Roy Mack
Nazi spies mistake Snuffy Smith's moonshine for a new secret rocket fuel and try to steal the "formula."
Dr. Whoozis' vitamin and exercise routine turn young girls into super-charged pin-up models
Early soundie with Gwen "Verdun" dancing while Warren Jackson croons "The Girl After My Heart".
Martha Tilton sings "Love Turns Winter to Spring" in this Soundies film from 1941.
Bandleader Frances Carroll leads The Coquettes, an all-female band, in several swing tunes.
Another in the long series of "Pete Smith" shorts from M-G-M in which William Newell meets and falls in love with Sally Payne, and begins to budget for their plans to get married. His budget, alas, does not include nor anticipate the plans of Sally and her parents. This short was reissued in June of 1950 to be shown as a trailer with 1950's "Father of the Bride" and some sources think this short was made for that express purpose and date it as a 1950 film.
In this Broadway Brevities short, a stunt double is hit on the head and imagines himself in a series of movie scenes with doubles for various stars.
In this entertaining short, famous literary figures step out of the pages of books after dark.
Her doctor thinks Rita Rio is crazy for loving music too much, but she proves him wrong by becoming a successful bandleader.
When he is fired from his job, Red puts a hex on his boss. That evening, the boss goes to a nightclub and discovers that the hex worked.
In this 1939 short in the Melody Master series, that was re-released in 1948 and 1955, Artie Shaw) leads his orchestra in "Begin the Beguine","Nightmare", "Non-Stop Flight", "Let's Stop the Clock", sung by Helen Forrest, and "Pross Tchai"/"Good-bye", a comedy Russian number performed by saxophone player Tony Pastor).
June never leaves her apartment, which has a view of an advertising sign of a knight in shining armor. She is two weeks behind in her rent and believes that if she leaves the apartment, the landlord will never let her back in. The only way she gets food is when her friend, singer Earlayne Schools, brings it to her. One evening June sees Hal, a tap-dancing sign painter, painting over her knight. She explains her predicament, and he does his best to help her out.
Musical satire based on Anthony Hope's Ruritanian novel "The Prisoner of Zenda" in which a commoner takes the place of a lookalike king.
Dave Apollon & His Orchestra "Trees", "The Lady in Red", "Born to Swing" and "Shine".
"Swing cat" Louis Prima and his jazz quartette play songs and accompany featured singers and dancers.
In this 'Vitaphone Melody Master,' orchestra leader Ray Kinney sings Hawaiian songs while The Aloha Maids perform native dances.
Woody Herman's orchestra plays five tunes, and guest performers sing and dance.
A movie director needs a script girl and a strip girl, misunderstanding the job title, shows up.
Young Cab Calloway's mother is concerned, because Cab spends his days listening to the radio, pretending to lead a miniature orchestra. A deacon passing by the apartment hears him singing and advises him go to his wife's gypsy tea room. As she reads the tea leaves, she sees situations which lead to Cab and his orchestra performing musical numbers.
George Hall and his orchestra couldn't find a hotel in the city where they are scheduled to appear, so they break into the basement of the theater in which they will perform the next day. They rehearse some musical numbers, and other songs are performed in dream sequences.
An elevator operator and an engaged girl in love dodge the girl's fiancee and attempt to win over her father.
A telegraph postal union worker has no luck when asks a pretty co-worker to marry him. She says he'd have to be a magician to get her to say yes. Things are complicated when, as a favor to a stuttering acquaintance, he takes his overweight girlfriend to the movies to propose to her by proxy. Unfortunately the pretty co-worker spots him with her in the theater, so he begins to learn magic tricks.
A series of musical numbers loosely connected by a storyline involving the Upsy Daisey theatre troupe assuming management of the debt-ridden Grand Majestic Hotel. Noteworthy is the song and dance routine, "Holiday in Hades". A precursor to Ralph Staub's Swing Hotel (1939).
In this short film, Babe Ruth proposes to put a song about baseball on the radio.
The owner of a shoe polish company sponsors a radio show that showcases black performers. Since his wife's father put up the money to be the sponsor, she insists on singing on the show. She goes on after the main star, singer Nina Mae McKinney. The wife sings so badly that the sponsor's customers abandon him. He is forced to shine shoes on street corners, while Nina Mae and her boyfriend win a bet on a daily number and end up on easy street.
Harry Reser and his orchestra perform popular songs of the day and accompany guest performers.
Newspaper columnist Mr. Inquisitive telephones readers to ask, "What would you like to do?", with the chosen responses being eligible for a prize. The callees include torch singer Vera Van, bandleader Lester Cole (and his Texas Rangers), and other late-period vaudeville acts, all whom are ready to perform.
A doctor develops pills that make Hal a great tap dancer. Lola Green sees Hal dancing in a drugstore and asks him to join her vaudeville show. Everything is fine until Hal's pills disappear.
A radio salesman gets knocked out by a golf ball and dreams he's in the desert where he sells radios to sheiks.
Comedic short featuring Shakespeare's notable characters; many performing musical numbers. An assistant director is told to read all Shakespeare’s works in order to mine them for potential film plots. Falling asleep on the job, he dreams of various Shakespearean characters coming to life from the pages of giant books and singing and dancing in celebration of their "goin’ Hollywood." The characters appearing include Romeo, Juliet, Juliet’s Nurse, Puck, Peter Quince, Hamlet, Old Hamlet’s Ghost, Falstaff, Antony, Cleopatra, and Macbeth. Shakespeare appears toward the end of the film to object, but he is quickly convinced by his characters to join a big song and dance routine. Includes passing references to a number of familiar Shakespearean scenes including Hamlet’s "to be or not to be" soliloquy, Romeo and Juliet’s balcony scene, Hamlet with Yorick’s skull, and Enobarbus’ speech on Cleopatra’s barge.
In this musical short, three barkers for a New York City sightseeing bus drum up customers with songs and nightclub tours.
A miniature vaudeville show, complete with a title card introducing each act, is presented. First up is The On-Wah Troupe, an East Asian group of contortionists. Next, Blossom Seeley and Benny Fields sing a duet of the song, "Why Don't You Practice What You Preach". Third up, father and son Pat Rooney and Pat Rooney Jr. perform a recitation and dance musing about if they will ever be as clever as their dad. And the last act on the bill is The Runaway Four, a group of comic acrobats.
A Warner Bros.-Vitaphone Melody Master: The harmonica band is offered a radio gig... by their landlord! Their imaginations take them to various settings: aboard a train with a porter who can "gibber" a melody with the best of them, on the air with the leader making good use of the microphone and a hilarious slapstick battle resulting and, finally, in a Spanish setting with the shortest player (the comedy star) encouraging the dancer to show more "leg" than his boss allows.
A commercial passenger jet has gone missing on its flight from Mexico to New York. In reality, the plane did crash, but everyone aboard is physically unhurt. One of the passengers, musician Dave Apollon, is concerned about the money he will be losing if he doesn't get to New York to perform in his scheduled gigs. When one of the other passengers tells him that they can get there using his magical Hawaiian wishing stone, Dave balks at the notion. But when someone else demonstrates the stone's power by wishing they were some place else, they are whisked from place to place. At each stop, Dave and the others perform a musical revue themed to their locale. But as Dave doesn't have the stone, will they ever make it to New York?
Black vaudeville acts are featured in this Vitaphone Pepper Pot short. In addition to those listed in the credits, acts include The 3 Whippets, a group of acrobats; and The Five Racketeers, a band that initially backs up Eunice Wilson and then sings "Tiger Rag".
In this musical short, a love columnist can't find her own love connection.
State College is a coeducational school where the athletics are more important than academics. All there are preparing for a big multi-sport match with arch rival Dale College. Students Arthur and Florence are brother and sister, each with love troubles. Their romantic problems are resolved against a background of leggy singing, dancing coeds in this 2 reel musical.
In this Vitaphone Broadway Brevity musical short, Hal and Dawn work at the same vaudeville theater, where he's an usher, she's a chorus girl. When they both get fired, they form an act and vow to get back to their old theater, as performers.
In this Broadway Brevity short, a soda jerk/songwriter dreams (literally) of performing his songs on Broadway.
An insurance salesman persuades his sister to help him meet a radio star so he can sell the celebrity a policy.
Isham Jones and His Orchestra, with other cast members, perform some of the orchestra's biggest hits.
Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden preparing their latest meal. After the meal, they take a stroll through time. They make a few stops along the way for some musical interludes. These stops include in the Gardens of Emperor Nero of Rome for a concert circa 100 A.D., in King Arthur's court, and at a beach resort in current times.
Walter Webb, thinking his gas station has been destroyed, describes a "super-deluxe" gas station run by chorus girls to his insurance agent.
This Vitaphone short has Hugh Herbert tossing in some comedy lines while Walter Pidgeon relates the history of the new-fad (in 1936) game of Badminton. Ace badminton players Bill Hurley and George F. (Jess) Willard, not to be confused with boxer Jess Willard, play the fast-and-furious game.
In this musical short, three individuals try to entice a reclusive uncle to join the festivities during Mardi Gras.
In this musical short, the leading lady is a French woman who finds mystery and romance on a luxury liner. There is much music with a chorus of beautiful girls dancing in lush art deco settings.
MGM's all-star feature Dinner at Eight is parodied in this comic short, in which a cast of unidentified look-alike actors impersonate Lionel Barrymore, Marie Dressler, 'Jean Harlow' , et al.
A display what Vaudeville had to offer, with the likes of Carl Emmy and His Mad Wags, The Three Queens, Jack Pepper and His Society Pets and little people Olive & George performing for us.
A talented tap dancer who can't get an audition uses his prowess at playing craps to gain ownership of a musical show, making himself the star.
Hal LeRoy is hired as a tap teacher at Dawn O'Day's dancing school to give private lessons to female students. The school's manager, as well as some of his students, spreads false stories that Hal's lessons involve more than just tap dancing. He is fired and starts his own dancing school in the same building as O'Day's. Hal and Dawn now realize that their relationship was more than just business.
A movie producer announces that Lillian Roth has been signed to do a movie and he calls a story conference with a director and writers to come up with an idea for the film. As they work through various ideas, performers act out the song and dance numbers. A girls getting a divorce, a laundry worker who gets dumped by her boyfriend and singing scarecrows are all pitched and the producer suggests that they all be melded into one story.
A young American man in Paris spots a beautiful woman in a crowd and is instantly smitten, but soon loses sight of her. Later, as he and several friends are sitting at a table at an outdoor cafe and he is describing her to them, he sees her again. His friends begin to tease him about her, and he bets them that he can win her love in 30 days even though he has no money.
A resort owner tries to marry his daughter to a millionaire, but his scheme doesn't turn out exactly as planned.
Four convicts escape from a chain gang. Shortly thereafter, changes are made at the prison, because a blue ribbon commission will be investigating conditions there. The changes include steak every day for dinner and stage shows for entertainment. After reading about this, the four escapees plead with the warden to take them back in. Or was this all a dream?
A fantasy satire on politics in which a little boy dreams that he becomes President of the U.S. and his 'mammy' is Vice President. The film spotlights two now legendary performers much earlier in their careers: Ethel Waters and Sammy Davis Jr. In his first screen appearance, around the age of seven, pint-sized Davis sings, dances and clowns. Nicknamed 'the beanpole' slim and slinky Waters looks far different from the heavier figure she displayed in Pinky (1949) and Member of the Wedding (1953). Statuesque in a long glamorous white gown, she sings her big hit "Am I Blue." Davis, in turn sings "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead You Rascal You." (Separate Cinema)
Phil Emerton and his band play tunes and accompany guest performers, including singer-dancer Hannah Williams, the singing Three X Sisters, and acrobatic tap dancers Larry & Larry.
In this parody of Grand Hotel, despite a dying man's efforts to enjoy his final days, a jewel thief trying to comfort a great dancer, and a big business deal in progress, there are still those who say that "nothing ever happens here."
In this short film, musical and dance acts perform, first at a night club, then at a "rent party".
Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy's plane runs out of gas and lands in the African jungle. After a short comedy routine between the two, some natives come by and insist that they stay for dinner. The question then becomes what (or who) will the dinner be.
In this musical short, two night watchmen hear songs performed in a haunted pawn shop.
A Warner Bros Vitaphone short that promoted "Girls...Songs....Laughs." No full print exists but the Library of Congress has acquired one musical sequence.
The owner of an unsuccessful greeting cards store decides to sell 'talking' greeting cards in the form of records.
A drunken fool by the name of Paul Revere Wilson (or Williams or something) drinks too much and imagines himself living in 1776.
An American woman visits a small South American town where she quickly falls for a charming lieutenant.
In this musical short, General Bierbeau sends his weakling son, Pierre, to French Morocco to fight Arab insurgents, the Riffs, in the hopes that this will toughen him up. Pierre soon becomes the Riffs' leader and assumes a secret identity: The Red Shadow.
A group of redcaps in a train station perform musical numbers to raise money for a sick member of their group.
Anita Ragusa, the daughter of a costume company owner, delivers a dress for a costume ball at the last minute. The snobbish customer doesn't like the design at first, but agrees to let Anita model it for her to decide whether to keep it. Charlie, a drunk partygoer, sees Anita in the dress and invites her to attend the festivities. She reluctantly agrees and sings for the other guests.
Ruth Etting shows how she make a perfect three minute egg by singing a song with a length of exactly three minutes.
On a set resembling a yacht, Roger Wolfe Kahn leads his orchestra in several popular tunes of the day. Billed and un-billed guest acts also perform. At the end, Kahn thrills his guests by piloting a biplane.
Ruth Eton (Ruth Etting), a singer with a traveling show troupe, is engaged to the troupe manager, Joe Grant (Edward Leiter), but when Ruth's younger sister, Laura (Wanda Perry) arrives, fickle Joe transfers his attentions and intentions to her. For the sake of her sister and the show, Ruth accepts her tough break philosophically, and sings "Why Did It Have To Be Me?"...because she is a real trouper.
A musical revue in which a golfer is knocked unconscious by a golf ball and dreams that the Country Club is loaded with beautiful girls.
Short featuring musician Eubie Blake and his orchestra, singer Nina Mae McKinney, and young tap dancers Fayard and Harold Nicholas.
This short humorously recreates the experience of going to a nickelodeon during the silent film era, using footage of silent films and sarcastic narration.
Another entry in Robert L. Ripley's series. This time we also get to see Dan Edwards, the most decorated U.S. Veteran who is also missing a hand. For some reason we are introduced to another man missing a hand and then Ripley gets into the "believe it or not" stories. Included here is a woman married twelve times before her sixteenth birthday, a King who was married to a woman for twenty-eight years and only saw her twice; once when they were married and the other when she died.
A hobo named the Professor and his son, Charlie McCarthy, believe there's money buried in an abandoned house which was previously owned by a fellow named Herbie Larkin. Pretending to be Herbie's brother, the Professor dreams of finding the money by consulting a gypsy fortune teller, who conjures up more than Charlie likes. The reality of the situation eventually sets in.
This entry in the Believe It or Not series finds Mr. Ripley aboard a U.S. naval ship speaking to a group of sailors. The film he shows them includes items on a Mr. Curt Thompson, a blind telephone operator, and John R. Voorhees, who, at age 102, has voted 81 times since his 21st birthday. The finale is a demonstration of skill by Otto Reiselt, the three-cushion billiards champion.
A womanizing night club singer who has his pick of many beautiful showgirls tries to climb socially and break into society but soon discovers the social and class differences are insurmountable.
Leroy's dance is an eccentric one performed to the tune "Dinah", played to a fast, jazzy beat, and his feet certainly keep up. More than that, while he is dancing, he looks like a John Held Jr. cartoon from the New Yorker, a young sheik who wears clothes in a manner than makes him look like he is posing languidly at an absurd angle, even while he is moving fast. There are a couple of cuts to focus on his feet, and he is very good.
Traveling to North Africa, Ripley offers views of The Meeting Place of the Dead in Morocco, a jail for nagging wives, a village with houses made of tin cans, and a sultan with many wives and children.
Singer Ruth Eton is looking for some new songs to use in her act. Don Hopkins is a songwriter who wants to break into the business, but knows it is difficult to get music publishers to consider new talent. Don sees Ruth having dinner at a night club and asks for her help. —David Glagovsky
As a publicity stunt, a musical comedy star announces her engagement to a young man she believes is a gigolo, with whom she eventually falls in love.
In this short, multiple acts perform before an audience in a town hall. Performers include The Aaron Sisters singing trio and the Mound City Blue Blowers musicians. Another act features a tap dancer whose shoes have extensions on them that allow him to balance on the ends as one might use stilts. In the finale, an "inebriated" dog in the audience performs tricks. The short's title refers to the curfew in the town.
Host Ted Husing provides his slant on three different sports. The first is cricket. The main action takes place on what is called the pitch, which is the playing field. The bowler tries to knock the bales off the wickets with the ball, while the batter tries to prevent that by hitting the ball. The fielders - called the longs and the shorts - can also try to knock off the bales. The batting team can score by the batter hitting the ball and running the length of the pitch to the opposite crease without being dismissed. The second is sailing. Husing follows the sailing boat, the Fifi, as it competes in a regatta on Long Island Sound. It ends up being an exciting and difficult race because of the high winds. The third is polo. The game, which entails players mounted on horse, trying to score by hitting a ball with a mallet into the opposing team's goal. Husing follows a match on International Field in Westbury...
A black-face minstrel preacher motivates his congregation in song. Gags include a stockpile of guns outside the church and stolen chickens.
As a husband and wife eat breakfast, they argue about anything and everything.
'Blind Bob' has written a song and the folks at the music publishing company think that Joe Frisco, his old friend from the Bowery is just right for it. So we see Joe at stage doing his peddler routine. He goes over to the publishing company, where he flirts with a girl act, and then tries out some eccentric dancing to the new song, which happens to be 'Get Happy.'
Singer Ruth Eton, of the singing team of Eton and Farrell, is told by her agents to get rid of her partner if she wants to advance her career. Instead, she gives him singing lessons. After a few months of training, he is good enough to be on his own and dumps Eton. When he loses his voice suddenly, he finds out who his true friends are.
Henry Santry's band is comprised of self-proclaimed soldiers of fortune. Within their concert set includes the opening declaration of them being soldiers of fortune, Henry serenading a dancing girl he who wants a girl like her, Private Bell looking for a girl he could love tonight, a nimble female dancer performing a comic routine, and a friendly battle between the various instruments in the band.
Duval's Fashion House is struggling, Mr. Duval believes in large part because of his playboy son, Jack, not pulling his weight in the business. Instead, Jack likes to gamble and cavort with his chorus girl girlfriend, Betty. If their latest fashion show doesn't generate enough income, they may go out of business. Jack believes the latest designs are sure fire winners, but in Jack telling her of their problems, Betty, who believes fashion shows are outdated, gives him the idea to jazz up their show by adding dancing and music. With Jack as emcee and Betty as one of the dancing and singing models, will the musical revue styled show do the job?
This short features Judy Garland's very first film solo, Blue Butterfly. The film footage no longer exists.
