Gold Digger's Song," "Tip Toe thru the Tulips," "Go To Bed," "Keeping the Wolf from the Door," "Painting the Clouds With Sunshine," and "Mechanical Man."

Medley - "The Gold Diggers of Broadway" (1929)

From Al Jolson's 1930 part-Technicolor film "Mammy," which has made a few furtive appearances on screens following its recent restoration before retiring to points unknown, our last British dance band medley --- this time featuring tunes by Irving Berlin.

Selections from the Talkie Success "Mammy" (1930)

To give fair due to elaborate recorded medleys from early musicals that were produced on these shores --- and there weren't that many --- a fine one by Ben Selvin and His Orchestra paying homage to Metro's "Hollywood Revue" recorded for Columbia in late August of 1929.

Included: "Your Mother and Mine," "Orange Blossom Time," "Nobody But You," "Singin' in the Rain," and "Low Down Rhythm."

Medley - "The Hollywood Revue" (1929)

Lastly, in response to a reader's request regarding the previous post (Melody Native), although Ramon Novarro did not record a commercial version of "The Pagan Love Song" at the time the film was in release, he did include it in a medley of tunes recorded in Great Britain in 1936. Despite the fact that Novarro's accent seems to have thickened considerably since 1929, whether in actuality or not, it's a lovely recording --- although there's an underlying strain of sadness that's as touching as it is difficult to quite define.

Medley - Ramon Novarro (UK-1936)

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A Moment's Ornament

Imagine, if you will, a world some eighty odd years hence --- bereft of any visual home entertainment devices. If you can imagine that, then you might also be able to envision a writer of the same dim future pondering whether or not a film of 2012 was seen by audiences in an eye wear-free 3-D holographic format or not.

Although admittedly not the best comparison, such is the case with many films of the early sound era that now exist (if at all) in forms that are dramatically different from the ones that audiences first experienced.

It's easy to pick up one of the few truly good books on films of the period and learn of a film's plot, who directed it and who could be seen in it. But, in the case of missing films or those which have been visually or aurally altered over the decades, we never seem to quite learn why this has happened. And, more to the point, if we can't possibly see the "XYZ Follies Revue of 1930" today as audiences of 1930 saw it, we're seldom told just what those differences may be.

If there's one thing I've learned over years of sometimes leisurely research and other times frantic quests for information of films of the 1928-1930 era, it's to not entirely believe everything one is told, or reads, or has heard. (And that should certainly include these posts, to be perfectly fair.) Film history is inevitably history as it's interpreted when it's being written. Read a "movie history" book from the 1950's or 1960's and you'll see what I mean.

Even today, with the DVD format that allows for viewing of stunning presentations of titles like "The Broadway Melody," "The Great Gabbo," "Hell's Angels," "Dixiana," etc. and a number of exceptionally solid books on the topic, confusion and unintended misinformation still prevails.

For instance, "The Great Gabbo." A guilty-pleasure film that remains close to my heart ever since first viewing it via a super 8mm sound print from Thunderbird Films while suffering from the 'flu and a high fever (which didn't prevent me from crawling out of bed when it arrived to thread up the projector), I'm sure it looked and sounded mighty fine to me back in the late 70's. The version now available on DVD is almost startling in terms of clarity and in image detail, but ever since seeing this magnificent restoration, I'm unable to really recall seeing it any other way even though I did.

Although persons with impeccable credentials maintain that "The Great Gabbo" never contained color sequences as have long been thought, or (when pressed) that if it did, then it was only for selected showings at a premiere in a key city or two. Scour through newspaper archives, and a different story emerges. We see small theaters in small towns of small cities showing "The Great Gabbo" all the way into mid-1930 (it was released in late 1929), and accompanying advertisements and reviews that clearly mention "natural colors" or "Technicolor" (which it wasn't) or "Prismatic effects" for not just one, but many scenes. One lazy editor or type-setter or reviewer can be dismissed, but as many as twenty or thirty?

Similarly, the 1929 Warner Bros. revue, "The Show of Shows" is often cited today as having had only key sequences in the Technicolor process. Yet, once again, there's contrary evidence --- a lot in this case, indicating the entire film was in Technicolor.

Revealing though vintage press coverage can be, it can also be maddeningly frustrating and puzzling. Try as I might, I could not find a single reference hinting that the infamous "Turn on the Heat" musical number in Fox's 1929 "Sunny Side Up" was ever seen in anything but black and white, and some reviews of "The Broadway Melody" detail a "Technicolor" sequence that doesn't have a thing in common with any footage in surviving prints. Finally, there's mystifying types of comments such as one which cautions that the Marilyn Miller film "Sally" (WB-1929) is "98 per cent in Technicolor."

As I said earlier, don't believe everything you read --- especially when it comes to the fantastically convoluted history of films that talked, sang and danced across screens long, long ago.

(Three melodies from "The Great Gabbo," the first two featuring vocalist Greta Keller.)

"Every Now and Then" (1929)

"The New Step" (1929)

"The Web of Love" (1929)

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