The Riverside Rest Revue of 2011, Part 4

We're baaaaack! Yes folks, it's time for one more round of music, madness, and history, with the sounds of the wild and wacky Early Sound Film era, 1929-1934!

This time, the show begins with a sweet Gershwin ballad from the 1931 Fox film Delicious. Scottish immigrant Janet Gaynor dreams of "Somebody from Somewhere" who will introduce her to a new life in the New World.

Somebody from Somewhere

Our next one takes us on a "Happy Landing," from the 1931 MGM aviation-based show Flying High.

Happy Landing

In our last Riverside Rest Revue, we saw a Technicolor number featuring an enormous bridal veil. Well, how about a Technicolor number featuring a huge fan? The Dodge Sisters and the MGM chorus are the feather-bedecked beauties in "A Girl and a Fan and a Fellow." Originally intended for the scrapped March of Time, this one eventually appeared in the Three Stooges short Nertsery Rhymes.

A Girl and a Fan and a Fellow

Our next Technicolor number is even more spectacular. Dorothy Lee leads the chorus in "Dancing the Devil Away," from RKO's The Cuckoos.


Dancing the Devil Away

Lawrence Gray asks Marilyn Miller the musical question "Who?", from Warners' Sunny.

Who?

We go back to college...but this ain't dear old Tait, folks. The Marx Brothers take over higher education and bring down stuffy professors in "Whatever It Is, I'm Against It" from Paramount's Horse Feathers.


Whatever It Is, I'm Against It

What do you think of when you hear George Gershwin's jazz symphony "Rhapsody In Blue?" I hope it's half as amazing as what came out of the mind of director John Murray Anderson for the sequence based around it in Universal's 1930 revue King of Jazz. (Check out the stunning use of Technicolor here!)


Rhapsody In Blue

Winnie Lightner leads this delightfully goofy ensemble number from Warners' Show of Shows, "Singin' In the Bathtub." That's wrestler and long-time screen heavy Bull Montana serenading Lightner at the end.

(And fans of Looney Tunes shorts know this song well. Warners used it in any cartoon they did featuring a bath tub - including the very first Looney Tune - for over 40 years.)

Singin' In the Bathtub

Eddie Cantor tells ingenue Evelyn Brent about "A Girlfriend of a Boyfriend of Mine," from Samuel Goldwyn's 1930 smash Whoopee!.

A Girlfriend of a Boyfriend of Mine

A two-for one pair of Technicolor tunes from Warners' 1930 operetta Viennese Nights. Comedienne Louise Fazenda explains what will happen "When You Find a Man to Love" to Vivanne Segal and the chors. Segal then joins Alexander Gray for lovely hit ballad "I Bring You a Love Song."

When You Find a Man to Love/I Bring You a Love Song

Staying in operetta territory and at Warners, we move to 1931's Kiss Me Again. Bernice Claire performs the title ballad to Walter Pidgeon while the Warners' chorus looks on dreamily.

Kiss Me Again

Here's a true oddity - the first sci-fi musical. Frank Albertson and Marjorie White contemplate love in the "future," 1980, in "Never Swat a Fly" from Fox's 1930 Just Imagine.

Never Swat a Fly

A lovely bit of history. Marion Davies has to elude the attentions of Lawrence Gray as The Floradora Girl, a member of the sextet "Tell Me Pretty Maiden" in the 1900 Broadway blockbuster Floradora, represented in MGM's 1930 Technicolor comedy.

Tell Me Pretty Maiden

Bob Woosley finally gets a solo as he tells the ladies of New Orleans that "A Lady Loves a Soldier," from RKO's Dixiana.

A Lady Loves A Soldier

I couldn't think of a better way to end our revues than with the dazzling finale from King of Jazz. Let's join Paul Whiteman and the cast to celebrate the "Melting Pot" that is American music.

Melting Pot

Will there be more revues? Who knows? For right now, as a certain pig I once knew used to say, "That's all, folks!"