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Don Juan is a 1926 synchronized sound American romantic adventure film directed by Alan Crosland. It is the first feature-length film to utilize the Vitaphone sound-on-disc sound system with a synchronized musical score and sound effects, though it has no spoken dialogue. The film is inspired by Lord Byron's 1821 epic poem of the same name. The screenplay was written by Bess Meredyth with intertitles by Maude Fulton and Walter Anthony.
Darrell Wallace Calker was an American composer and arranger who worked on films and animated cartoons.
Rambling 'Round Radio Row is a series of short subjects, produced by Jerry Wald, and released by the Vitaphone division of Warner Brothers. The final film in the series, released 1934, was #3 of the second season, and starred Morton Downey, Baby Rose Marie, The Harmoniacs, and Harriet Lee.
André de la Varre was a leading travelogue filmmaker from a prominent family who started as a 17-year-old visiting Europe with a recently acquired movie camera at the end of World War I. Born Franklin LaVarre, he was the brother of noted Westerns actor John Merton, the journalist/explorer William LaVarre, and the international businessman Claude LaVarre.
The Grouch Club is a talk show broadcast on CBS Radio West Coast on Mondays between October 17, 1938 and April 25, 1939, followed on Sundays at 6:30 PM on NBC Red Network April 16, 1939 through January 21, 1940. Jack Lescoulie hosted as “grouchmaster”, listening to people who wanted to complain about any problem in their life. Among the “grouchies” featured were familiar radio personalities : Jack Albertson, Arthur Q. Bryan, Emory Parnell, Ned Sparks, Don Brody, Mary Milford, Phil Kramer and Eric Burtis. Beth Wilson was a key singer and the hosts were Neil Reagan and Jim Barry. A key producer was a top movie screenwriter Owen Crump. Roland Kibbee was among the writers. The show was created by Nat Hiken.
Scope Gem was a marketing series title that Warner Brothers used for documentary film shorts produced in Warnercolor and the wide-screen CinemaScope format. Most of these were travelogues.
World Wide Adventures is a generalized name applied to Warner Bros. live-action short films of the 1960s. Usually, the trade magazines like BoxOffice only listed the one-reelers under this heading, with the longer films simply dubbed “specials.” For the most part, this was a handy marketing logo for a wide range of shorts of the documentary genre.
The “Vitaphone Color Parade” was a series of documentary short films produced by Warner Bros.
The Sports Parade was a short film series of Warner Bros. that was regularly shown before the main studio feature, along with another Warner-Vitaphone short, Joe McDoakes comedy and/or Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. The average running time of each film was between nine and eleven minutes.
The Sport Slants and its follow-up “Sports Thrills” were a series of documentary film shorts produced by Warner Brothers and hosted by the top sports caster of the 1930s, Ted Husing.
Adventures in Africa is a series of Warner Bros. documentary film shorts inspired by the success of Martin and Osa Johnson and concurrent features such as Africa Speaks! and Trader Horn.
Vitaphone Varieties is a series title used for all of Warner Bros.', earliest short film "talkies" of the 1920s, initially made using the Vitaphone sound on disc process before a switch to the sound-on-film format early in the 1930s. These were the first major film studio-backed sound films, initially showcased with the 1926 synchronized scored features Don Juan and The Better 'Ole. Although independent producers like Lee de Forest's Phonofilm were successfully making sound film shorts as early as 1922, they were very limited in their distribution and their audio was generally not as loud and clear in theaters as Vitaphone's. The success of the early Vitaphone shorts, initially filmed only in New York, helped launch the sound revolution in Hollywood.
Technicolor Special was a common term used for Hollywood studio produced color short films of the 1930s and 1940s that did not belong to a specified series.
The Big V Comedies were two-reel comedy film shorts produced by Warner Bros. and Vitaphone between 1931 and 1938, contemporary of the more famous Hal Roach, Mack Sennett and Columbia Pictures comedies.
Broadway Brevities are two-reel musical and dramatic film shorts produced by Warner Bros. between 1931 and 1943. The series continued as Warner Specials in later years.
Big Time Vaudeville was a series of black-and-white 9- to 10-minute short films resembling the Vitaphone Varieties and also produced by Warner Brothers and Vitaphone. These consisted of four to six vaudeville acts and are historically interesting with many performers rarely seen on film.
Vitaphone Pictorial Revue was a series of 9-11 minute newsreel oriented (documentary) film shorts produced by Vitaphone and Warner Brothers.
The Swell Head is a 1928 American romantic musical short starring Eddie Foy Jr. and Bessie Love, directed by Foy's brother Bryan. Variety mused that "this may be the first backstage sound short."
Sing and Be Happy is a series of animated sing-along films produced by Universal Pictures. The first film in the series was released in 1946.
Ottalie Mark was an American musicologist, copyright consultant, composer, and music editor.
References
- Liebman, Roy (2003). Vitaphone Films – A Catalogue of the Features and Shorts. McFarland & Company. ISBN 9780786412792.
- Maltin, Leonard (1972). The Great Movie Shorts. Bonanza Books.
- Motion Pictures 1912-1939 Catalog of Copyright Entries 1951 Library of Congress
- Motion Pictures 1940-1949 Catalog of Copyright Entries 1953 Library of Congress
- Motion Pictures 1950-1959 Catalog of Copyright Entries 1960 Library of Congress
- BoxOffice back issue scans available (release date information in multiple issue “Shorts Charts”)