Cynthia Brideson and Sara Brideson
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813160887
- eISBN:
- 9780813165530
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813160887.003.0020
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Ziegfeld enters into a partnership with Sam Goldwyn to create a film version of Whoopee with Eddie Cantor as the star. Ziegfeld enjoys certain aspects of filmmaking, especially director Busby ...
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Ziegfeld enters into a partnership with Sam Goldwyn to create a film version of Whoopee with Eddie Cantor as the star. Ziegfeld enjoys certain aspects of filmmaking, especially director Busby Berkeley’s innovative style. Ziegfeld returns to New York with plans for a new show, Smiles, starring Marilyn Miller and Fred and Adele Astaire. The show should have been a hit, but Depression-era audiences find its old-fashioned Cinderella story line uninspired. At the dawn of the 1930s, the revue experiences a resurgence in popularity, with producers like Earl Carroll leading the trend. Ziegfeld decides to produce a new Follies, using nostalgia as its theme. Although the 1931 edition is a moderate success, it is clear Ziegfeld no longer reigns on Broadway. He becomes depressed when he and Burke are separated while she tours with a new play. Ziegfeld’s eccentricities become bizarre during this period; his phobias include red roses, dead flowers, and elephant figurines with their trunks pointing down. The chapter concludes with telegrams between Ziegfeld and Burke discussing Patricia’s care. At this point in Ziegfeld’s life, all he wants is for his family to be together again.Less
Ziegfeld enters into a partnership with Sam Goldwyn to create a film version of Whoopee with Eddie Cantor as the star. Ziegfeld enjoys certain aspects of filmmaking, especially director Busby Berkeley’s innovative style. Ziegfeld returns to New York with plans for a new show, Smiles, starring Marilyn Miller and Fred and Adele Astaire. The show should have been a hit, but Depression-era audiences find its old-fashioned Cinderella story line uninspired. At the dawn of the 1930s, the revue experiences a resurgence in popularity, with producers like Earl Carroll leading the trend. Ziegfeld decides to produce a new Follies, using nostalgia as its theme. Although the 1931 edition is a moderate success, it is clear Ziegfeld no longer reigns on Broadway. He becomes depressed when he and Burke are separated while she tours with a new play. Ziegfeld’s eccentricities become bizarre during this period; his phobias include red roses, dead flowers, and elephant figurines with their trunks pointing down. The chapter concludes with telegrams between Ziegfeld and Burke discussing Patricia’s care. At this point in Ziegfeld’s life, all he wants is for his family to be together again.
Laurence Maslon
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780199832538
- eISBN:
- 9780190620424
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199832538.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Popular, History, American
The technological advance of the gramophone allowed consumers to hear the performers of Broadway in their living rooms. But the tunes from the Great White Way were more persuasive than the impulse to ...
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The technological advance of the gramophone allowed consumers to hear the performers of Broadway in their living rooms. But the tunes from the Great White Way were more persuasive than the impulse to record original performers in the roles they performed nightly on the stage; the technical limitations of the 78 rpm record only allowed for three minutes of music, so the overwhelmingly popular dance band orchestras of the period were, by and large, the most effective purveyors of Broadway music. The notion of an “original cast performance” was not a commercial imperative and the early decades of recorded music reveal an arbitrary and confounding legacy of original performances; the music of Broadway itself, however, was the most influential and revered genre in American popular culture.Less
The technological advance of the gramophone allowed consumers to hear the performers of Broadway in their living rooms. But the tunes from the Great White Way were more persuasive than the impulse to record original performers in the roles they performed nightly on the stage; the technical limitations of the 78 rpm record only allowed for three minutes of music, so the overwhelmingly popular dance band orchestras of the period were, by and large, the most effective purveyors of Broadway music. The notion of an “original cast performance” was not a commercial imperative and the early decades of recorded music reveal an arbitrary and confounding legacy of original performances; the music of Broadway itself, however, was the most influential and revered genre in American popular culture.
