Movies 'Til Dawn Blog

THE FOOTBALL FOLLIES?

One of the biggest hits of the 1927 Broadway season was ‘Good News’, a musical that was the quintessential 20s rah-rah football celebration. As an artifact, the 1930 film adaptation is priceless due largely to the poor quality of the filmmaking. As you’ll see above in the show’s most famous

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BROADWAY IN THE 20s (more or less)

Here’s a neat little four minute clip reel of 1920s New York City footage, most of it focusing on Times Square at night. The clip selection is random and a bit wonky but anything about 1920s New York City is catnip to me so I’d thought I’d share it. (Apparently

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MY DINNER WITH SONDHEIM

Let’s not be coy. I didn’t have dinner with Stephen. (Lunch once, yes, but that’s a story for another time). (And there were eight of us at the table, though I was seated next to him). But last night while eating leftovers I watched the terrific video posted above which

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‘PARIS’; THE LOST COLE PORTER MUSICAL

Yesterday I wrote about my fascination with lost films–movies of the 20s and 30s that have vanished into the ether seemingly with no explanation. The truth is that most movies of the time were considered largely disposable after their initial run in theaters and little effort was made to preserve

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MARXIANA PT. 3–LILLIAN ROTH SINGS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tTMQYdBIYQ Most of what we know about Lillian Roth we know from Susan Hayward’s robust but depressing portrait of her in ‘I’ll Cry Tomorrow’, the screen bio of Roth’s tragic life based on her memoir. One of the first searingly honest portraits of an alcoholic’s descent, Roth’s book completely overshadowed

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THE ART OF ECCENTRIC DANCE PT. DUEX–AL ‘RUBBERLEGS’ NORMAN

Here’s a production number from the 1930 version of ‘Good News’, adapted from the hit 1927 Broadway musical of the same name by DeSylva, Brown and Henderson. The lead singer/dancer is Penny Singelton who later played ‘Blondie’ in the Columbia Pictures series of that iconic comic strip. Here she does

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