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Happy Days

 
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Happy Days

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  • Director: Benjamin Stoloff
  • AMG Rating: starstar
  • Genre: Musical
  • Release Year: 1930
  • Country: US
  • Run Time: 86 minutes

Plot

Filmed in "Fox Grandeur," an early widescreen process, Happy Days was the immediate follow-up to Fox Studios' Movietone Follies of 1929. Most of the film takes place on the showboat of Mississippi entrepreneur Colonel Billy Batcher (Charles E. Evans). When the Colonel faces foreclosure after several failing seasons, soubrette Margie (Marjorie White) stages a fund-raising revue on the boat, enlisting the aid of all the big stars who got their start with Batcher. By an amazing coincidence, virtually all of the showboat alumni are under contract to Fox Studios! Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell perform "We'll Build a Little World of Our Own," Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe kid their roughneck screen images in the novelty number "Vic and Eddie," Sharon Lynn and Ann Pennington offer the "hot" dance routine "Snake Hips," and "Whispering" Jack Smith offers a rendition of the title tune. Also on hand are Will Rogers, El Brendel, Walter Catlett (who also staged the musical numbers), Lew Brice (Fanny's brother), Dixie Lee (Mrs. Bing Crosby) and Georgie Jessel -- not to mention an uncredited 14-year-old chorus girl named Betty Grable. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast

Frank Albertson - Himself; Warner Baxter - Himself; Rex Bell - Himself; El Brendel - Himself; Lew Brice - Himself; Walter Catlett - Himself; William Collier, Sr. - Himself; James J. Corbett - Interlocutor; Clifford Dempsey - Sheriff Benton; Stuart Erwin - Jig; Charles Farrell - Guest; Janet Gaynor - Interlocutor; George Olsen & His Orchestra - Chorus; Betty Grable - Chorine; Joe Holland - Chorus Man; Richard Keene - Dick; Dorothy Kirsten - Chorus Woman; Dixie Lee - Herself; Edmund Lowe - Himself; Sharon Lynne - Herself; John Farrell MacDonald - Himself; George MacFarlane - Interlocutor; Helen Mann - Chorus Woman; Victor McLaglen - Himself; Paul Page; Tom Patricola - Himself; Ann Pennington - Herself; David Rollins - Himself; The Slate Brothers; Martha Lee Sparks - Nancy Lee; Nick Stuart - Himself; Marjorie White - Margie; Charles E. Evans - Col. Billy Batcher; George Jessel - Himself; Frank Richardson - Himself; Jack Frost - Chorus Man; Will Rogers - Guest; Mary Lansing - Chorus Woman; Flo Bert; Kay Gordon; Bo Peep Karlin; Margaret La Marr; Harry Lauder; J. Harold Murray; Whispering Jack Smith; Marbeth Wright; Ted Smith - Chorus Man

Credit

Jack Schulze - Art Director, Earl Lindsay - Choreography, Sophie Wachner - Costume Designer, John Schmitz - First Assistant Director, Ad Schaumer - First Assistant Director, Benjamin Stoloff - Director, Miton Carruth - Editor, Clyde Carruth - Editor, Lucien Andriot - Cinematographer, John Schmitz - Cinematographer, J.O. Taylor - Cinematographer, William Fox - Producer, Edwin H. Burke - Dialogue Writer, Edwin H. Burke - Screenwriter, Sidney Lanfield - Screenwriter
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Wikipedia: Happy Days (1929 film)
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Happy Days
Directed by Benjamin Stoloff
Produced by William Fox
Written by Sidney Lanfield
Edwin J. Burke
Starring Charles E. Evans
Marjorie White
Richard Keene
Stuart Erwin
Music by Harry Stoddard
Cinematography Lucien N. Andriot
John Schmitz
J.O. Taylor
Editing by Clyde Carruth
Distributed by Fox Film Corporation
Release date(s) 17 September 1929 (preview)
13 February 1930
Running time 80 min.
Country USA
Language English

Happy Days (1929) is an 80 minute musical film, notable for being the first feature film shown entirely in widescreen anywhere in the world. (French director Abel Gance's Napoléon (1927) had some widescreen segments in what Gance called Polyvision.)

The film features an array of stars who were contracted to William Fox's Fox Film Corporation at that time, including Marjorie White, Will Rogers, Charles Farrell, Janet Gaynor, George Jessel, El Brendel, Ann Pennington, Victor McLaglen, Dixie Lee, Edmund Lowe, and Frank Richardson. It also featured the first appearance of Betty Grable on film, aged 12, as a chorus girl in blackface, and Sir Harry Lauder'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 who goes to make her fortune in New York City, despite being in love with the boat owner's grandson. Although successful in the city, when she hears that the showboat is in financial trouble she calls all the boat's former stars to perform in a show to rescue it.

Premiere

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 widescreen short on a Grandeur screen of 42x20 ft, compared to the standard 24x18 ft screen. It was also shown in Grandeur at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, from February 28, 1930. Due to the Great Depression few movie theaters invested in widescreen equipment and the format was abandoned until 23 years later. Fox Film Corporation's heavy investment in Grandeur technology led to William Fox losing his business, which was eventually merged in 1935 with Twentieth Century Pictures to form 20th Century Fox. No widescreen print of Happy Days is known to survive.

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

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