The Jazz Age (1929 film)
Encyclopedia
The Jazz Age is a film starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Marceline Day
, and Joel McCrea
in his first leading role. The film, directed by Leslie Shores and written by Randolph Bartlett, was released by RKO Radio Pictures soon after RKO was created from Film Booking Offices of America
, RCA, and the Keith-Albee-Orpheum
theater chain.
RKO released The Jazz Age in both a silent
and part-talkie
version, so the film could be shown in theaters equipped for sound, and for those not equipped for sound. The part-talkie version was recorded in RCA Photophone
.
The film was part-comedy, part-drama, relating the travails of young people trapped by illicit alcohol and sex, in defiance of the older generation.
There was a later documentary film
narrated by Fred Allen
also titled The Jazz Age (1956), and a 15-episode TV series of the same name on the BBC
in 1968.
Marceline Day
Marceline Day was an American motion picture actress whose career began as a child in the 1910s and ended in the 1930s....
, and Joel McCrea
Joel McCrea
Joel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.-Early life:...
in his first leading role. The film, directed by Leslie Shores and written by Randolph Bartlett, was released by RKO Radio Pictures soon after RKO was created from Film Booking Offices of America
Film Booking Offices of America
Film Booking Offices of America was an American film studio of the silent era, a producer and distributor of mostly low-budget films. The business began as Robertson-Cole , the American division of a British import–export company...
, RCA, and the Keith-Albee-Orpheum
Keith-Albee-Orpheum
The Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation was the owner of a chain of vaudeville and motion picture theatres. It was formed by the merger of the holdings of Benjamin Franklin Keith and Edward Franklin Albee II and Martin Beck's Orpheum Circuit, Inc..-History:...
theater chain.
RKO released The Jazz Age in both a silent
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
and part-talkie
Part-talkie
A part-talkie is a partly, and most often primarily, silent film which includes one or more synchronous sound sequences with audible dialog or singing. During the silent portions lines of dialog are presented as "titles" -- printed text briefly filling the screen -- and the soundtrack is used only...
version, so the film could be shown in theaters equipped for sound, and for those not equipped for sound. The part-talkie version was recorded in RCA Photophone
RCA Photophone
RCA Photophone was the trade name given to one of four major competing technologies that emerged in the American film industry in the late 1920s for synchronizing electrically recorded audio to a motion picture image. RCA Photophone was a sound-on-film, "variable-area" film exposure system, in...
.
The film was part-comedy, part-drama, relating the travails of young people trapped by illicit alcohol and sex, in defiance of the older generation.
There was a later documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
narrated by Fred Allen
Fred Allen
Fred Allen was an American comedian whose absurdist, topically pointed radio show made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the so-called classic era of American radio.His best-remembered gag was his long-running mock feud with friend and fellow comedian Jack Benny, but it...
also titled The Jazz Age (1956), and a 15-episode TV series of the same name on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in 1968.