Last week I posted several versions of talking front titles, courtesy of the Hal Roach Studios. Both movies were made in 1930 (the year Roach tried this experiment) and I confidently contended that the only Roach players that didn’t get this treatment were Laurel&Hardy. A reader wrote in to tell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8JKEso5a3Ihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LELTZmD3gWY In 1930, Hal Roach experimented with having the opening credits of some of his comedies spoken by two young women who appear to be identical twins, posed on a very nice quasi-Egyptian themed deco stage. Much like the soundtrack of the trailer I posted yesterday, this was likely another
‘The Painted Angel’ (1929) starring Billie Dove is a lost film–for the most part. Like many Vitaphone releases of those early talking pictures years, the discs of the soundtrack have survived (Vitaphone’s early sound system involved the sound on separate discs, linked to a projector which showed the mute film.
Yesterday I posted a 1972 interview with songwriting great Harry Warren. Today let’s look backwards forty years from that time to 1933 and watch a Vitaphone “Pepper Pot” short called “Harry Warren; America’s Foremost Composer’. In it, Warren appears at a piano in a beautiful art deco setting, surrounded by
In 1972, Ian Whitcomb–singer, songwriter, music historian and show-biz gadabout–interviewed the great songwriter Harry Warren. Above is fifteen minutes of that video and it’s a real delight. Warren tells stories in his off-the-cuff, gruff Brooklyn manner and plays and sings a few of his songs. At the end, he and
Okay, I took a week’s vacation from posting and now I’m back. I was with family and, much as I love them, I kind of wish I was George Gershwin in the spring of 1937 on vacation with Paulette Goddard. The two of them were discreetly involved in a romance
Here’s a couple of precious minutes showing Judy Garland during a run-through for an appearance on ‘Hollywood Palace’, singing ‘What the World Needs Now (Is Love Sweet Love)’. Her listless performance is a hell of a lot more fun than many singers all out, full-blown performances though its hard to
My son and I had a marvelous time at the massive AirVenture 2026 convention–I was too busy and exhausted looking at (and riding on) airplanes to post anything as you may have noticed. I can think of no better way to conclude the experience then by delving into the darkest
Once upon a time, before we all hated getting on the plane to go somewhere we didn’t really want to go to, there was a glamour and fascination associated with all things aeronautical. Between the wars–1918 to 1940 roughly–this was epitomized by the advent of air races. Competitions were held
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rfV3301d2khttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-JBHAq_AxU&list=RDT-JBHAq_AxU&start_radio=1 This is aviation week here in my world and as a result I am going to drag all my readers (both of you) through the AvGeek muck with me. The reason for this is that on Wednesday my son and I will be going to the AirVenture convention in