''Happy Days'' is a 1929 American

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 ...

musical film directed by

Benjamin Stoloff Benjamin Stoloff (October 6, 1895 – September 8, 1960) was an American film director and producer. He began his career as a short film comedy director and gradually moved into feature film directing and production later in his career. Directo ...

, which was the first

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

shown entirely in

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...

anywhere in the world, filmed using the

Fox Grandeur 70mm Grandeur film, also called Fox Grandeur or Grandeur 70, is a 70mm widescreen film format developed by William Fox through his Fox Film and Fox-Case corporations and used commercially on a small but successful scale in 1929–30. Filmography ...

70 mm process. French director Abel Gance's '' Napoléon'' (1927) had a final widescreen segment in what Gance called

Polyvision Polyvision was the name given by the French film critic Émile Vuillermoz to a specialized widescreen film format devised exclusively for the filming and projection of Abel Gance's 1927 film '' Napoleon''. Polyvision involved the simultaneou ...

. Paramount released '' Old Ironsides'' (1927), with two sequences in a widescreen process called "Magnascope", while MGM released '' Trail of '98'' (1928) in a widescreen process called "Fanthom Screen". The film features an array of stars who were contracted to William Fox's

Fox Film Corporation The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American Independent film production studio formed by William Fox (1879–1952) in 1915, by combining his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attractions Film C ...

at that time, including Marjorie White, Will Rogers,

Charles Farrell Charles David Farrell (August 9, 1900 – May 6, 1990) was an American film actor of the 1920s silent era and into the 1930s, and later a television actor. Farrell is probably best recalled for his onscreen romances with actress Janet Gaynor ...

, Janet Gaynor, George Jessel,

El Brendel Elmer Goodfellow "El" Brendel (March 25, 1890 – April 9, 1964) was an American vaudeville comedian turned movie star, best remembered for his dialect routine as a Swedish immigrant. His biggest role was as "Single-0" in the sci-fi musical ' ...

, Ann Pennington,

Victor McLaglen Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen (10 December 1886 – 7 November 1959) was a British boxer-turned-Hollywood actor.Obituary ''Variety'', 11 November 1959, page 79. He was known as a character actor, particularly in Westerns, and made sev ...

Dixie Lee Dixie Lee (born Wilma Winifred Wyatt; November 4, 1909 – November 1, 1952) was an American actress, dancer, and singer. She was the first wife of singer Bing Crosby. Biography She was born Wilma Winifred Wyatt in Harriman, Tennessee, on N ...

Edmund Lowe Edmund Dantes Lowe (March 3, 1890 – April 21, 1971) was an American actor. His formative experience began in vaudeville and silent film. Biography Lowe was born in San Jose, California. His father was a local judge. His childhood home was a ...

, and Frank Richardson. It also featured the first appearance of

Betty Grable Elizabeth Ruth Grable (December 18, 1916 – July 2, 1973) was an American actress, pin-up girl, dancer, model, and singer. Her 42 films during the 1930s and 1940s grossed more than $100 million; for 10 consecutive years (1942–1951) she reign ...

on film, aged 12, as a chorus girl, and Sir

Harry Lauder Sir Henry Lauder (; 4 August 1870 – 26 February 1950)Russell, Dave"Lauder, Sir Henry (1870–1950)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition, January 2011, accessed 27 April 2014 was a S ...

's nephew, Harry Lauder II, a conductor for Fox, who was drafted into the chorus.

Plot

Originally titled ''New Orleans Frolic'', the story centers around Margie (played by Marjorie White), a singer on a

showboat A showboat, or show boat, was a floating theater that traveled along the waterways of the United States, especially along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, to bring culture and entertainment to the inhabitants of river frontiers. Showboats were a ...

who, when she hears that the showboat is in financial trouble, travels to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in an effort to persuade all the boat's former stars to perform in a show to rescue it. She is successful and the stars all fly to New Orleans to surprise the showboat's owner, Colonel Billy Blacher, with a grand show, the proceeds of which will go to rescue the showboat.

Cast

*Charles E. Evans as Colonel Billy Batcher * Marjorie White as Margie *Richard Keene as Dick * Stuart Erwin as Jig *Martha Lee Sparks as Nancy Lee *Clifford Dempsey as Sheriff Benton * James J. Corbett as Interlocutor - Minstrel Show *

George MacFarlane George MacFarlane (November 17, 1878 – February 22, 1932) was a Canadian-born American actor of both the stage and screen. He began his stage career in Montreal, before moving to New York City. His short film career spanned both the sile ...

as Interlocutor - Minstrel Show * Janet Gaynor as Janet Gaynor *

as Charles Farrell *

as Minstrel Show Performer *

William Collier Sr. William Collier Sr. (November 12, 1864 – January 13, 1944), born William Morenus, was an American writer, director and actor. Collier ran away from home when only 11 years old to join a touring company run by Eddie Foy and in 1879 he appeared ...

as End Man - Minstrel Show *

Walter Catlett Walter Leland Catlett (February 4, 1889 – November 14, 1960) was an American actor and comedian. He made a career of playing excitable, meddlesome, temperamental, and officious blowhards. Career Catlett was born on February 4, 1889, in S ...

as End Man - Minstrel Show *

Tom Patricola Tom Patricola (January 22, 1891 – January 1, 1950) was an American actor, comic and dancer who starred in vaudeville and motion pictures. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, New Orleans, Patricola established his fame as a hoofer, becoming a leading ...

as Minstrel Show Performer * George Jessel as Minstrel Show Performer * Will Rogers as Minstrel Show Performer *

Warner Baxter Warner Leroy Baxter (March 29, 1889 – May 7, 1951) was an American film actor from the 1910s to the 1940s. Baxter is known for his role as the Cisco Kid in the 1928 film ''In Old Arizona'', for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor at ...

as Minstrel Show Performer * Ann Pennington as "Snake Hips" Speciality Dancer

Release

After a preview on September 17, 1929, ''Happy Days'' premiered at the Roxy Theater in New York City on February 13, 1930 with a

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Fall ...

widescreen short on a

Grandeur Grandeur may refer to: * 70 mm Grandeur film * Hyundai Grandeur, a car introduced in 1986 * Grandeur of the Seas, a cruise ship placed in service in 1996 * Grandeur Terrace, a public housing estate in Tin Shui Wai, Hong Kong * " Oh! The Grandeur ...

screen of 42x20 ft, compared to the standard 24x18 ft screen. It was also shown in Grandeur at the

Carthay Circle Theatre The Carthay Circle Theatre was one of the most famous movie palaces of Hollywood's Golden Age. Located on San Vicente Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, it opened in 1926 and was demolished in 1969. The auditorium itself was shaped in the f ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, from February 28, 1930. At a screening at the Roxy Theater, film critic

Mordaunt Hall Mordaunt Hall (1 November 1878 – 2 July 1973) was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for ''The New York Times'', working from October 1924 to September 1934. Owing to the Great Depression, few movie theaters invested in equipment for this format and it was soon abandoned.

's heavy investment in Grandeur technology led to William Fox losing his business, which was eventually merged in 1935 with

Twentieth Century Pictures Twentieth Century Pictures, Inc. was an independent Hollywood motion picture production company created in 1933 by Joseph Schenck (the former president of United Artists) and Darryl F. Zanuck from Warner Bros. Financial backing came from Sche ...

to form

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

. No widescreen print of ''Happy Days'' is known to have survived.

References

External links

* *{{allmovie, 94292, Synopsis
A Fancy Lady and the Winnipeg Kid
at Vitaphone Varieties (posters, ads, and still) 1929 films 1930 films Fox Film films American black-and-white films Films directed by Benjamin Stoloff 1920s musical films Films produced by William Fox American musical films 1930s English-language films 1920s English-language films 1920s American films 1930s American films