The Show of Shows is a lavish all talking Vitaphone

Vitaphone

Vitaphone was a sound film process used on feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects produced by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the sound-on-disc processes...

 musical revue film which cost $850,000 to make. The Show of Shows was Warner Bros. fifth color movie, the first four were The Desert Song

The Desert Song (1929 film)

The Desert Song is a musical operetta film photographed partly in two-color Technicolor. This was the first movie released by Warner Bros. to be in color. Although some of the songs from the show have been omitted, the film is otherwise virtually a duplicate of the stage production...

(1929), On With the Show (1929), Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929) and Paris

Paris (1929 film)

Paris is a black-and-white musical comedy film with Technicolor sequences: four of ten reels were originally photographed in Technicolor. Paris was the fourth color movie released by Warner Bros.; the first three were The Desert Song, On With the Show and Gold Diggers of Broadway, all released in...

(1929). This movie featured most of the contemporary Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 film stars.

The movie was styled in the same format as the earlier MGM film The Hollywood Revue of 1929

The Hollywood Revue of 1929

The Hollywood Revue of 1929 is a 1929 part Technicolor Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer American musical-comedy film. It was the studio's second feature-length musical, and one of the earliest ventures into the talkie format. Produced by Harry Rapf and directed by Chuck Riesner, the film brought together some...

. The Show of Shows was photographed almost entirely in Technicolor

Technicolor

Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...

; the cost of the film meant that although it performed well at the box office, it did not return as much profit as the MGM film. The Show of Shows was originally meant and advertised as being in all color-talking movie, however, twenty-one minutes was in black and white, the first part, seventeen minutes and the first four minutes of part two.

Seen today in incomplete black and white duplicate prints, it remains of historical interest, showing the talent working at Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 in the early talkie period. The film features all the stars then working at Warner Bros. except for Dorothy Mackaill

Dorothy Mackaill

Dorothy Mackaill was an English-born American actress, most notably of the silent film era and into the early 1930s.-Early life:...

 and Al Jolson

Al Jolson

Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer"....

. Virtually all the performers shown would vanish from the studio by 1931, after tastes had shifted due to the effects of the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 which began to be felt late in 1930.

At that time, the sophisticated and musical talent that had characterized the 1920s was replaced by a new set of stars, more in tune with the common man and with more sober times, headed by the likes of Warren William

Warren William

Warren William was a Broadway and Hollywood actor, popular during the early 1930s, who was later nicknamed the "king of Pre-Code". He was born Warren William Krech in Aitkin, Minnesota to parents Freeman E. and Frances Krech. He had a certain physical resemblance to John Barrymore. He attended the...

, Bette Davis

Bette Davis

Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...

, Barbara Stanwyck

Barbara Stanwyck

Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...

, Glenda Farrell

Glenda Farrell

-Career:Farrell came to Hollywood towards the end of the silent era. Farrell began her career with a theatrical company at the age of 7. She played Little Eva in Uncle Tom's Cabin...

, William Powell

William Powell

William Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...

, Kay Francis

Kay Francis

Kay Francis was an American stage and film actress. After a brief period on Broadway in the late 1920s, she moved to film and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936, when she was the number one female star at the Warner Brothers studio, and the highest paid American film actress...

, Lee Tracy

Lee Tracy

William Lee Tracy was an American actor.- Early life :Tracy was born in Atlanta, Georgia.After graduating from Western Military Academy in 1918 he studied electrical engineering at Union College, and then served as a 2nd lieutenant in World War I. In the early 1920s he decided to work as an actor...

, Joan Blondell

Joan Blondell

Rose Joan Blondell was an American actress who performed in movies and on television for five decades as Joan Blondell.After winning a beauty pageant, Blondell embarked upon a film career...

, Dick Powell

Dick Powell

Richard Ewing "Dick" Powell was an American singer, actor, producer, director and studio boss.Despite the same last name he was not related to William Powell, Eleanor Powell or Jane Powell.-Biography:...

, Clark Gable

Clark Gable

William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...

, and James Cagney

James Cagney

James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...

. In 1929 however, these were as yet unknown names in the movie world with the exception of Powell who was a well known villain in Paramount silents. In The Show of Shows we see many of the performers who were popular in silent movies mixed in with hand picked stage stars and novelty acts.

The emcee of the film was Frank Fay

Frank Fay (American actor)

Frank Fay was an American film and stage actor, emcee, comedian, best known as an actor for having played "Elwood P. Dowd" in the play Harvey by the American playwright Mary Coyle Chase on Broadway...

, who had an unusual style of barbed sarcasm. In an era of almost naive optimism, he stands out as a witty devil's advocate

Devil's advocate

In common parlance, a devil's advocate is someone who, given a certain argument, takes a position he or she does not necessarily agree with, just for the sake of argument. In taking such position, the individual taking on the devil's advocate role seeks to engage others in an argumentative...

. Fay's unique style appears to have been often misunderstood by reviewers and audiences and interpreted as bad technique, but Fay is clearly sending up the film, albeit slyly. He uses this technique to good effect in introducing each act and has a running joke about doing his own song, which he eventually performs near the end of the film.

Scenes

What follows here is a detailed description of the existing prints. Most of the scenes were originally in color, but only black and white television prints survive, except for The Chinese Fantasy scene and The Meet My Sister scene. The Meet My Sister scene is available only in black and white on most prints, as the color print is held private.

• Prologue - In a scene set in the French Revolution
  French Revolution
  The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
  
  , Hobart Bosworth as an executioner and H.B. Warner as an aristocrat
  Aristocracy (class)
  The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...
  
   who is executed on a guillotine
  Guillotine
  The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...
  
  . This strange and morbid opening serves to show that traditional stage shows are finished. Up until 1929, most big cities had added stage acts before silent movies. These were costly and sound films would make them mostly obsolete. As the aristocrat tries to speak he is interrupted by the executioner who rants that they have heard his remarks too often and it is time for him to be gone. After the blade falls the executioner joyously shouts: "Prologue is Dead! On with the Show of Shows!".

• Military March - lead by Monte Blue
  Monte Blue
  Monte Blue was a movie actor who began his career as a romantic leading man in the silent film era, and later progressed to character roles....
  
   and Pasadena American Legion Fife and Drum Corps. A very static pageant set entirely on a huge set of steps with the cadets changing formation to provide a series of color effects in a manner which would be popularized much later by Busby Berkeley
  Busby Berkeley
  Busby Berkeley was a highly influential Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer. Berkeley was famous for his elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns...
  
  .

• What's Become of the Florodora Boys? - Myrna Loy
  Myrna Loy
  Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
  
  , Marian Nixon
  Marian Nixon
  -Career:Born Marian Nissinen in Superior, Wisconsin, Nixon began her career as a teen working as a chorus dancer on the vaudeville circuit. She began appearing in bit part in films in 1922 and landed her first substantial role in the 1923 film Cupid's Fireman, opposite Buck Jones. The following...
  
  , Ben Turpin
  Ben Turpin
  Ben Turpin was a cross-eyed American comedian and actor, best remembered for his work in silent films.-Personal life:...
  
  , Lupino Lane
  Lupino Lane
  Lupino Lane was an English actor and theatre manager, and a member of the famous Lupino family. Lane started out as a child performer, known as 'Little Nipper', and went on to appear in a wide range of theatrical, music hall and film performances...
  
  , and many others in a partial parody of the now largely forgotten 'Florodora
  Florodora
  Florodora is an Edwardian musical comedy and became one of the first successful Broadway musicals of the 20th century. The book was written by Jimmy Davis under the pseudonym Owen Hall, the music was by Leslie Stuart with additional songs by Paul Rubens, and the lyrics were by Edward Boyd-Jones...
  
  ' Edwardian stage show. This was the first of its kind — a lavish show featuring girls in a chorus, and it would attract a generation of male admirers before passing into history. Thus, the production was still a living memory among many in 1929, prompting this gentle parody
  Parody
  A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
  
  .

• Motion Picture Pirates - featuring Ted Lewis
  Ted Lewis (musician)
  Theodore Leopold Friedman, better known as Ted Lewis , was an American entertainer, bandleader, singer, and musician. He led a band presenting a combination of jazz, hokey comedy, and schmaltzy sentimentality that was a hit with the American public. He was known by the moniker "Mr...
  
   with a fantasy number set of a pirate ship headed by cut-throat Noah Beery and Tully Marshall
  Tully Marshall
  William Phillips was an American character actor known as Tully Marshall, with nearly a quarter century of theatrical experience behind before he made his first film appearance in 1914.-Career:...
  
   with Wheeler Oakman, Kala Pasha and other well known movie villains of the era. A group of beautiful girls are captured and saved from an awful fate (almost) by light comedian Johnny Arthur sending up Douglas Fairbanks. The pirates literally blow him overboard. Finally the day is saved by Ted Lewis, a well known bandleader at that time who had recently appeared in his own starring vehicle for Warner Bros., Is Everybody Happy? (1929), a film now deemed lost. His trademark was a battered top hat and his signature tune was "Me and My Shadow
  Me and My Shadow
  "Me and My Shadow" is a 1927 popular song. Officially the credits show it as written by Al Jolson, Billy Rose, and Dave Dreyer; in fact, Billy Rose was exclusively a lyricist, Dreyer a composer, and Al Jolson a performer who was often given credits so he could earn some more money, so the actual...
  
  ".

• Dear Little Pup - sung by Frank Fay.

• The Only Song I Know - Nick Lucas

• Pingo-Pongo - sung by Winnie Lightner
  Winnie Lightner
  Winnie Lightner was an American motion picture actress. Perhaps her most famous role was as a gold-digger named Mabel, in Gold Diggers of Broadway...
  
  

• If I Could Learn to Love - In a brief introductory sequence, missing from circulating prints, Georges Carpentier
  Georges Carpentier
  Georges Carpentier was a French boxer. He fought mainly as a light heavyweight and heavyweight in a career lasting from 1908-26. Nicknamed the "Orchid Man", he stood and his fighting weight ranged from...
  
   is introduced by Frank Fay
  Frank Fay (American actor)
  Frank Fay was an American film and stage actor, emcee, comedian, best known as an actor for having played "Elwood P. Dowd" in the play Harvey by the American playwright Mary Coyle Chase on Broadway...
  
  , who provokes Carpentier into lightly tapping him with his formidable hands, to which Fay comically overreacts and then beats a hasty retreat. Georges Carpentier
  Georges Carpentier
  Georges Carpentier was a French boxer. He fought mainly as a light heavyweight and heavyweight in a career lasting from 1908-26. Nicknamed the "Orchid Man", he stood and his fighting weight ranged from...
  
   was a French lightweight boxer who was briefly adopted as a star in the Maurice Chevalier
  Maurice Chevalier
  Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, entertainer and a noted Sprechgesang performer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine, and Thank Heaven for Little Girls and for his films including The Love Parade and The Big Pond...
  
   mold. He sings here against an Eiffel Tower
  Eiffel Tower
  The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...
  
   backdrop, accompanied by Patsy Ruth Miller
  Patsy Ruth Miller
  Patsy Ruth Miller was an American film actress.After being discovered by the actress Alla Nazimova at a Hollywood party, Patsy Ruth Miller got her first break with a small role in Camille, which starred Rudolph Valentino...
  
   and Alice White and later, a singing and dancing chorus of girls. Ultimately, everyone removes their street clothes to reveal athletic togs underneath, and a precision dance routine follows, with the participants positioned on an upright series of geometric struts.

• Recitations - Beatrice Lillie
  Beatrice Lillie
  Beatrice Gladys "Bea" Lillie was an actress and comedic performer. Following her 1920 marriage to Sir Robert Peel in England, she was known in private life as Lady Peel.-Early career:...
  
  , Louise Fazenda
  Louise Fazenda
  Louise Fazenda was an American film actress, appearing chiefly in silent comedy films.-Early life:Of Portuguese ancestry, she was born in Lafayette, Indiana. Her father, Joseph Fazenda, was a merchandise broker. After moving west Louise attended Los Angeles High School and St. Mary's Convent...
  
  , Lloyd Hamilton
  Lloyd Hamilton
  Lloyd Vernon Hamilton was a major silent film star. Hamilton is best remembered as the stocky half of silent comedy's "Ham and Bud" , and later, his own series of short comedies...
  
   and Frank Fay
  Frank Fay (American actor)
  Frank Fay was an American film and stage actor, emcee, comedian, best known as an actor for having played "Elwood P. Dowd" in the play Harvey by the American playwright Mary Coyle Chase on Broadway...
  
  . A series of stark limerick
  Limerick
  Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
  
   recitations which are first performed by each performer whole and then line by line, until when mixed up they form a bizarre and suggestive product. The sequence also includes a parody
  Parody
  A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
  
   of the MGM song "Your Mother and Mine" and a series of purposely lame and pointless practical jokes.

• Meet My Sister - Introduced by a deliberately nervous Richard Barthelmess
  Richard Barthelmess
  Richard Semler "Dick" Barthelmess was an Oscar-nominated silent film star.-Early life:Barthelmess was educated at Hudson River Military Academy at Nyack and Trinity College at Hartford, Connecticut...
  
  , followed by 'Hollywood' sisters including Dolores Costello
  Dolores Costello
  Dolores Costello was an American film actress who achieved her greatest success during the era of silent movies. She was nicknamed "The Goddess of the Silent Screen"...
  
   and Helene Costello
  Helene Costello
  Helene Costello was an American motion picture actress, most notably of the silent film era.Lou Costello took his professional name from the actress.- Biography :...
  
   singing "Meet My Sister," along with Loretta Young
  Loretta Young
  Loretta Young was an American actress. Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953...
  
   and Sally Blane
  Sally Blane
  Sally Blane was an American actress. Blane was the sister of actresses Polly Ann and Loretta Young, and half-sister to actress Georgiana Young, the wife of actor Ricardo Montalban...
  
  , Sally O'Neil
  Sally O'Neil
  Sally O'Neil was an American film actress of the 1920s. She was born as Virginia Louise Noonan, one of 11 children born to a judge in Bayonne, New Jersey. One of her sisters was actress Molly O'Day....
  
   and Molly O'Day
  Molly O'Day
  Molly O'Day was an American film actress and the younger sister of Sally O'Neil.Born as Suzanne Dobson Noonan in Bayonne, New Jersey, she was the youngest of 11 children of Metropolitan Opera singer Hannah Kelly and Judge Thomas Francis Patrick Noonan. After their father's death, O'Day and her two...
  
  , Alice Day
  Alice Day
  Alice Day was a film actor who began her career as of the Sennett Bathing Beauties....
  
   and Marceline Day
  Marceline Day
  Marceline Day was an American motion picture actress whose career began as a child in the 1910s and ended in the 1930s....
  
  , Marion Byron
  Marion Byron
  Marion "Peanuts" Byron was a petite, plucky American movie comedienne.She was born in Dayton, Ohio. After following her sister into a short stage career as a singer/dancer, she was given her first movie role as Buster Keaton's leading lady in the film Steamboat Bill Jr. in 1928...
  
   and Harriette Lake (later better known as Ann Sothern
  Ann Sothern
  Ann Sothern was an American film and television actress whose career spanned six decades.-Early life and career:...
  
  ), Viola Dana
  Viola Dana
  Viola Dana was an American film actress who was successful during the era of silent movies.- Career :Born Virginia Flugrath, Dana was a child star, appearing on the stage at the age of three. She read Shakespeare and particularly identified with the teenage Juliet. She enjoyed a long run at the...
  
   and Shirley Mason, Lola Vendrell and Armida Vendrell
  Armida Vendrell
  Armida, born Armida Vendrell, was an American actress, singer, dancer, and vaudevillian born in Aguascalientes, Mexico.-Early life:...
  
  , and Alberta Vaughn
  Alberta Vaughn
  Alberta Vaughn was an American actress in silent motion pictures and early Western sound films. She appeared in some 130 motion pictures.-Career:...
  
   and Adamae Vaughn
  Adamae Vaughn
  Adamae Vaughn was a movie actress from Ashland, Kentucky.Her sister was film actress Alberta Vaughn. Adamae was at first Alberta's manager and chaperone. The studio needed a brunette and Adamae, a blonde, sent her sister....
  
  . All of the pairs were sisters in real life except for Marion Byron and Harriette Lake, who were not related. The song is partly compromised by having each set of 'twins' representing a different country against a backdrop serving to illustrate each in a display of international stereotypes (this number exists in color in a faded private print which has the start and end partly removed).

• Intermission - Ten Minutes - Title Card (missing from some prints)

• Singin' in the Bathtub
  Singin' in the Bathtub
  Singing in the Bathtub is a song written in 1929 by Michael H. Cleary, with lyrics by Herb Magidson and Ned Washington for the film The Show of Shows. The Show of Shows was Warner Bros.' answer to MGM's The Hollywood Revue of 1929, and "Singing in the Bathtub" spoofs Hollywood Revue's song...
  
  - Winnie Lightner
  Winnie Lightner
  Winnie Lightner was an American motion picture actress. Perhaps her most famous role was as a gold-digger named Mabel, in Gold Diggers of Broadway...
  
   and a bunch of male chorines amusingly send up Singin' in the Rain
  Singin' in the Rain (song)
  "Singin' In the Rain" is a song with lyrics by Arthur Freed and music by Nacio Herb Brown, published in 1929. However, it is unclear exactly when the song was written with some claiming that the song was written and performed as early as 1927. The song was listed as Number 3 on AFI's 100 Years.....
  
  against a huge bathroom set, concluding with Lightner and ex-wrestler Bull Montana
  Bull Montana
  Bull Montana , was a professional wrestler and American actor.Lewis Montagna came to the U.S. as a child. The hulking, plug-ugly Montagna became a professional wrestler under the name of Bull Montana...
  
   singing a parody of the MGM song "You Were Meant for Me
  You Were Meant for Me (1929 song)
  "You Were Meant for Me" is a popular song with music by Nacio Herb Brown and lyrics by Arthur Freed, published in 1929.It was introduced by Charles King in the 1929 musical film The Broadway Melody. It was also sung by King dubbing for Conrad Nagel in the feature film The Hollywood Revue of 1929...
  
  " from the 1929 film The Broadway Melody
  The Broadway Melody
  The Broadway Melody is a 1929 American musical film and the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was one of the first musicals to feature a Technicolor sequence, which sparked the trend of color being used in a flurry of musicals that would hit the screens in 1929-1930...
  
  .

• Irene Bordoni
  Irène Bordoni
  Irène Bordoni was a French singer and a Broadway and film actress.-Early years:Born in Ajaccio, France, from an Italian family, she had been a child actor, performing in Paris on stage and in silent films for a few years, having signed with theatrical agent André Charlot...
  
  singing "Just an Hour of Love".

• Chinese Fantasy - Introduced, via sharp barks, by canine performer Rin Tin Tin
  Rin Tin Tin
  Rin Tin Tin was the name given to a dog adopted from a WWI battlefield that went on to star in twenty-three Hollywood films. The name was subsequently given to several related German Shepherd dogs featured in fictional stories on film, radio and television.-Origins:The first of the line Rin Tin...
  
  ; with Nick Lucas
  Nick Lucas
  Nick Lucas born Dominic Nicholas Anthony Lucanese was an American singer and pioneer jazz guitarist, remembered as "the grandfather of the jazz guitar", whose peak of popularity lasted from the mid-1920s to the early 1930s.-Career:In 1922, at the age of 25, he gained renown with his hit renditions...
  
   singing "Li-Po-Li" and Myrna Loy
  Myrna Loy
  Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
  
   dancing. This lavish production number is a good illustration of the film as a whole and still entertains today. It survives in Technicolor
  Technicolor
  Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
  
  .

• Frank Fay with Sid Silvers - Amusing skit
  Sketch comedy
  A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
  
   with Sid Silvers
  Sid Silvers
  Sid Silvers was an American actor, comedian, lyricist, and writer.Silvers began his career in vaudeville in the early 1920s as a comedy partner of Phil Baker. As part of their act, Silvers would heckle Baker from the audience...
  
   stepping in as an annoying spectator who is auditioning for a solo spot, by showing Frank Fay his own imitation of Al Jolson
  Al Jolson
  Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer"....
  
   singing "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody
  Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody
  "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" is a popular song written by Jean Schwartz, with lyrics by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young. The song was published in 1918....
  
  ." Jolson, although a Warner Bros. top star, does not appear.

• A Bicycle Built for Two - Another music hall
  Music hall
  Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
  
   pastiche
  Pastiche
  A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
  
   featuring Chester Conklin
  Chester Conklin
  Chester Cooper Conklin was an American comedian and actor. He appeared in over 280 films, about half of them in the silent era.-Early life:...
  
  , Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Chester Morris
  Chester Morris
  Chester Morris was an American actor, who starred in the Boston Blackie detective series of the 1940s.-Career:...
  
  , Gertrude Olmstead
  Gertrude Olmstead
  Gertrude Olmstead was an American actress of the silent era. She appeared in 56 films between 1920 and 1929.-Career:...
  
  , Sally Eilers
  Sally Eilers
  -Life and career:Born as Dorothea Sally Eilers in New York City to a Jewish-American mother, Paula, and an Irish-American father, Peter Eilers, . She was educated in Los Angeles and went into films because so many of her friends were in pictures. She studied for the stage, specialising in dancing...
  
   and others singing the 1890s standard "Daisy Bell
  Daisy Bell
  "Daisy Bell" is a popular song with the well-known chorus "Daisy, Daisy/Give me your answer do/I'm half crazy/all for the love of you" as well as the line "...a bicycle built for two".-History:"Daisy Bell" was composed by Harry Dacre in 1892...
  
  ", against a deliberately unreal revolving backdrop.

• If Your Best Friend Won't Tell You (Why Should I?) - Sid Silvers
  Sid Silvers
  Sid Silvers was an American actor, comedian, lyricist, and writer.Silvers began his career in vaudeville in the early 1920s as a comedy partner of Phil Baker. As part of their act, Silvers would heckle Baker from the audience...
  
   back with Frank Fay
  Frank Fay (American actor)
  Frank Fay was an American film and stage actor, emcee, comedian, best known as an actor for having played "Elwood P. Dowd" in the play Harvey by the American playwright Mary Coyle Chase on Broadway...
  
   wickedly singing about the horrors of halitosis.

• Larry Ceballos' Black and White Girls - Introduced by Sid Silvers
  Sid Silvers
  Sid Silvers was an American actor, comedian, lyricist, and writer.Silvers began his career in vaudeville in the early 1920s as a comedy partner of Phil Baker. As part of their act, Silvers would heckle Baker from the audience...
  
  , danced by chorus girls dressed up in black and white dresses. One half of the girls wear outfits with black fronts and white backs (with corresponding wigs) the others wear outfits exactly the reverse. As the girls turn about in formation the lines of dancers switch from white to black, or form geometric patterns. Music instrumental Jumping Jack
  Jumping Jack
  A jumping jack , stride jump or star jump , also called side-straddle hop in the US military, is a physical jumping exercise performed by jumping to a position with the legs spread wide and the hands touching overhead and then returning to a position with the feet together and the arms at the sides...
  
  . A reworking of an almost identical dance routine, set to "The Doll Dance," that appeared in the 1928 Technicolor two-reeler, "Larry Ceballos' Roof Garden Revue."

As an afterpiece the dance appears to begin again but is halted by Louise Fazenda as the "Dancing Delegate" complaining about the costumes ("These skirts are TOO SHORT!") demanding that Fay be brought on stage — which happens so rapidly he appears without his pants.

• Your Love Is All I Crave - An emotional and surprisingly moving torch song of lost love sung by Frank Fay. Fay introduces the number with a topical and (for 1929) surprisingly sharp series of jokes — he describes being in a play where the entire cast entered dressed in rags; "It was a futuristic piece". He also tweaks his own image: "The leading lady called to me: "My Stalwart Youth"..........(I was heavily made up).....".

• King Richard III (in excerpt from Henry VI (Part III)) - Introduced and recited by John Barrymore. This Shakespeare extract was thought to add a bit of class at the time. Deliberately picked as a particularly grim sequence, the delivery or meaning could easily be accepted by any contemporary audience.

• Mexican Moonshine - Comedy sketch with Monte Blue
  Monte Blue
  Monte Blue was a movie actor who began his career as a romantic leading man in the silent film era, and later progressed to character roles....
  
   as a condemned
  Capital punishment
  Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
  
   man, and Frank Fay
  Frank Fay (American actor)
  Frank Fay was an American film and stage actor, emcee, comedian, best known as an actor for having played "Elwood P. Dowd" in the play Harvey by the American playwright Mary Coyle Chase on Broadway...
  
   as his executioner
  Executioner
  A judicial executioner is a person who carries out a death sentence ordered by the state or other legal authority, which was known in feudal terminology as high justice.-Scope and job:...
  
  , accompanied by Lloyd Hamilton
  Lloyd Hamilton
  Lloyd Vernon Hamilton was a major silent film star. Hamilton is best remembered as the stocky half of silent comedy's "Ham and Bud" , and later, his own series of short comedies...
  
  , Albert Gran
  Albert Gran
  Albert Gran was a Norwegian born American movie actor. He is most associated with his appearance in drama and light comedy films....
  
   and others as rather effeminate soldiers. ("Oh, Penelope!" calls Fay, and Lloyd Hamilton walks over swaying his hips.) It is a parody of 'Chesterfield' Tobacco advertising. Much the same idea, parodying a cigarette advertising slogan, also appears in the opening seconds of Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929).

• Lady Luck Finale - A genuinely spectacular finale lasting over quarter of an hour. (Originally filmed in 2-strip Technicolor it now exists only in black and white. The following description is of the ORIGINAL version). It starts with Alexander Gray singing a full blooded version of the song "Lady Luck" inside an enormous ballroom set with huge windows revealing a midnight green sky. The set is backed by stairs in varied warm colors, down which a procession of novelty acts, pastel colored dancers with pink and green costumes, flood the stage, each with a different number to perform against a fast moving musical backing. The red lined ceiling reveals chandeliers to which girls have been fixed all in the name of spectacle. Tap dancers (both White and Black groups) dance themselves into a frenzy on a highly polished wooden floor. This all ends as Betty Compson
  Betty Compson
  Betty Compson was an American actress. Born Eleanor Luicime Compson in Beaver, Utah, she had an extensive film career. Her father died when she was young, and she was forced to drop out of school and earn a living for herself and her mother...
  
   walks down the full length of the stage in procession to meet Alexander Gray and with the whole cast assembled, hundreds of colored streamers drop from the roof as "Lady Luck" reaches a finale.

• Curtain of Stars - With the cast appearing with their heads poked through holes in canvas singing "Lady Luck", especially John Barrymore making facial gestures while he pretends to be singing along with the others.

Film preservation

This movie stil survives in a black and white 1950s television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 copy. Color sequences only survive in black and white except The Chinese Fantasy Scene introduced by Rin Tin Tin, starring Myrna Loy and Nick Lucas.

Songs

"You Were Meant For Me"
by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed - Sung by Bull Montana and Winnie Lightner

"Singin' in the Bathtub" Music by Michael Cleary, Lyrics by Herb Magidson

Herb Magidson

Herbert A. "Herb" Magidson was an American popular lyricist. His work was used in over 23 films and four Broadway reviews. He won the first Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1934....

 and Ned Washington - Sung by Winnie Lightner with a chorus of men dressed as women wearing comic bathing suits, who in turn are joined by fat cigar smoking men in reclining in glass bathtubs.

"Lady Luck" - Music and Lyrics by Ray Perkins, Sung by Nick Lucas, Alexander Gray and Ted Lewis

"Motion Picture Pirates" - Music and Lyrics by M.K. Jerome

"If I Could Learn to Love" - Music by M.K. Jerome, Lyrics by Herman Ruby - Sung by Georges Carpentier

"Isle of Pingo-Pongo" - Music by Joseph Burke, Lyrics by Al Dubin, Sung by Winnie Lightner

"The Only Song I Know" - Music by Ray Perkins, Lyrics by J. Keirn Brennan

"Meet My Sister", Music by Ray Perkins, Lyrics by J. Keirn Brennan

"Your Mother and Mine", Music by Gus Edwards, Lyrics by Joe Goodwin

"Just an Hour of Love", Music by Edward Ward, Lyrics by Alfred Bryan

"Li-Po-Li", Music by Edward Ward, Lyrics by Alfred Bryan, Sung by Mr Nick Lucas

"Rock-A-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody

Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody

"Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" is a popular song written by Jean Schwartz, with lyrics by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young. The song was published in 1918....

", Music by Jean Schwartz, Lyrics by Sam Lewis and Joe Young

"If Your Best Friends Won't Tell You (Why Should I)", Music by Joseph Burke, Lyrics by Al Dubin, Sung by Frank Fay

"Your Love Is All I Crave", Music by Jimmy Johnson, Lyrics by Perry Bradford and Al Dubin, Sung by Frank Fay

"What's Become of the Floradora Boys?", Music and Lyrics by Ray Perkins

"Dear Little Pup", Music by Ray Perkins, Lyrics by J. Keirn Brennan, Sung by Frank Fay

Credited cast

• Harry Akst
  Harry Akst
  Harry Akst was an American songwriter, who started out his career as a pianist in vaudeville accompanying singers such as Nora Bayes, Frank Fay and Al Jolson.-Life and career:Akst was born in New York, United States....
  
   - On-Screen Pianist
• Armida Vendrell
  Armida Vendrell
  Armida, born Armida Vendrell, was an American actress, singer, dancer, and vaudevillian born in Aguascalientes, Mexico.-Early life:...
  
   - 'Meet My Sister' and 'Lady Luck' Finale
• Johnny Arthur
  Johnny Arthur
  Johnny Arthur was an American stage and motion picture actor.-Early years:Born John Lennox Arthur Williams in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, Arthur was a veteran of twenty-five years on stage before he made his screen debut in 1923's The Unknown Purple...
  
   - 'Motion Picture Pirates'
• Mary Astor
  Mary Astor
  Mary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost...
  
   - 'Motion Picture Pirates'
• John Barrymore
  John Barrymore
  John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...
  
   - 'Henry VI Part III'
• Richard Barthelmess
  Richard Barthelmess
  Richard Semler "Dick" Barthelmess was an Oscar-nominated silent film star.-Early life:Barthelmess was educated at Hudson River Military Academy at Nyack and Trinity College at Hartford, Connecticut...
  
   - Introduces 'Meet My Sister'
• Noah Beery - The 'Motion Picture Pirates' and 'Mexican Moonshine' sketches
• Sally Blane
  Sally Blane
  Sally Blane was an American actress. Blane was the sister of actresses Polly Ann and Loretta Young, and half-sister to actress Georgiana Young, the wife of actor Ricardo Montalban...
  
   - 'Meet My Sister' number
• Monte Blue
  Monte Blue
  Monte Blue was a movie actor who began his career as a romantic leading man in the silent film era, and later progressed to character roles....
  
   - Condemned man in 'Mexican Moonshine' sketch
• Irène Bordoni
  Irène Bordoni
  Irène Bordoni was a French singer and a Broadway and film actress.-Early years:Born in Ajaccio, France, from an Italian family, she had been a child actor, performing in Paris on stage and in silent films for a few years, having signed with theatrical agent André Charlot...
  
   - singing 'One Hour of Love'
• Hobart Bosworth
  Hobart Bosworth
  Hobart Bosworth was an American film actor, director, writer, and producer.-Early life:Born Hobart Van Zandt Bosworth, he was a direct descendant of Miles Standish and John and Priscilla Alden on his father's side and of New York's Van Zandt family, the first Dutch settlers to land in the New...
  
   - Prologue (executioner)
• Jack Buchanan
  Jack Buchanan
  Walter John "Jack" Buchanan was a British theatre and film actor, singer, producer and director. He was known for three decades as the embodiment of the debonair man-about-town in the tradition of George Grossmith Jr., and was described by The Times as "the last of the knuts." He is best known in...
  
   - Himself (Not in American Release Prints)
• Marion Byron
  Marion Byron
  Marion "Peanuts" Byron was a petite, plucky American movie comedienne.She was born in Dayton, Ohio. After following her sister into a short stage career as a singer/dancer, she was given her first movie role as Buster Keaton's leading lady in the film Steamboat Bill Jr. in 1928...
  
   - 'Meet My Sister' number
• Georges Carpentier
  Georges Carpentier
  Georges Carpentier was a French boxer. He fought mainly as a light heavyweight and heavyweight in a career lasting from 1908-26. Nicknamed the "Orchid Man", he stood and his fighting weight ranged from...
  
   - 'If I Could Learn To Love' Number
• Chester Conklin
  Chester Conklin
  Chester Cooper Conklin was an American comedian and actor. He appeared in over 280 films, about half of them in the silent era.-Early life:...
  
   - 'Bicycle Built for Two' number
• Heinie Conklin
  Heinie Conklin
  Heinie Conklin was an American actor of the silent film era, who appeared in nearly 400 films. Claimed to be one of the original Keystone Kops, Conklin's silent screen makeup consisted heavy eyebrow lining and a thinnish, upside-down, painted-on variation of Kaiser Wilhelm's moustache...
  
   - Himself
• Dolores Costello
  Dolores Costello
  Dolores Costello was an American film actress who achieved her greatest success during the era of silent movies. She was nicknamed "The Goddess of the Silent Screen"...
  
   - 'Meet My Sister' number
• Helene Costello
  Helene Costello
  Helene Costello was an American motion picture actress, most notably of the silent film era.Lou Costello took his professional name from the actress.- Biography :...
  
   - 'Meet My Sister' number
• William Courtenay
  William Courtenay
  William Courtenay , English prelate, was Archbishop of Canterbury, having previously been Bishop of Hereford and Bishop of London.-Life:...
  
   - 'Bicycle Built for Two' Sequence
• Viola Dana
  Viola Dana
  Viola Dana was an American film actress who was successful during the era of silent movies.- Career :Born Virginia Flugrath, Dana was a child star, appearing on the stage at the age of three. She read Shakespeare and particularly identified with the teenage Juliet. She enjoyed a long run at the...
  
   - 'Motion Picture Pirates' and 'Meet My Sister number
• Alice Day
  Alice Day
  Alice Day was a film actor who began her career as of the Sennett Bathing Beauties....
  
   - 'What's Become of the Florodora Boys' and 'Meet My Sister numbers
• Marceline Day
  Marceline Day
  Marceline Day was an American motion picture actress whose career began as a child in the 1910s and ended in the 1930s....
  
   - 'Meet My Sister number
• Douglas Fairbanks Jr. - 'Bicycle Built for Two' number
• Frank Fay
  Frank Fay (American actor)
  Frank Fay was an American film and stage actor, emcee, comedian, best known as an actor for having played "Elwood P. Dowd" in the play Harvey by the American playwright Mary Coyle Chase on Broadway...
  
   - Master of Ceremonies
• Louise Fazenda
  Louise Fazenda
  Louise Fazenda was an American film actress, appearing chiefly in silent comedy films.-Early life:Of Portuguese ancestry, she was born in Lafayette, Indiana. Her father, Joseph Fazenda, was a merchandise broker. After moving west Louise attended Los Angeles High School and St. Mary's Convent...
  
   - 'Recitations' sketch
• Lloyd Hamilton
  Lloyd Hamilton
  Lloyd Vernon Hamilton was a major silent film star. Hamilton is best remembered as the stocky half of silent comedy's "Ham and Bud" , and later, his own series of short comedies...
  
   - 'Florodora', 'Recitations' and 'Mexican Moonshine' sketch
• Lupino Lane
  Lupino Lane
  Lupino Lane was an English actor and theatre manager, and a member of the famous Lupino family. Lane started out as a child performer, known as 'Little Nipper', and went on to appear in a wide range of theatrical, music hall and film performances...
  
   - 'What's Become of the Florodora Boys' number
• Lila Lee
  Lila Lee
  Lila Lee was a prominent screen actress of the early silent film era.-Early life:Lila Lee was born Augusta Wilhelmena Fredericka Appel in Union Hill, New Jersey into a middle-class family of German immigrants who relocated to New York City when Lila was quite young...
  
   - 'What's Become of the Florodora Boys' number
• Ted Lewis
  Ted Lewis (musician)
  Theodore Leopold Friedman, better known as Ted Lewis , was an American entertainer, bandleader, singer, and musician. He led a band presenting a combination of jazz, hokey comedy, and schmaltzy sentimentality that was a hit with the American public. He was known by the moniker "Mr...
  
   - Himself (as Ted Lewis & His Orchestra)
• Winnie Lightner
  Winnie Lightner
  Winnie Lightner was an American motion picture actress. Perhaps her most famous role was as a gold-digger named Mabel, in Gold Diggers of Broadway...
  
   - 'Pingo Pongo' and 'Singin' in the Bathtub' numbers
• Beatrice Lillie
  Beatrice Lillie
  Beatrice Gladys "Bea" Lillie was an actress and comedic performer. Following her 1920 marriage to Sir Robert Peel in England, she was known in private life as Lady Peel.-Early career:...
  
   - 'Recitations' sketch
• Lola - 'Lady Luck' Finale
• Myrna Loy
  Myrna Loy
  Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
  
   - 'Florodora Boys', 'Believe Me' and 'Chinese Fantasy' numbers
• Nick Lucas
  Nick Lucas
  Nick Lucas born Dominic Nicholas Anthony Lucanese was an American singer and pioneer jazz guitarist, remembered as "the grandfather of the jazz guitar", whose peak of popularity lasted from the mid-1920s to the early 1930s.-Career:In 1922, at the age of 25, he gained renown with his hit renditions...
  
   - 'Lady Luck' solo, 'The Only Song I Know' and 'Chinese Fantasy numbers
• Tully Marshall
  Tully Marshall
  William Phillips was an American character actor known as Tully Marshall, with nearly a quarter century of theatrical experience behind before he made his first film appearance in 1914.-Career:...
  
   - 'Motion Picture Pirates' and 'Mexican Moonshine' sequences
• Shirley Mason - 'Meet My Sister' number
• Patsy Ruth Miller
  Patsy Ruth Miller
  Patsy Ruth Miller was an American film actress.After being discovered by the actress Alla Nazimova at a Hollywood party, Patsy Ruth Miller got her first break with a small role in Camille, which starred Rudolph Valentino...
  
   - 'What's Become of the Florodora Boys' and 'If I Could Learn to Love' numbers
• Bull Montana
  Bull Montana
  Bull Montana , was a professional wrestler and American actor.Lewis Montagna came to the U.S. as a child. The hulking, plug-ugly Montagna became a professional wrestler under the name of Bull Montana...
  
   - 'Singin' in the Bathtub' number
• Lee Moran
  Lee Moran
  Lee Moran was an American actor, director and writer. He transcended the silent era of motion pictures to the talkies. Moran appeared in 462 films, directed 109 and wrote for 92 between 1912 and 1935....
  
   - 'Singin' in the Bathtub' sequence
• Chester Morris
  Chester Morris
  Chester Morris was an American actor, who starred in the Boston Blackie detective series of the 1940s.-Career:...
  
   - '$20 Bet' sketch and 'Bicycle Built for Two' number
• Jack Mulhall
  Jack Mulhall
  Jack Mulhall, born John Joseph Francis Mulhall, was a film actor since the silent film era and appeared in over 430 films....
  
   - '$20 Bet' Sketch
• Marian Nixon
  Marian Nixon
  -Career:Born Marian Nissinen in Superior, Wisconsin, Nixon began her career as a teen working as a chorus dancer on the vaudeville circuit. She began appearing in bit part in films in 1922 and landed her first substantial role in the 1923 film Cupid's Fireman, opposite Buck Jones. The following...
  
   - 'What's Become of the Florodora Boys' number
• Molly O'Day
  Molly O'Day
  Molly O'Day was an American film actress and the younger sister of Sally O'Neil.Born as Suzanne Dobson Noonan in Bayonne, New Jersey, she was the youngest of 11 children of Metropolitan Opera singer Hannah Kelly and Judge Thomas Francis Patrick Noonan. After their father's death, O'Day and her two...
  
   - 'Meet My Sister'
• Sally O'Neil
  Sally O'Neil
  Sally O'Neil was an American film actress of the 1920s. She was born as Virginia Louise Noonan, one of 11 children born to a judge in Bayonne, New Jersey. One of her sisters was actress Molly O'Day....
  
   - 'What's Become of the Florodora Boys' and 'Meet My Sister numbers
• Kalla Pasha
  Kalla Pasha
  Kalla Pasha was an American professional wrestler, vaudeville comedian and screen actor active during the silent era.-Biography:Kalla Pasha was the stage name of Joseph T. Rickard, a native of Detroit...
  
   - 'Motion Picture Pirates'
• Anders Randolf
  Anders Randolf
  Anders Randolf was a Danish American actor in American films from 1913 to 1931.Anders was born in Viborg, Denmark where he became a professional soldier in the Danish army and a world-class swordsman. He immigrated to the United States in 1895, quickly giving in to a lifelong passion for the...
  
   - 'Motion Picture Pirates'
• Rin Tin Tin
  Rin Tin Tin
  Rin Tin Tin was the name given to a dog adopted from a WWI battlefield that went on to star in twenty-three Hollywood films. The name was subsequently given to several related German Shepherd dogs featured in fictional stories on film, radio and television.-Origins:The first of the line Rin Tin...
  
   - Himself, introducing "An Oriental Fantasy"
• Sojin
  Sojin
  Sōjin Kamiyama or just Sōjin was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in over 70 films between 1917 and 1954...
  
   - '$20 Bet' Sketch
• Ann Sothern
  Ann Sothern
  Ann Sothern was an American film and television actress whose career spanned six decades.-Early life and career:...
  
   - 'Meet My Sister' and 'Bicycle Built for Two' numbers - Unverified (as Harriet Byron)
• Ben Turpin
  Ben Turpin
  Ben Turpin was a cross-eyed American comedian and actor, best remembered for his work in silent films.-Personal life:...
  
   - 'What's Become of the Florodora Boys' number
• Ada Mae Vaughn - 'Meet My Sister'
• Alberta Vaughn
  Alberta Vaughn
  Alberta Vaughn was an American actress in silent motion pictures and early Western sound films. She appeared in some 130 motion pictures.-Career:...
  
   - 'Meet My Sister'
• Edward Ward
  Edward Ward (composer)
  Edward Ward was a film composer and music director who was nominated for seven Academy Awards during a career that spanned thirty-seven years and included more than 150 projects.-Academy Award nominations:...
  
   - (as Eddie Ward)
• H.B. Warner - Aristocrat in Prologue
• Alice White - 'If I Could Learn to Love'
• Lois Wilson - 'Bicycle Built for Two' number
• Grant Withers
  Grant Withers
  Grant Withers was an American film actor. With early beginnings in the silent era, Withers moved into talkies establishing himself with a list of headlined features as a young and handsome male lead...
  
   - 'Believe Me'(cut) and 'Bicycle Built for Two' number
• Loretta Young
  Loretta Young
  Loretta Young was an American actress. Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953...
  
   - 'Meet My Sister' number
• William Bakewell
  William Bakewell
  William Bakewell , also known as Billy Bakewell, was an American actor, who achieved his greatest fame as one of the premiere juvenile performers of the late 1920s and early 1930s.-Life and career:...
  
   - 'Bicycle Built for Two' number
• Ethlyne Clair
  Ethlyne Clair
  Ethlyne Clair was an American actress. She was a native of Talladega, Alabama. She appeared mostly in silent film, including several Westerns where she played the love interest to Hoot Gibson. She was succeeded by Derelys Perdue in the Newlyweds film series, in which she appeared in 1927 and 1928...
  
   - 'Motion Picture Pirates' number
• Betty Compson
  Betty Compson
  Betty Compson was an American actress. Born Eleanor Luicime Compson in Beaver, Utah, she had an extensive film career. Her father died when she was young, and she was forced to drop out of school and earn a living for herself and her mother...
  
   - 'Lady Luck' Finale, as Lady Luck (herself)
• Albert Gran
  Albert Gran
  Albert Gran was a Norwegian born American movie actor. He is most associated with his appearance in drama and light comedy films....
  
   - 'Singin' in the Bathtub' sequence
• Alexander Gray - Vocalist, 'Lady Luck' Finale
• Jacqueline Logan
  Jacqueline Logan
  Jacqueline Logan was a star of the silent motion picture screen who was on board William Randolph Hearst's yacht The Oneida in 1924 when film director Thomas Ince died. The young actress was under contract to Ince at the time. Logan was a WAMPAS Baby Star of 1922. She was born in Corsicana, Texas...
  
   - 'Motion Picture Pirates' sequence
• Marcelle - 'Lady Luck' Finale
• Edna Murphy
  Edna Murphy
  Edna Murphy was an American actress of the silent era. She appeared in 80 films between 1918 and 1933. Murphy was voted "Most Photographed Movie Star of 1925" by ScreenLand Magazine....
  
   - 'Motion Picture Pirates' sequence
• Carmel Myers
  Carmel Myers
  Carmel Myers was an American actress who worked chiefly in silent movies.Myers was born in San Francisco, the daughter of an Australian rabbi and Austrian Jewish mother. Her father became well-connected with California's emerging film industry, and introduced her to film pioneer D. W. Griffith,...
  
   - 'Motion Picture Pirates' sequence
• Gertrude Olmstead
  Gertrude Olmstead
  Gertrude Olmstead was an American actress of the silent era. She appeared in 56 films between 1920 and 1929.-Career:...
  
   - 'Motion Picture Pirates' sequence
• Sid Silvers
  Sid Silvers
  Sid Silvers was an American actor, comedian, lyricist, and writer.Silvers began his career in vaudeville in the early 1920s as a comedy partner of Phil Baker. As part of their act, Silvers would heckle Baker from the audience...
  
   - Al Jolson imitation, introduces 'Black and White Girls' number
• Bert Roach
  Bert Roach
  Bert Roach was an American film actor. He appeared in 327 films between 1914 and 1951.He was born in Washington, D.C., and died in Los Angeles, California.-Selected filmography:* Fatty's Magic Pants...
  
   - 'What's Become of the Florodora Boys' sequence

Uncredited Cast

• Anthony Bushell
  Anthony Bushell
  Anthony Bushell was an English film actor and director, who appeared in 56 films between 1929 and 1961. He also appeared on and directed various British TV series such as Danger Man.-Early life:...
  
  
• Michael Cleary
• Ruth Clifford
  Ruth Clifford
  Ruth Clifford was an American actress of leading roles in silent films, whose career lasted from silent days into the television era.-Biography:A native of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, she attended St...
  
  
• William Collier Jr.
• Jack Curtis
  Jack Curtis (actor)
  Jack Curtis was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 157 films between 1915 and 1950. He was born in San Francisco, California and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:* Graft...
  
  
• Sally Eilers
  Sally Eilers
  -Life and career:Born as Dorothea Sally Eilers in New York City to a Jewish-American mother, Paula, and an Irish-American father, Peter Eilers, . She was educated in Los Angeles and went into films because so many of her friends were in pictures. She studied for the stage, specialising in dancing...
  
   (as herself )
• Pauline Garon
  Pauline Garon
  Pauline Garon was a Canadian-born American silent film, feature film and stage actress.-Early life:Born in Montreal, Quebec as Marie Pauline Garon, Garon was the daughter of Pierre and Victoria Garon. Pierre was of French descent and Victoria's heritage was Irish...
  
  
• Julanne Johnston
  Julanne Johnston
  Julanne Johnston was an American silent film actress born in Indianapolis, Indiana.Johnston is known for being on William Randolph Hearst's yacht The Oneida during the weekend in November 1924 when film director and producer Thomas Ince later died of heart failure...
  
  
• Frances Lee
  Frances Lee
  Frances Lee was an American film actress during Hollywoods silent film era, and well into the sound film era of the 1930s.-Dancing career:Frances Lee was born as Merna Tibbetts in Eagle Grove, Iowa...
  
  
• Otto Matieson
  Otto Matieson
  Otto Matieson was a Danish actor of the silent era. He appeared in 45 films between 1920 and 1931.He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and died in Safford, Arizona.-Selected filmography:...
  
  
• Philo McCullough
  Philo McCullough
  Philo McCullough was an American actor. He appeared in 255 films between 1914 and 1969.He was born in San Bernardino, California and died in Burbank, California.-Selected filmography:* Heroes of the West...
  
  
• Wheeler Oakman
  Wheeler Oakman
  Wheeler Oakman was an American film actor.Usually appearing as a henchman in films, rarely a leading role, he appeared in over 280 films between 1912 and 1948....
  
  
• E.J. Ratcliffe
• Reginald Sharland
• Dave Silverman
  Dave Silverman
  Dave Silverman is the current president of the American Atheists, a non-profit organization that supports the rights of nonbelievers and the removal of expressions of religion in public when possibly interpretable as governmental endorsement....
  
  
• Louis Silvers
  Louis Silvers
  Louis "Lou" Silvers was an American film score composer whose work has been used in more than 250 movies. In 1935, he won an Academy Award for Best Original Score for One Night of Love.-Early life and career:...
  
  
• Norman Spencer
  Norman Spencer
  Norman Leonard Spencer was a Progressive Conservative party member of the Canadian House of Commons. He was born in Howard Township, Ontario and became a lawyer by career....
  
  
• Lester Stevens
  Lester Stevens
  Lester Barber Stevens was an American athlete. He competed at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London....
  
  
• Ted Williams
  Ted Williams
  Theodore Samuel "Ted" Williams was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 21-year Major League Baseball career as the left fielder for the Boston Red Sox...