When sound came in 1927 with the success of The Jazz Singer all the studios rushed into the new medium. There was not only dialogue of course in which audiences finally got to hear what the stars sounded like but there was also music. The studios went musical crazy producing loads of them from 1929 to 1931 when the craze slowed down. As with all the films there were technical issues with musicals - where to hide the microphones, how to synch the sound, how to place the camera and move it around without losing the vocals. Many of the first musicals are fairly static - often bringing a Broadway show to film and shooting it as if you were watching from the seats. Then there were the revues. These are basically vaudeville acts that follow each other with an emcee announcing each. For the most part the camera stays back and just lets us watch. This one is from Warner Brothers and seeing it some 90 years later it is more a curiosity than anything. I barely knew any of the performers - and the show is less than dynamic. A couple of ok numbers like bringing on 16 sisters who were all in show business - the only ones I knew were Loretta Young and her sister Sally Blane. John Barrymore does a Shakespearean soliloquy, Noah Beery is a pirate, Chester Morris pops up a couple of times.


But in truth there is only one act worth waiting around for. A Chinese fantasy number in color. And the Chinese babe is Myrna Loy, an ethnic type she got stuck with a few times. Here she is forgiven. Color in 1929. Apparently, there was another act that was shot in color - Lady Luck - but most of the color was lost. This is actually a nutty dance, song, acrobatic number. Both are up on You Tube so you can save yourself a lot of time by just doing that.  The emcee is Frank Fay. Ok, I hear no excitement in the crowd. He is so unfunny I wanted to throw a brick at him. But he was well-known at the time from Broadway. This was his first foray into film. But if remembered at all now it is because he was married to Barbara Stanwyck and brought her to Hollywood. He was a raging alcoholic and their fights were famous - their relationship some say is the basis of the first A Star is Born in 1937.