''Manhattan Parade '' is a 1931 American
pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, 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 censorshi ...
musical comedy film photographed entirely in
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 originally intended to be released, in the United States, early in 1931, but was shelved due to public apathy towards musicals. Despite waiting a number of months, the public proved obstinate and the Warner Bros. reluctantly released the film in December 1931 after removing all the music. Since there was no such reactions to musicals outside the United States, the film was released there as a full musical comedy in 1931.
The film pokes fun at
Al Jolson
Al Jolson (born Eizer Yoelson; June 9, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-American Jews, Jewish singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. He was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, and was self-bi ...
, who had suffered a downturn in his career due to the public aversion to musical pictures. He had been released from his contract to Warner Bros. late in 1930.
Cast
*
Winnie Lightner
Winnie Lightner (born Winifred Josephine Reeves; September 17, 1899 – March 5, 1971) was an American stage and motion picture actress.
Perhaps best known as the man-hungry Mabel in ''Gold Diggers of Broadway'' (1929), Lightner was often typ ...
as Doris Roberts
*
Charles Butterworth as Herbert T. Herbert
*
Joe Smith as Lou Delman of the Avon Comedy Four (as Smith)
*
Charles Dale
Charles Dale (born 4 February 1963) is a Welsh actor known for playing Big Mac in '' Casualty'', Dennis Stringer in ''Coronation Street'', Gary "Chef" Alcock in '' The Lakes'' and Clive Eustace in ''The Eustace Bros.'' He was born in Tenby, Pem ...
as Jake Delman of the Avon Comedy Four (as Dale)
*
Dickie Moore as Junior Roberts
*
Bobby Watson
Robert Michael Watson Jr. (born August 23, 1953), known professionally as Bobby Watson, is an American saxophonist, composer, and educator.
Music career
Watson was born in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. He ...
as Paisley
*
Frank Conroy as Bill Brighton
*
Walter Miller as John Roberts
*
Mae Madison
Mae is an American rock band that formed in Norfolk, Virginia in 2001. The band's name is an acronym for "Multi-sensory Aesthetic Experience", based on a course taken by drummer Jacob Marshall while a student at Old Dominion University.
Histor ...
as Woman in charge of fitting
*Polly Walters as Telephone girl
*
Luis Alberni
Luis Alberni (October 4, 1886 – December 23, 1962) was a Spanish-born American character actor of stage and films.
Early years
Alberni was born in Barcelona, Spain, on October 4, 1886. He acted in stock theater for four years in Marseille ...
as Vassily Vassiloff
*
Greta Granstedt
Greta Granstedt (born Irene Louise Granstedt; July 13, 1907 – October 7, 1987) was an American film and television actress.
Early life
Irene "Greta" Granstedt was the second child of Theodore and Emma Granstedt, born in Scandia, Kansas. ...
as Charlotte Evans
*
Lilian Bond
Lilian Bond (January 18, 1908 – January 25, 1991) was an English-American actress based in the United States.
Life and career
Bond was born in London and made her first professional stage appearance at the age of 14 in the pantomime ''Dic ...
as Sewing girl
Cast notes
*This was the first of two films which the comedy team of
Smith and Dale
Smith and Dale were a famous American vaudeville comedy duo. They consisted of Joe Smith (born Joseph Sultzer on February 17, 1884February 22, 1981) and Charlie Dale (born Charles Marks on September 6, 1881November 16, 1971), who both grew up in th ...
starred in for Warner Bros., the second being ''
The Heart of New York''. The team failed to be the success which Warner Bros. had hoped for and their contract was not renewed.
Production
The film was the first Warner Bros. film to be filmed in the improved
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 ...
process which removed grain and improved both the color and clarity of the film. This improved process had first been used on ''
The Runaround'' (1931) and resulted in an attempt at a color revival by the studios late in 1931. ''Variety'' praised the color work in this film, stating that "the coloring is easy on the eye and never harsh or confusing as the early color pictures were."
Music
Three songs were written for the film by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler:
*"I Love a Parade" (Production Number sung by Chorus)
*"Temporarily Blue" (Sung by Winnie Lightner)
*"I'm Happy When You're Jealous" (Sung by Winnie Lightner). It was later recorded by
Isham Jones
Isham Edgar Jones (January 31, 1894 – October 19, 1956) was an American bandleader, saxophonist, bassist and songwriter.
Career
Jones was born in Coalton, Ohio, United States, to a musical and mining family. His father, Richard Isham Jones ...
and his Orchestra for Brunswick Records (Record Number 6204).
Preservation
Only a black and white copy of the cut print released in 1931 in the United States seems to have survived. A print is deposited at the Library of Congress.
[''Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress'', (<-book title) p.111 c.1978 by the American Film Institute] The complete film was released intact in countries outside the United States where a backlash against musicals never occurred. It is unknown whether a copy of this full version still exists. According to the George Eastman Museum 2015 book ''The Dawn of Technicolor, 1915-1935'' a 16mm safety color print (ca. 3200 ft) is held at UCLA.
See also
*
List of early color feature films
This is a list of early feature-length color films (including primarily black-and-white films that have one or more color sequences) made up to about 1936, when the Technicolor three-strip process firmly established itself as the major-studio f ...
References
External links
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{{Lloyd Bacon
1931 films
1931 musical comedy films
1930s color films
American musical comedy films
1930s English-language films
American films based on plays
Films directed by Lloyd Bacon
Films set in New York City
Warner Bros. films
Films with screenplays by Robert Lord (screenwriter)
Early color films
1930s American films