The Girl on the Film
Encyclopedia
Filmzauber, literally 'Film Magic', is a Posse mit Gesang
(a kind of popular musical drama) in four scenes by Walter Kollo
and Willy Bredschneider, with a German libretto
by Rudolf Bernauer and Rudolf Schanzer. A parody of (then popular) silent films, Filmzauber premiered in Berlin in 1912. An English version, The Girl on the Film, translated and adapted by James T. Tanner
with additional music by Albert Szirmai
, premiered in London in 1913 and was later performed in New York and elsewhere.
on 19 October 1912
with Lisa Weise, and the celebrated Austria
n singer and later film actor, Oscar Sabo.
It was revived (with an updated text) at the Heimathafen Neukölln Berlin on 18 April 2009, directed by Stefanie Aehnelt and conducted by Bruno Franceschini.
. Maria Gesticulata, an Italian tragedienne, is lined up to play his love interest, the pretty Knötteritz tobacco-miller's daughter.
) has become one of the best-loved of songs representing the capital. It has been recorded by a number of singers including Marlene Dietrich
(Marlene Dietrich's Berlin, Capitol Records LP ST 10443 and Marlene Dietrich singt Alt-Berliner Lieder LP AMIGA 8 45 009) and Hermann Prey
(Ich sing mein schonstes Lied (vocal recital), Capriccio CD C10289).
The popular song 'Kind, ich schlafe so schlecht' ('Child, I slept so badly') was recorded on 78 with the tenor Max Kuttner and the soprano 'Lucie Bernardo' (Johanna Sandfuchs), and also more recently by Kollo's grandson René Kollo
(on René Kollo sings Kollo, 2009, CD EMI).
A three-act English operetta
adaptation, given the title The Girl on the Film, was made by James T. Tanner
with additional music by Albert Szirmai
and English lyrics by Adrian Ross
. It was produced by George Edwardes
and opened at the Gaiety Theatre
in London on April 5, 1913 until 5 December, running for 232 performances, when the production transferred to New York. The production starred George Grossmith, Jr.
as Max Daly, Emmy Wehlen
as Winifred and Connie Ediss as Euphemia Knox.
The production transferred to the 44th Street Theatre
in New York City
and ran from 29 December 1913 to 31 February 1914, a total of 64 performances. This was the first musical at that theatre, and the production was considered a modest success. J. C. Williamson
's opera company toured The Girl on the Film in Australasia in 1915.
Dancers: Dorma Leigh and Oy-ra
Act 2
Act 3
In Chappell v. Fields, The Girl on the Film made legal history in 1914 when a U.S. Federal court held that the copyright on the show was violated because the story-line of a scene in the show, concerning the French invasion, was closely recreated in a later show called All Aboard, which concerned a fictional Japanese invasion of California.
Posse mit Gesang
Posse mit Gesang is a form of popular German-language music drama, that developed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Early examples are sometimes called 'Possenspil' or 'Possenspiel'...
(a kind of popular musical drama) in four scenes by Walter Kollo
Walter Kollo
Walter Kollo was a German composer of operettas, Possen mit Gesang, and Singspiele as well as popular songs. He was also a conductor and a music publisher.Kollo was born in Neidenburg, East Prussia...
and Willy Bredschneider, with a German libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Rudolf Bernauer and Rudolf Schanzer. A parody of (then popular) silent films, Filmzauber premiered in Berlin in 1912. An English version, The Girl on the Film, translated and adapted by James T. Tanner
James T. Tanner
James Tolman Tanner was an English stage director and dramatist who wrote many of the successful musicals produced by George Edwardes.-Life and career:...
with additional music by Albert Szirmai
Albert Szirmai
Albert Szirmai was a Hungarian operetta composer. A graduate of the Budapest Academy of Music, studying piano and composition, Szirmai was devoted to creating works for the stage. He wrote music for 12 one-act plays and over 300 songs for the Budapest theater Népszínház-Vígopera, at which he was...
, premiered in London in 1913 and was later performed in New York and elsewhere.
Performance history
Filmzauber was first performed at the Berliner Theater, BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
on 19 October 1912
1912 in music
-Events:*February 28 - In a concert in Copenhagen, Carl Nielsen conducts the premiere of his Symphony No. 3 and his Violin Concerto* March - Hart A. Wand published "Dallas Blues", a jazz standard and an early published blues song....
with Lisa Weise, and the celebrated Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n singer and later film actor, Oscar Sabo.
It was revived (with an updated text) at the Heimathafen Neukölln Berlin on 18 April 2009, directed by Stefanie Aehnelt and conducted by Bruno Franceschini.
Main roles
- Adalbert Musenfett, film producer and actor
- Maria Gesticulata, Italian tragedienne
- Fränze Papendieck, Musenfett's admirer
- Privy Councillor Papendieck, father of Fränze and film censor
- Wanda Hammerschmidt, Musenfett's office manager
- Max Rademacher, Wanda's admirer
- August Käsebier, Wanda's uncle and guardian in Knötteritz, a Reichstag representative
- Klemczinsky
Synopsis
Set in Berlin and 'Knötteritz near Leipzig' circa 1912. A farce, with a number of subplots, centring on the efforts by the idolized silent film producer-actor Adalbert Musenfett to cast himself as Napoleon in a drama set during the Battle of LeipzigBattle of Leipzig
The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations, on 16–19 October 1813, was fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against the French army of Napoleon. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine...
. Maria Gesticulata, an Italian tragedienne, is lined up to play his love interest, the pretty Knötteritz tobacco-miller's daughter.
Musical numbers
- 1. Introduction 'Lasset uns schreiben ohne Verweilen' [Bredschneider]
- 2. Song 'Es war einmal ein Gymnasiast' [Bredschneider]
- 3. Song 'Fränze, was machst du bloss für Tänze' [Bredschneider]
- 4. March-duet 'Untern Linden' [Kollo]
- 5. Introduction 'Hoch unser neuer M. d. R.' [Bredschneider]
- 6. 'Das Lied von der Mühle' [Bredschneider]
- 7. March-Quodlibet (from an old melody) [Bredschneider]
- 8. Duet 'Machen wir zusammen eine Firma auf' [Kollo]
- 9. Duet 'Kind, ich schlafe so schlecht' [Kollo]
- 10. Melodramatic finale [Bredschneider]
- 11 Introduction [Bredschneider]
- 12. Chanson 'Das Sahnenbaiser' [Bredschneider]
- 13. Terzett 'Erst 'ne Weile rechts' [Kollo]
- 14. Walz-duet 'Hab'n wir uns nicht schon mal kenn'n gelernt?' [Kollo]
- 15. Couplet ' 's war ooch ganz scheen' [Bredschneider]
- 16. Reminiscence ('Kind, ich schlafe so schlecht') [Kollo]
- 17. Finale song ('Erst 'ne Weile rechts') [Kollo]
Recordings
The swaggering march 'Unter'n Linden, Unter'n Linden gehen spaziern die Mägdelein' (describing Berlin's famous thoroughfare, Unter den LindenUnter den Linden
Unter den Linden is a boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, the capital of Germany. It is named for its linden trees that line the grassed pedestrian mall between two carriageways....
) has become one of the best-loved of songs representing the capital. It has been recorded by a number of singers including Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
(Marlene Dietrich's Berlin, Capitol Records LP ST 10443 and Marlene Dietrich singt Alt-Berliner Lieder LP AMIGA 8 45 009) and Hermann Prey
Hermann Prey
Hermann Prey was a German lyric baritone. He is most famous for lieder and for light comic baritone roles in opera.-Biography:...
(Ich sing mein schonstes Lied (vocal recital), Capriccio CD C10289).
The popular song 'Kind, ich schlafe so schlecht' ('Child, I slept so badly') was recorded on 78 with the tenor Max Kuttner and the soprano 'Lucie Bernardo' (Johanna Sandfuchs), and also more recently by Kollo's grandson René Kollo
René Kollo
René Kollo is a German tenor.-Biography:He was born René Kollodzieyski in Berlin and grew up in Wyk auf Föhr. He attended a photography school in Hamburg, although he had always been interested in music, particularly conducting. He did not begin to perform until the mid-50s...
(on René Kollo sings Kollo, 2009, CD EMI).
The Girl on the Film
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
adaptation, given the title The Girl on the Film, was made by James T. Tanner
James T. Tanner
James Tolman Tanner was an English stage director and dramatist who wrote many of the successful musicals produced by George Edwardes.-Life and career:...
with additional music by Albert Szirmai
Albert Szirmai
Albert Szirmai was a Hungarian operetta composer. A graduate of the Budapest Academy of Music, studying piano and composition, Szirmai was devoted to creating works for the stage. He wrote music for 12 one-act plays and over 300 songs for the Budapest theater Népszínház-Vígopera, at which he was...
and English lyrics by Adrian Ross
Adrian Ross
For the NFL player see Adrian Ross Arthur Reed Ropes , better known under the pseudonym Adrian Ross, was a prolific writer of lyrics, contributing songs to more than sixty British musical comedies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
. It was produced by George Edwardes
George Edwardes
George Joseph Edwardes was an English theatre manager of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond....
and opened at the Gaiety Theatre
Gaiety Theatre, London
The Gaiety Theatre, London was a West End theatre in London, located on Aldwych at the eastern end of the Strand. The theatre was established as the Strand Musick Hall , in 1864 on the former site of the Lyceum Theatre. It was rebuilt several times, but closed from the beginning of World War II...
in London on April 5, 1913 until 5 December, running for 232 performances, when the production transferred to New York. The production starred George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr. was a British actor, theatre producer and manager, director, playwright and songwriter, best remembered for his work in and with Edwardian musical comedies...
as Max Daly, Emmy Wehlen
Emmy Wehlen
Emmy Wehlen was a German-born Edwardian musical comedy and silent film actress who vanished from the public eye while in her early thirties.-Biography:...
as Winifred and Connie Ediss as Euphemia Knox.
The production transferred to the 44th Street Theatre
44th Street Theatre
The 44th Street Theatre was a New York City Broadway theatre from 1912 to 1945 in the United States of America. It was located on Broadway, at West 44th Street. Architect was William A. Swansea. Built by the Shuberts, and first named Weber and Fields' Music Hall, its name was changed when the...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and ran from 29 December 1913 to 31 February 1914, a total of 64 performances. This was the first musical at that theatre, and the production was considered a modest success. J. C. Williamson
J. C. Williamson
James Cassius Williamson was an American actor and later Australia's foremost theatrical manager, founding J. C. Williamson Ltd....
's opera company toured The Girl on the Film in Australasia in 1915.
Roles and London/New York casts
The casts in London and New York were as follows (some of the people in the New York casts were also replacements in London):- Mrs. Clutterbuch – Irene Verona (Hattie Arnold in New York)
- Portia – Florence Reade (Gertie Birch in New York)
- Euphemia Knox – Connie Ediss
- Max Daly – George Grossmith, Jr.George Grossmith, Jr.George Grossmith, Jr. was a British actor, theatre producer and manager, director, playwright and songwriter, best remembered for his work in and with Edwardian musical comedies...
- Cornelius Clutterbuch – George Barrett (John McArdle in New York)
- Valentine Twiss – Charles Maude (Paul Plunkett in New York)
- Signora Maria Gesticulata – Gwendoline Brogden (Mary Rodson in New York)
- Tom Brown – William Stephens (Milbury Ryder in New York)
- Linda – Madeleine Seymour
- Olivia – Gladys Wray (Vere Sinclair in New York)
- Viola – Blanche Stocker
- General Fitzgibbon, V.C. – Grafton Williams (Percy Terriss in New York)
- Winifred – Emmy WehlenEmmy WehlenEmmy Wehlen was a German-born Edwardian musical comedy and silent film actress who vanished from the public eye while in her early thirties.-Biography:...
- Lord Ronny – Arthur Wellesley
- Sergeant Tozer – Reginald Crompton (John Western in New York)
- Daudet "Doddie" – Robert Nainby (Grafton Williams)
- Lady Porchester – Violet Wilson
- Macawber – Edward Cutler
Dancers: Dorma Leigh and Oy-ra
Synopsis
A cinema actor and producer, Max Daly, is much sought after by the ladies. Pretty Winifred, the daughter of gruff General Fitzgibbon, in order to be near him, runs away from home and dresses as a boy (Freddy) to obtain a part in one of Max's films. Max plays Napoleon during a French invasion. But Signora Maria Gesticulata (Gwendoline Brogden) has come from Italy to play a part in the same film, and Max falls in love with her. He cannot speak Italian, and she cannot speak English, so Winifred acts as interpreter. In translating a love-letter from Max to the Signora, Winifred words it so as to offend the lady, who resigns her part at once. Winifred, still supposed to be a boy, then plays the Signora's part, and Max does not discover the fact that she is a girl until after the film has been shown at an Army League soiree.Musical numbers (Broadway production)
Act 1- Correspondence – Linda and Chorus
- I Heard That Tale Before – Linda and Valentine Twiss
- You Don't See It But It's There – Euphemia Knox and Winifred
- In Bond Street – Winifred and Max Daly
Act 2
- On the Ground – Euphemia
- Song of the Mill – Linda (music by Szirmai)
- Down By the Country Side – Max and Chorus
- Won't You Come and Waltz with Me – Linda and Valentine (music by Szirmai)
- Ah! Che Vedo – Maria Gesticulata and Max
- Oh! If You Were a Girl – Winifred and Max
Act 3
- Tommy Won't You Teach Me How to Tango – Max and Chorus
- Won't You Come and Waltz with Me (Reprise) – Linda and Valentine
Critical reception; copyright precedent
The Playgoer and Society Illustrated wrote in May 1913:- Though a good deal of the fun in the play is of a decidedly cheap nature, Mr. Grossmith managed to be genuinely amusing. Miss Connie Ediss, too, in her own particular style, was irresistibly funny. Miss Emmy Wehlen used a distinctly pleasant voice to advantage, and the other characters seemed to fall into line. The music is bright and catchy, and should do a good deal for the production, but no doubt Mr. George Edwardes will make many alterations before he is satisfied with the show. The song that offended a section of the audience on the opening night has been cut out, and if a little more real humour is instilled the piece should go well.
In Chappell v. Fields, The Girl on the Film made legal history in 1914 when a U.S. Federal court held that the copyright on the show was violated because the story-line of a scene in the show, concerning the French invasion, was closely recreated in a later show called All Aboard, which concerned a fictional Japanese invasion of California.
External links
- Filmzauber information at the Kollo Family website, accessed 21 December 2010
- Information about Kollo
- The Girl on the Film at the IBDB database
- Information about an Edinburgh revival, dated 13-18 October 1913
- Listing of musicals, showing the number of performances in London
- Recording of Grossmith singing "Tommy, Won't You Teach Me How to Tango?"