The Belle of New York | |
---|---|
Directed by | Julius Steger |
Written by | Eugene Walter |
Based on | The Belle of New York 1897 musical by Hugh Morton and Gustave Kerker |
Produced by | Marion Davies |
Starring | Marion Davies Etienne Girardot |
Music by | Max Winkler |
Distributed by | Select Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 50 minutes |
Country | United States |
Languages | Silent English intertitles |
The Belle of New York is a 1919 silent film directed by Julius Steger and starring Marion Davies. [1] [2]
The 1919 movie was later remade in a 1952 film (The Belle of New York), starring Fred Astaire and Vera-Ellen, with some variations in the plot and setting.
In 1897, The Belle of New York was staged as a Broadway musical comedy. [3]
William Randolph Hearst funded the film to extend his media empire from newspapers into movies. Another motivation was Hearst's ongoing affair with Marion Davies; he was interested in boosting her career by featuring her in "classy" films. [4]
The film touched on several popular themes of the day, including bad guys taking advantage of good guys, family loyalty, romance and heartbreak, dissipation ("drowning your sorrows"), and an ultimate redemption tied to a happy ending. To broaden the film's appeal, director Julius Steger claimed to have "eliminated everything that was sordid or objectionable from the original story... there is nothing that can offend the most cultivated taste." [5]
An old inventor is robbed of his inventions by an evil rich man. When the inventor dies, his daughter Violet goes to New York and joins the "Follies," where she is advertised as "The Belle of New York." The rich man's son is infatuated with Violet and is introduced to her anonymously as Jack. When Violet learns of Jack's identity, she casts him off. He becomes a drunk, and she joins the Salvation Army. Jack is attacked in an underworld saloon just as Violet enters in Salvation Army attire. She nurses him at his home. When Jack's father discovers with whom Jack is in love, he begs forgiveness for the wrong he did Violet's father. [6]
Most print mentions of the film were positive and emphasized the appeal of its female star. Moving Picture World offered a typical summary: "Miss Davies' emotional appeal and tender beauty just suit the slip of a girl who [becomes] the star of a cabaret revue [and] dances herself into popularity and into the hearts of men of every reputation." [8] While the film did not make the list of top-grossing films from 1913-1919 [9] it was widely advertised throughout the country.
The film resides in incomplete form (only two of the original five reels remain) at the Library of Congress [10]
Surviving footage contains rare musical scenes staged on the rooftop stage of the New Amsterdam Theater depicting the Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic show staged by Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. The "Ziegfeld Beauty Chorus" is shown; this chorus consisted of female performers "who encouraged male patrons to use their cigars to pop the balloons covering the majority of their costumes." [11] [12] The Midnight Frolic scene can be viewed here, along with all 18 minutes of the surviving footage.
The Great Ziegfeld is a 1936 American musical drama film directed by Robert Z. Leonard and produced by Hunt Stromberg. It stars William Powell as the theatrical impresario Florenz "Flo" Ziegfeld Jr., Luise Rainer as Anna Held, and Myrna Loy as Billie Burke.
The year 1919 in film involved some significant events.
Marion Davies was an American actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Educated in a religious convent, Davies fled the school to pursue a career as a chorus girl. As a teenager, she appeared in several Broadway musicals and one film, Runaway Romany (1917). She soon became a featured performer in the Ziegfeld Follies.
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934, 1936, 1943, and 1957. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air.
Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr. was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies (1907–1931), inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat. He was known as the "glorifier of the American girl". Ziegfeld is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.
Olive Thomas was an American silent-film actress, art model, and photo model.
Metro Pictures Corporation was a motion picture production company founded in early 1915 in Jacksonville, Florida. It was a forerunner of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The company produced its films in New York, Los Angeles, and sometimes at leased facilities in Fort Lee, New Jersey. It was purchased in 1919.
Boston Blackie is a fictional character created by author Jack Boyle (1881–1928). Blackie, a jewel thief and safecracker in Boyle's stories, became a detective in adaptations for films, radio and television—an "enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend."
Cain and Mabel is a 1936 American romantic comedy film directed by Lloyd Bacon and designed as a vehicle for Marion Davies in which she co-stars with Clark Gable. The story had been filmed before, in 1924, by William Randolph Hearst's production company, Cosmopolitan, as a silent called The Great White Way, starring Anita Stewart and Oscar Shaw. In this version, Robert Paige introduced the song "I'll Sing You a Thousand Love Songs", with music by Harry Warren and words by Al Dubin, who also wrote "Coney Island", "Here Comes Chiquita", and other songs.
Janice Meredith, also known as The Beautiful Rebel, is a silent film starring Marion Davies, released in 1924 and based on the book and play A Colonial Girl written by Paul Leicester Ford and Edward Everett Rose. The play opened at the end of 1900 and was the first starring vehicle for stage actress Mary Mannering. The movie follows the actions of Janice Meredith, who helps George Washington and Paul Revere during the American Revolutionary War.
The Belle of New York is a musical comedy in two acts, with book and lyrics by Hugh Morton and music by Gustave Kerker, about a Salvation Army girl who reforms a spendthrift, makes a great sacrifice and finds true love.
Rubye De Remer was an American dancer and actress in silent films. She began her stage career with the Midnight Frolic, a Florenz Ziegfeld show, in New York City.
The Cinema Murder is a 1919 American silent drama film starring Marion Davies, adapted from the 1917 novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim.
Margaret Morris was an American Broadway stage and film actress.
Zander the Great is a 1925 American silent comedy drama film directed by George W. Hill, in his first directing role for MGM. The film stars Marion Davies. The screenplay by Frances Marion is based upon the Edward Salisbury Field 1923 play of the same name.
David Stamper was an American songwriter of the Tin Pan Alley and vaudeville eras, a contributor to twenty-one editions of the Ziegfeld Follies, writer for the Fox Film Corporation, and composer of more than one thousand songs, in spite of never learning to read or write traditional music notation. He may have written "Shine On Harvest Moon", a claim supported by vaudeville performer and writer Eddie Cantor. He was also a charter member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers or ASCAP.
When Knighthood Was in Flower is a 1922 American silent historical film directed by Robert G. Vignola, based on the novel by Charles Major and play by Paul Kester. The film was produced by William Randolph Hearst for Marion Davies and distributed by Paramount Pictures. This was William Powell's second film. The story was re-filmed by Walt Disney in 1953 as The Sword and the Rose, directed by Ken Annakin.
Little Old New York is a 1923 American silent historical drama film starring Marion Davies and directed by Sidney Olcott that was based on a play of the same name by Rida Johnson Young. The film was produced by William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan production unit.
The Bride's Play is a 1922 American silent romance film produced by William Randolph Hearst as a starring vehicle for Marion Davies. It was directed by George Terwilliger and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is an extant film that is preserved at the Library of Congress.
Diana Allen was a Swedish-American actress and Ziegfeld girl who starred in silent films such as 1921's Miss 139, which is now lost.