DON JUAN SHORTS THAT WERE ON TCM JULY 2

<daniel.eagan.TakeThisOut@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:1154971046.644212.116500@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
>
>>
> Can't put my hand on my copy of the premiere program, but according to
> Richard Barrios in A Song in the Dark, the program went: Hays,
> Tannhauser overture, Mischa Elman, Roy Smeck, Marion Talley singing
> "Caro nome," Efram Zimbalist, Giovianni Martinelli, Anna Case singing
> "La Fiesta." Barrios quotes critics saying that the Talley short was
> terrible. Richard Kozarski in the MoMA guide to The Dawn of Sound gave
> the program as this: overture, Elman, Talley, "a Russian song-and-dance
> ensemble," Smeck, Zimbalist, Martinelli, Anna Case. The guide also
> says about Talley, "This short was dropped from distibution and was
> thus omitted from later Release Schedules."
>

I've never seen the Anna Case short, but if her Edison discs made about 10
years earlier are an indicator, she had a much nicer voice than Marion
Talley. Still, it's Talley's weak voice AND that she's standing like a
pillar of salt that make it a chore to sit through.

Stott
 >> Stay informed about: DON JUAN SHORTS THAT WERE ON TCM JULY 2 

> Is there any indication as to the short subjects that accompanied THE JAZZ
> SINGER in 1927? Was there a similar attempt to showcase sound shorts in
> support of the main feature? Also, I'm surprised Turner hasn't shown Al
> Jolson's "A Plantation Act" (1926) recently. The story behind the
> restoration of that short film's soundtrack was amazing.
> --
> Matt Barry
> Visit my pages at:
> http://mbarry84.tripod.com
> http://filmreel.blogspot.com

I am not 100% sure about this, but I think I remember reading somewhere
that the original run of THE JAZZ SINGER did not have a VITAPHONE short
prelude. I saw a printed program once for the original run at the
WARNER THEATER, and it did not have a listing for any shorts that might
have played with the film. It seemed that WARNER BROS. felt that the
feature itself was the focus of that presentation. Usually the left
hand side of a VITAPHONE program would list what shorts were shown, and
the program I saw had a big blurb about how it was such big news that
this film featured JOLSON, and gave a rundown of what musical numbers
would be featured in the film.

I have always been interested by the reports that I have read not only
was there overture and exit music recorded on the VITAPHONE for THE
JAZZ SINGER, but I saw that there was INTERMISSION music recorded for
that film, which leads me to ask: Did the film itself have an
intermission, or was that music played during the break between
"shorts" and the feature? This would mean that the program I saw was
from a run where ther were no shorts on the bill. Again, does anyone
have any concrete info on this?

Also, the lack of showing the A PLANTATION ACT short (I feel) is an
increasing reluctance on TCM's part of offending the Political
Correctness patrol that frowns on the blackface aspect of the film. TCM
will show THE JAZZ SINGER because they can justify the showings because
it is such an historic part of our cinema history. I can remember in
the 1970's in New York when Channel 5/WNEW would show THE JAZZ SINGER
with all these cautionary blurbs before, and during comercial breaks
asking the viewing public not to be offended by Jolson's blackface
numbers because they are showing this film due to it's historical
importance.

A good friend of mine who knows the people at WARNER HOME VIDEO (and
used to be at MGM/UA home video) says that the DVD video release that
we have been reading about since 2001 of THE JAZZ SINGER had been
constantly put on the back burner because of WARNER HOME VIDEO fretting
over the political backlash in the P. C. community. The supposed 2007
release has been picked because of the 80th anniversary of that film's
release. The feeling on the street is still "I'll believe it when I see
it." If you remember in the Laser Disc days, around 1991, MGM/UA
announced that they were coming out with a JAZZ SINGER laser disc and
that thing kept sitting on their "To Be Announced" list untill it
finally showed up in the Jolson box set, which at the original release
price of $149.00 put it out of the realm of the casual video collector,
so there would not be that much trouble in the general press stirred up
over that release. It's just been a case of the parent video company's
sphincter muscle quivering over the possible adverse publicity over the
release of any Jolson material. If you noticed on their new Busby
Berkeley DVD Box Set, they rereleased their BUSBY BERKELEY DISC disc
which was released on laser disc by MGM/UA in the 1990's. On the DVD
version the GOIN' TO HEAVEN ON A MULE from "WONDERBAR" is not in that
compilation. In the new LAUREL & HARDY set they released earlier this
year they include the TCM documentary SELECTED SHORT SUBJECTS, narrated
by Chevy Chase. They cut out the inclusion of A PLANTATION ACT that was
in the segment regarding VITAPHONE shorts, but it was in the
documentary when shown on TCM. This makes it obvious that WARNER/TURNER
is afraid of offending the video buying public by releasing Jolson
stuff with the black face material in it. Well, thems my
feelings...anyone else feel the same way???

gerbonzo
 >> Stay informed about: DON JUAN SHORTS THAT WERE ON TCM JULY 2 

<daniel.eagan DeleteThis @verizon.net> wrote in message
news:1154971046.644212.116500@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
>
> gerbonzo wrote:
> I have an original program from DON JUAN at the WARNER
>> THEATER. The order of the shorts are different than on the premiere.
>> Some shorts are not even on the program I have. The Zimbalist short is
>> not even listed. On my program the Marion Talley short is listed as:
>> "Caro Nome from 'RIGOLETTO' Verdi, or 'Home Sweet Home.'" Were there 2
>> shorts that they interchanged, or were they saying that they weren't
>> quite sure just what Miss Talley was singing, but had it narrowed down
>> to two possibilities...as if it was anyone's guess...I am sure most of
>> the shorts from the DON JUAN Premiere were rereleased to other theaters
>> later. Any one got any more dope on the dupes???
>>
>> gerbonzo
>
> Can't put my hand on my copy of the premiere program, but according to
> Richard Barrios in A Song in the Dark, the program went: Hays,
> Tannhauser overture, Mischa Elman, Roy Smeck, Marion Talley singing
> "Caro nome," Efram Zimbalist, Giovianni Martinelli, Anna Case singing
> "La Fiesta." Barrios quotes critics saying that the Talley short was
> terrible. Richard Kozarski in the MoMA guide to The Dawn of Sound gave
> the program as this: overture, Elman, Talley, "a Russian song-and-dance
> ensemble," Smeck, Zimbalist, Martinelli, Anna Case. The guide also
> says about Talley, "This short was dropped from distibution and was
> thus omitted from later Release Schedules."
>

Is there any indication as to the short subjects that accompanied THE JAZZ
SINGER in 1927? Was there a similar attempt to showcase sound shorts in
support of the main feature? Also, I'm surprised Turner hasn't shown Al
Jolson's "A Plantation Act" (1926) recently. The story behind the
restoration of that short film's soundtrack was amazing.
--
Matt Barry
Visit my pages at:
http://mbarry84.tripod.com
http://filmreel.blogspot.com
 >> Stay informed about: DON JUAN SHORTS THAT WERE ON TCM JULY 2 

gerbonzo wrote:
> I have always been interested by the reports that I have read not only
> was there overture and exit music recorded on the VITAPHONE for THE
> JAZZ SINGER, but I saw that there was INTERMISSION music recorded for
> that film, which leads me to ask: Did the film itself have an
> intermission, or was that music played during the break between
> "shorts" and the feature? This would mean that the program I saw was
> from a run where ther were no shorts on the bill. Again, does anyone
> have any concrete info on this?

I don't there was an intermission (I could be wrong, but for a 88
minute film?), but I can definitely confirm that there was exit music.

J. Theakston
 >> Stay informed about: DON JUAN SHORTS THAT WERE ON TCM JULY 2