The Riverside Rest Revue of 2011, Part II

Hi, folks! Welcome back to the Riverside Rest's showcase for the craziest, gaudiest, sweetest, funniest, or most outrageous numbers from one of the wildest times in film history - 1929 to 1934, when films learned to not only talk, but sing and dance as well.

One of my very favorite performers kicks off the proceedings this time around. Bessie Love, an Oscar nominee for The Broadway Melody, here gets to show off her comic side with "I Never Knew I Could Do a Thing Like That," from MGM's The Hollywood Revue of 1929.

I Never Knew I Could Do a Thing Like That

Warners dramatic star Richard Barthlmess introduces us to our next number. Seven sibling pairs (and one fictional one) two-step through a world of sisterhood in "Meet My Sister" from Show of Shows.

(And I must concede with some YouTube viewers - don't Sally Blane and Loretta Young look enough alike to be twins?)

Meet My Sister

Our first Two-Strip Technicolor number of the evening brings in a real-life vaudeville sister act. Vivian and Rosetta Duncan were top-rung headliners when they appeared in MGM's backstager It's a Great Life. Check out the fabulous Art Deco sets in "I'm Sailing On a Sunbeam."

I'm Sailing On a Sunbeam

And now, we go back a bit in history to the Great War of 1918...via 1929 Hollywood. Hopeful doughboy Lawrence Gray pursues feisty mam'selle Marion Davies in the hit duet from MGM's Marianne, "Just You, Just Me."

Just You, Just Me

Oh dear. Lawrence and Marion aren't the only ones who are feuding. I hope Marjorie White and Frank Richardson can get through our next number, A Diet of Love from Fox's Happy Days, without major bloodshed...

A Diet of Love

Thanks to "Whispering" Jack Smith for breaking up those two. Yikes! Let's cut to something safer, like comedian Eddie Cantor performing one of his biggest hits in Samuel Goldwyn's Two-Strip Technicolor hit Whoopee!.

Makin' Whoopee

We "boop-op-a-doop" our way over to teacher (and Betty Boop inspiration) Helen Kane and her classroom full of booping kiddies in this number from Paramount On Parade.


Teacher Says Boop-Op-a-Doop

Our next number gets more than a little campy as singer Sharon Lynn and dancer Ann Penninton shows us how to shake our "Snake Hips," from Fox's Happy Days.

Snake Hips

Who knew ballet could be so hot? MGM may not have released the full March of Time, but they did put out this amazing number in a short. We give you the Albertina Rasch Dancers in "The Hades Ballet."

The Hades Ballet

And now, the sing-along portion of our show. Janet Gaynor leads a New York block party in the title song of Fox's Sunny Side Up.

Keep Your Sunny Side Up

How'd you like to attend a Hollywood premiere? The finale of Show Girl In Hollywood takes place at the film-within-the-film's premiere. Look for cameos from then-Warner/First National stars Loretta Young, Al Jolson, and Ruby Keeler. Alice White leads the chorus through "Hang Onto a Rainbow."

Hang Onto a Rainbow

We travel across the continent to Broadway for this cute Technicolor production number from MGM's Lord Byron of Broadway. Stage star Ethelind Terry tells us the story of "The Woman In the Shoe."

The Woman In the Shoe

After all that, how about we return to another duo? Allen Kerns and Ann Pennington decide that "You're Responsible," from RKO's original beachside tale Tanned Legs

You're Responsible

Operetta favorite Vivienne Segal and future MGM leading man Walter Pidgeon (along with a none-too-happy Alexander Gray) lead us through a Sigmund Romberg hit from the Warners film Viennese Nights, "You Will Remember Vienna."

You Will Remember Vienna

French stage star Irene Bordoni brings a bit of "ooh lah lah" to our show with "Just an Hour of Love," from Warner's Show of Shows

Just an Hour of Love

Dorothy Lee and Bert Wheeler, along with Wheeler's partner Robert Woosley and the rest of the cast of RKO's The Cuckoos, brings our show to its conclusion. Look for our next revue sometime this week!

I Love You So Much/Cuckoos Finale