''Broadway Babies'', aka ''Broadway Daddies'' (UK) and ''Ragazze d'America'' (Italy), is a 1929 all-talking
Pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...
black and white American musical film produced and distributed by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of
Warner Brothers
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
Charles Delaney
Charles Delaney (August 9, 1892 – August 31, 1959) was an American actor.
Biography
Delaney was born in New York City in 1892. He was originally a motor mechanic and having learned to fly during World War I, he started doing flying vaud ...
. This was White's first sound film with dialogue.
Plot
Chorus girl Delight "Dee" Foster (Alice White) is in love with stage manager Billy Buvanny (Charles Delaney) and he also loves her. They plan to marry until bootlegger Perc Gessant (Fred Kohler) steps in. Dee is led to believe that Billy is in love with another girl, so she agrees to play around with Gessant when he becomes interested in her. When Gessant proposes marriage, Dee accepts. As they are about to be married, rival gangsters shoot Gessant and he ends up dying. Dee is reconciled with Billy and they become engaged.
Marion Byron
Marion Byron (born Miriam Bilenkin; 1911 – 1985) was an American movie comedian.
Early years
Born in Dayton, Ohio, Byron was one of five daughters of Louis and Bertha Bilenkin.
Career
After following her sister into a short stage caree ...
as Florine Chanler
*
Sally Eilers
Dorothea Sally Eilers (December 11, 1908 – January 5, 1978) was an American actress.
Early life
Eilers was born in New York City to a Jewish-American mother, Paula (or Pauline) Schoenberger, and a German-American father, Hio Peter Eilers ( ...
as Navarre King
*
Charles Delaney
Charles Delaney (August 9, 1892 – August 31, 1959) was an American actor.
Biography
Delaney was born in New York City in 1892. He was originally a motor mechanic and having learned to fly during World War I, he started doing flying vaud ...
Bodil Rosing
Bodil Rosing (born Bodil Frederikke Hammerich; December 27, 1877 December 31, 1941) was a Danish-American film actress in the silent and sound eras.
Early years
Bodil Hammerich was born in Copenhagen, the daughter of music dean Angel Hammeri ...
as Sarah Durgan
*
Maurice Black
Maurice Black (January 14, 1891 – January 18, 1938) was an American character actor known for his portrayal of mobsters. He appeared in more than 100 films from 1928 to 1938, when he died of pneumonia, four days after his 47th birthday. ...
as Nick Stepanos
*
Fred Kohler
Fred Kohler (April 20, 1888 – October 28, 1938) was an American actor.
Career
Fred Kohler was born in Kansas City, Missouri or in Dubuque, Iowa. As a teen, he began to pursue a career in vaudeville, but worked other jobs to support himself. ...
as Perc Gessant
*
Louis Natheaux
Louis Natheaux (born ''Louis F. Natho''; December 10, 1894 – August 23, 1942) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than eighty films between 1919 and 1942.
Born in Danville, Illinois, Natheaux performed in vaudeville and in a ...
as August 'Gus' Brand
*
Lew Harvey
Lew Harvey (October 6, 1887 – December 19, 1953) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 140 films between 1918 and 1950. He was born in Wisconsin, educated in Portland, Oregon, and died in Los Angeles, California.
Selected f ...
as Joe, one of the poker players ''(uncredited)''
* Aggie Herring as Landlady ''(uncredited)''
* Al Hill as One of Perc's henchmen ''(uncredited)''
*
Armand Kaliz
Armand Kali(s)z (October 23, 1882 or 1883 – February 1, 1941) was an American stage and film actor of the silent film and early sound period of the 1930s. Prior to that, he was an actor in vaudeville and on the legitimate stage.
Career
B ...
as Tony Ginetti, the nightclub manager ''(uncredited)''
Production
''Broadway Babies'' was one of the many movie musicals with a Broadway setting that were made at the dawn of the "
talkie
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...
" era. Such films were called "backstagers", a vogue that evolved during the emergence of sound pictures and from the success of ''
The Jazz Singer
''The Jazz Singer'' is a 1927 American musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music score as well as lip-synchronous singing and speech (in several isolate ...
'' (1927) and ''
The Singing Fool
''The Singing Fool'' is a 1928 American musical drama part-talkie motion picture directed by Lloyd Bacon which was released by Warner Bros. The film stars Al Jolson and is a follow-up to his previous film, '' The Jazz Singer''. It is credited w ...
'' (1928), both also Warner Bros.' films. ''Broadway Babies'' was also one of a number of similar vehicles created for Alice White; it was White's first all-sound as well as her most successful picture. The film was adapted from "Broadway Musketeers", a story by Jay Gelzer.
Songs
Three songs were written for White to perform in ''Broadway Babies'': "Wishing and Waiting for Love" with lyrics by
Grant Clarke
Grant Clarke (May 14, 1891, Akron, Ohio – May 16, 1931, California) was an American songwriter.
Clarke moved to New York City early in his career, where he worked as an actor and a staff writer for comedians. He began working on Tin Pan Alley, ...
and music by
Harry Akst
Harry Akst (August 15, 1894 – March 31, 1963) - accessed November 19, 2011 was an American Al Bryan, music by George W. Meyer; and "Broadway Baby Dolls", also by Bryan and Meyer. Incidental music included "
Give My Regards to Broadway
"Give My Regards to Broadway" is a song written by George M. Cohan for his musical play ''Little Johnny Jones'' which debuted in 1904 in New York.
Cohan, playing the title character, sings this song as his friend is about to sail to Americ ...
" (
George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan (July 3, 1878November 5, 1942) was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer.
Cohan began his career as a child, performing with his parents and sister in a vaudev ...
), "
Vesti La Giubba
"" (, "Put on the costume", often referred to as "On With the Motley", from the original 1893 translation by Frederic Edward Weatherly) is a tenor aria from Ruggero Leoncavallo's 1892 opera '' Pagliacci''. "" is sung at the conclusion of the fi ...
" (
Ruggero Leoncavallo
Ruggero (or Ruggiero) Leoncavallo ( , , ; 23 April 18579 August 1919) was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Although he produced numerous operas and other songs throughout his career it is his opera '' Pagliacci'' (1892) that remained h ...
), and "Bridal Chorus (Here Comes the Bride)" (Richard Wagner).
Preservation
As was common in the era, a silent version was also prepared for theatres not yet equipped for talkies. Only the sound version survives, as a 16mm reduction positive in the Library of Congress collection, although it has been preserved and is shown occasionally on
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of At ...