''Bubbles'' is a 1930 American

Vitaphone Varieties Vitaphone Varieties is a series title (represented by a pennant logo on screen) 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-fil ...

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

released by

Warner Bros. 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 ...

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

. It was filmed in December 1929 at the First National Pictures studio with Western Electric apparatus, an early

sound-on-film Sound-on-film is a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying a picture is recorded on photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an analog ...

system, Rel. No. 3898. Bubbles is one of the earliest surviving recordings of

Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...

on film, at 8 years old.

Content

Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one ...

short film directed by Roy Mack, ''Bubbles'' features a land of make-believe where The Vitaphone Kiddies perform seven short singing, dancing and acrobatic acts. The opening act is

Marjorie Kane Marjorie Kane (April 28, 1909 – January 8, 1992) was an American film and stage actress born in Chicago. She appeared in more than 60 films between 1929 and 1951, occasionally under the name Babe Kane. Career Kane appeared on stage for 11 ...

singing "My Pretty Bubble". The second act is Judy Garland and her two older sisters, then known collectively as The Gumm Sisters, singing "In the Land of Let's Pretend", a song from Warner Bros' 1929 film ''

On with the Show! ''On with the Show!'' is a 1929 American pre-Code musical film produced by Warner Bros. Filmed in two-color Technicolor, the film is noted as the first all-talking, all-color feature length film, and the second color film released by Warner B ...

'', with Garland singing a short solo. Five more brief acts follow, including a

tap dancing Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely perfo ...

number in ballet

pointe shoe A pointe shoe (, ), also called a ballet toe shoe or simply toe shoe, is a type of shoe worn by ballet dancers when performing pointe work. Pointe shoes were conceived in response to the desire for dancers to appear weightless and sylph-like and ...

Cast

as Herself * Mary Jane Gumm as Herself * Dorothy Virginia Gumm as Herself *

as Mother in Checkered Dress * The Vitaphone Kiddies as Themselves

Preservation status

This short film now exists in black and white through copies made for

television syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States wher ...

, and was included as an extra on the 2004 deluxe DVD edition of ''

Meet Me in St. Louis ''Meet Me in St. Louis'' is a 1944 American Christmas film, Christmas musical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Divided into a series of seasonal vignettes, starting with Summer 1903, it relates the story of a year in the life of the Smith famil ...

'' (1944). ''Bubbles'' was one of the

shorts Shorts are a garment worn over the pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they ...

included in the 1994 LaserDisc version of ''Judy Garland - The Golden Years at M-G-M''. The audio from the movie of Garland's song is included in the 2010 CD set ''Judy Garland – Lost Tracks 1929 - 1959''.

References

External links

''Bubbles'' at IMDB

''In the Land of Let's Pretend''
(song, audio) 1930 musical films Vitaphone short films Warner Bros. short films 1930 films American musical films Films directed by Roy Mack 1930s English-language films 1930s American films {{musical-film-stub