1.
Billy Jones (singer)
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William Reese Billy Jones was a tenor who recorded during the 1920s and 1930s, finding fame as a radio star on The Happiness Boys radio program. Jones worked in occupations as mining, banking, and blacksmithing before his 1918 recording debut. He recorded with the Cleartone Four, the Crescent Trio, the Harmonizers Quartet and the Premier Quartet, after he met Ernie Hare in 1919, they teamed in 1920 when Brunswick executive Gus Haenschen had them sing an accompaniment on a Brunswick Records recording. They went on to do numerous recordings together for Brunswick, Edison and they began on radio October 18,1921 on WJZ. Sponsored by the chain of Happiness Candy stores, they were heard on The Happiness Boys program beginning August 22,1923 on New Yorks WEAF, moving to NBC from a run from 1926 to 1929. As The Happiness Boys, they sang popular tunes, mostly light fare and comic songs, by 1928, they were the highest paid singers in radio, earning $1,250 a week. The partnership ended with Hares death on March 9,1939, Jones continued to perform, teaming with Hares 16-year-old daughter, Marilyn Hare, in 1939-40. Hoffmann, Carty, Billy Murray, The Phonograph Industrys First Great Recording Artist Kinkle, the Complete Encyclopedia of *Popular Music and Jazz, 1900-1950 Gracyk, Tim, The Encyclopedia of Popular American Recording Pioneers, 1895-1925 Joseph Dinneen. How Bob Emery Became Big Brother to 12,000 Youngsters, boston Globe, March 1,1925, p. E6. The Happiness Boys Billy Jones at the Internet Movie Database
Billy Jones (singer)
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Ain't We Got Fun?
Billy Jones (singer)
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Edison Records "Diamond Disc" label (early 1920s) with Jones and Hare singing "That's a Lot of Bunk"
2.
Ernie Hare
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Thomas Ernest Hare was an American singer who recorded prolifically during the 1920s and 1930s, finding fame as a radio star on the Happiness Boys radio program. Hares recording career began in 1918 and he was Al Jolsons understudy in the Broadway musical Sinbad during 1919–20. He recorded with the Cleartone Four, the Crescent Trio, the Harmonizers Quartet, and he made a series recordings with Al Bernard in the late 1910s and the start of the 1920s. As a soloist, he worked under a variety of names, after he met Billy Jones in 1919, they teamed in 1920 when Brunswick executive Gus Haenschen had them sing an accompaniment on a Brunswick recording. They went on to do numerous recordings together for Brunswick, Edison, similarities between the two singers were often noted, same height, same weight, and birthdays a few days apart. They began on radio October 18,1921 on WJZ in Newark, sponsored by Happiness Candy, they were heard as the Happiness Boys beginning August 22,1923 on New Yorks WEAF, moving to NBC for a run from 1926–1929. As the Happiness Boys, they sang popular tunes, mostly light fare and comic songs, with jokes, by 1928, they were the highest-paid singers in radio, earning $1,250 a week. After Hares death in 1939 of bronchopneumonia, Jones continued to perform, teaming in 1939–40 with Hares 16-year-old daughter, Marilyn Hare went on to a career as an actress in films, Soundies, and television, and she also toured as a vocalist
Ernie Hare
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Hare mimes his displeasure over
Prohibition
Ernie Hare
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Edison Records "Diamond Disc" label (early 1920s) with Jones and Hare singing "That's a Lot of Bunk"
Ernie Hare
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This article is about the American singer. For the English actor, see
Ernest Hare.
3.
Brunswick Records
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Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916. The company first began producing phonographs in 1916, then began marketing their own line of records as an after-thought and these first Brunswick records used the vertical cut system like Edison Disc Records, and were not sold in large numbers. They were recorded in the US but sold only in Canada, in January 1920, a new line of Brunswick Records was introduced in the US and Canada that employed the lateral cut system which was becoming the default cut for 78 discs. Brunswick started its standard popular series at 2000 and ended up in 1940 at 8517, however, when the series reached 4999, they skipped over the previous allocated 5000s and continued at 6000. Also, when they reached 6999, they continued at 7301, the parent company marketed them extensively, and within a few years Brunswick became one of the USAs Big Three record companies, along with Victor and Columbia Records. The Brunswick line of home phonographs were commercially successful, Brunswick had a hit with their Ultona phonograph capable of playing Edison Disc Records, Pathé disc records, and standard lateral 78s. In late 1924, Brunswick acquired the Vocalion Records label, audio fidelity of early-1920s, acoustically-recorded Brunswick discs is above average for the era. They were pressed into good quality shellac, although not as durable as that used by Victor, in the spring of 1925 Brunswick introduced its own version of electrical recording using photoelectric cells, which Brunswick called the light-ray process. Then based in Chicago, many of the citys best orchestras, the labels jazz roster included Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, King Oliver, Johnny Dodds, Andy Kirk, and Red Nichols. Brunswick initiated a 7000 race series as well as the Vocalion 1000 race series and these race records series recorded hot jazz, urban and rural blues, and gospel. Brunswick also had a successful business supplying radio with sponsored transcriptions of popular music, comedy. Few orchestra records were approved for issue and those that did appear on the often combined excellent performances with execrable sound. Brunswick found it expedient and ultimately cheaper to contract with European companies to fill their electrical classical catalogue, some of these recordings have been reissued on CD. Brunswick itself switched to a conventional microphone recording process in 1927. Prior to this, however, they had introduced the Brunswick Panatrope and this phonograph met with critical acclaim, and composer Ottorino Respighi selected the Brunswick Panatrope to play a recording of bird songs in his composition The Pines of Rome. Jack Kapp became the company executive of Brunswick in 1930. In April 1930, Brunswick-Balke-Collender sold Brunswick Records to Warner Bros. Warner Bros. hoped to make their own soundtrack recordings for their sound-on-disc Vitaphone system. A number of interesting recordings were made by actors during this period, actors who made recordings included Noah Beery, Charles King, and J. Harold Murray
Brunswick Records
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The Brunswick Records logo
Brunswick Records
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Brunswick Records
Brunswick Records
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A Brunswick record label from 1922
Brunswick Records
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Jackie Wilson's
debut single was the first release of the current Brunswick Records
4.
Edison Records
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Edison Records was one of the earliest record labels which pioneered sound recording and reproduction and was an important player in the early recording industry. The first phonograph cylinders were manufactured in 1888, followed by Edisons foundation of the Edison Phonograph Company in the same year, until 1910 the recordings did not carry the names of the artists. The company began to lag behind its rivals in the 1920s, Edison invented the phonograph, the first device for recording and playing back sound, in 1877. The earliest phonograph was something of a curiosity, although it was one that fascinated much of the public. Early machines were sold to entrepreneurs who made an out of traveling around the country giving phonograph concerts. Talking dolls and Talking clocks were manufactured as expensive novelties using the early phonograph, in 1887, Edison turned his attention back to improving the phonograph and the phonograph cylinder. The following year, the Edison company debuted the Perfected Phonograph, Edison introduced wax cylinders approximately 4 1⁄4 inches long and 2 1⁄4 inches in external diameter, which became the industry standard. Several experimental wax cylinder recordings of music and speech made in 1888 still exist, the wax entertainment cylinder made its commercial debut in 1889. At first, the customers were entrepreneurs who installed nickel-in-the-slot phonographs in amusement arcades, saloons. At that time, a phonograph cost the equivalent of several months wages for the worker and was driven by an electric motor powered by hazardous. When relatively affordable spring-motor-driven phonographs designed for home use appeared in the mid-1890s, blank records were an important part of the business early on. Most phonographs had or could be fitted with attachments for the users to make their own recordings, one important early use, in line with the original term for a phonograph as a talking machine, was in business for recording dictation. Attachments were added to facilitate starting, stopping, and skipping back the recording for dictation, the business phonograph eventually evolved into a separate device from the home entertainment phonograph. Edison Records brand of business phonograph was called The Ediphone, see Phonograph cylinder, Edison also holds the achievement of being one of the first companies to record the first African-American quartet to record, the Unique Quartet. A notable technological triumph of the Edison Laboratories was devising a method to mass-produce pre-recorded phonograph cylinders in molds and this was done by using very slightly tapered cylinders and molding in a material that contracted as it set. To Edisons disappointment the commercial potential of this process was not realized for some years, most of the regional Edison distributors were able to fill the small early market for recordings by mechanical duplication of a few dozen cylinders at a time. Molded cylinders did not become a significant force in the marketplace until the end of the 1890s, before using metal cylinders though Edison used paraffin paper. In 1902, Edisons National Phonograph Company introduced Edison Gold Moulded Records, cylinder records of improved hard black wax, capable of being played hundreds of times before wearing out
Edison Records
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1903 advertisement
Edison Records
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Edison Records logo from 1910s sleeve
Edison Records
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Edison New Standard Phonograph ad, 1898
Edison Records
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This is an example of a wax cylinder mold. Note the grooves on the inside and machined backup shell.
5.
WABC (AM)
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WABC, known as NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of the Westwood One Network. WABC shares studio facilities with sister stations WNSH, WPLJ, WABCs transmitter is located in Lodi, New Jersey. Its 50,000 watt non-directional clear channel signal can be heard at night much of the eastern U. S. Beginning January 2009, its programming has also carried on WPLJs HD3 digital sub-channel. One of the countrys oldest radio stations, WABC began broadcasting, originally as WJZ in Newark, New Jersey, WABC has programmed a talk radio format since 1982. The station uses on-air slogans such as Breaking News and Stimulating Talk, New Yorks 50,000 Watt Beacon of Freedom, many WABC hosts moved on to national syndication. The station currently serves as the flagship for syndicated talk-radio hosts Mark Levin, John Batchelor and Don Imus. It was where the nationally syndicated programs hosted by Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity got their start, from 1981 to 1982, WABC ran a full service news intensive adult contemporary format with some talk and sports programming weekday evenings. During this time, WABC was among the most listened to stations in North America. WABCs only current sports contract is with the United States Military Academy for Army football games. In addition to the aforementioned Yankees coverage, the station served two stints as the flagship for the New York Jets and was also the home of the New Jersey Devils beginning in 1988. WABC also previously carried Seton Hall University mens basketball, early in its Top 40 incarnation, WABC served as the original radio flagship of the New York Mets. A notable aspect of WABCs Mets coverage was Howard Cosell and former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca handling the pre-, the station lost those rights to WHN following the 1963 season. The Jets first called WABC home in the 1980s, but left toward the end of the decade for WCBS, the team would return to the station in 2000 after spending the previous seven seasons on WFAN. After then-sister station WEPN became the Jets flagship, WABC began simulcasting the games over their airwaves due to its stronger signal, the arrangement ended in 2008 as WEPN began simulcasting all its programming on two other stations. In December 2001, broadcast rights to the Yankees were lost after 21 years to WCBS, WABC also lost the radio rights to the Devils in 2005, as New Jerseys hockey team moved to WFAN to substitute for the stations loss of the New York Rangers to WEPN. The loss of evening sports programming has forced WABC to attempt to solidify its evening talk lineup, WJZs studio and transmitter were initially housed in a shack located on the factory roof, that was only accessible by ladder
WABC (AM)
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Actor and vocalist
Dennis King had a weekly network radio program on WJZ in 1934.
6.
Newark, New Jersey
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Newark is the most populous city in the U. S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County. For 2015, the Census Bureaus Population Estimates Program calculated a population of 281,944, Newark is the second largest city in the New York metropolitan area, located approximately 8 miles west of lower Manhattan. Settled in 1666 by Puritans from New Haven Colony, Newark is one of the oldest European cities in the United States and its location at the mouth of the Passaic River, has made the citys waterfront an integral part of the Port of New York and New Jersey. Today, Port Newark-Elizabeth is the container shipping terminal of the busiest seaport on the American East Coast. In addition, Newark Liberty International Airport was the first municipal airport in the United States. Several leading companies have their headquarters in Newark, including Prudential, PSEG, Panasonic Corporation of North America, Audible. com, IDT Corporation, the U. S. District Court for the District of New Jersey sits in the city as well. Local cultural venues include the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark Symphony Hall, The Prudential Center and the Newark Museum. Newark is divided into five wards, the East, West, South, North and Central wards. Newarks Branch Brook Park is the oldest county park in the United States and is home to the nations largest collection of cherry blossom trees, Newark was settled in 1666 by Connecticut Puritans led by Robert Treat from the New Haven Colony. It was conceived as an assembly of the faithful, though this did not last for long as new settlers came with different ideas. On October 31,1693 it was organized as a New Jersey township based on the Newark Tract, Newark was granted a Royal charter on April 27,1713. It was incorporated on February 21,1798 by the New Jersey Legislatures Township Act of 1798, during its time as a township, portions were taken to form Springfield Township, Caldwell Township, Orange Township, Bloomfield Township and Clinton Township. Newark was reincorporated as a city on April 11,1836, replacing Newark Township, the previously independent Vailsburg borough was annexed by Newark on January 1,1905. In 1926, South Orange Township changed its name to Maplewood, as a result of this, a portion of Maplewood known as Ivy Hill was re-annexed to Newarks Vailsburg. During the American Revolutionary War British troops made several raids into the town, the city has experienced revitalization since the 1990s. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city had an area of 26.107 square miles. It has the third-smallest land area among the 100 most populous cities in the U. S. behind neighboring Jersey City and Hialeah, the citys altitude ranges from 0 in the east to approximately 230 feet above sea level in the western section of the city. Newark is essentially a large basin sloping towards the Passaic River, historically, Newarks high places have been its wealthier neighborhoods
Newark, New Jersey
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Campus of Rutgers-Newark and Downtown
Newark, New Jersey
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Market and Broad Streets,
Downtown Newark
Newark, New Jersey
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Krueger Mansion in Newark's Central Ward
Newark, New Jersey
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Home in Forest Hill
7.
WFAN (AM)
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WFAN, also known as Sports Radio 66 and 101 FM or The FAN, is a radio station located in New York City. The station broadcasts on a channel and is owned and operated by CBS Radio. WFANs studios are located in the combined CBS Radio facility in the West Village section of Manhattan, WFAN is also heard on WFAN-FM, CBS announced a purchase of that station from Merlin Media LLC in October 2012 and began a simulcast of The FAN on November 1,2012. WFAN was one of the earliest stations to adopt the radio format. The 660 AM frequency in New York City originated as WEAF on March 2,1922, in 1926 WEAF became the flagship station of the NBC Red Network, one of two radio chains operated by the National Broadcasting Company. By 1928 WEAF was purchased by NBCs parent company, the Radio Corporation of America, as a result of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement of 1941, WEAF became a clear-channel station and could be heard across most of the eastern half of North America at night. In 1943 the United States Supreme Court, citing antitrust concerns, wEAFs call letters were changed to WNBC in 1946, then to WRCA in 1954, and back to WNBC in 1960. During the 1960s, WNBC relied less on network programming and adopted a talk format, the station spent much of the 1970s and early 1980s flipping between the Top 40 and adult contemporary formats, with varying success. At 3,00 p. m. on July 1,1987, Emmis Communications-owned WFAN signed on at 1050 kHz, replacing country music station WHN, and billing itself as the worlds first 24-hour-per-day sports talk station. The first voice heard on WFAN was that of Suzyn Waldman, with an update, followed by the first show. Waldman reported for the station, covering the New York Yankees, other hosts besides Lampley during WFANs fifteen months at 1050 kHz included Bill Mazer, Pete Franklin, Greg Gumbel, Art Shamsky, and Ed Coleman. Ann Liguori is also one of the hosts and was the first woman to host a show on the station. Hey Liguori, Whats the Story aired the first weekend the station was on the air in 1987, WFAN also inherited broadcast rights to the defending World Series champion New York Mets from WHN, who had held the rights for several years. In early 1988, General Electric, which now owned NBC through its purchase of RCA two years earlier, announced that it would close the NBC Radio division and sell its stations. In February of that year GE made a deal with Emmis and. On October 7,1988 at 5,30 p. m. WFAN moved down the dial to replace WNBC at 660 kHz. The last voice heard on WNBC was that of Alan Colmes, thank you, God bless you, and for the last time, this is 66 WNBC New York City. He then counted down the seconds to WNBCs demise with the legendary NBC chimes playing in the background, after 66 years, the long history of NBC radio in New York City had come to an end
WFAN (AM)
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WFAN
8.
Talkies
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A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900. Reliable synchronization was difficult to achieve with the early sound-on-disc systems, innovations in sound-on-film led to the first commercial screening of short motion pictures using the technology, which took place in 1923. The primary steps in the commercialization of sound cinema were taken in the mid- to late 1920s, at first, the sound films which included synchronized dialogue, known as talking pictures, or talkies, were exclusively shorts. The earliest feature-length movies with recorded sound included only music and effects, the first feature film originally presented as a talkie was The Jazz Singer, released in October 1927. A major hit, it was made with Vitaphone, which was at the time the brand of sound-on-disc technology. Sound-on-film, however, would become the standard for talking pictures. By the early 1930s, the talkies were a global phenomenon, in the United States, they helped secure Hollywoods position as one of the worlds most powerful cultural/commercial centers of influence. In Europe, the new development was treated with suspicion by many filmmakers and critics, in Japan, where the popular film tradition integrated silent movie and live vocal performance, talking pictures were slow to take root. In India, sound was the element that led to the rapid expansion of the nations film industry. The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as the concept of cinema itself. On February 27,1888, a couple of days after photographic pioneer Eadweard Muybridge gave a lecture not far from the laboratory of Thomas Edison, the two inventors privately met. No agreement was reached, but within a year Edison commissioned the development of the Kinetoscope, essentially a peep-show system, as a visual complement to his cylinder phonograph. The two devices were brought together as the Kinetophone in 1895, but individual, cabinet viewing of motion pictures was soon to be outmoded by successes in film projection and these appear to be the first publicly exhibited films with projection of both image and recorded sound. Phonorama and yet another sound-film system—Théâtroscope—were also presented at the Exposition, three major problems persisted, leading to motion pictures and sound recording largely taking separate paths for a generation. The primary issue was synchronization, pictures and sound were recorded and played back by separate devices, sufficient playback volume was also hard to achieve. Finally, there was the challenge of recording fidelity, cinematic innovators attempted to cope with the fundamental synchronization problem in a variety of ways. In 1902, Léon Gaumont demonstrated his sound-on-disc Chronophone, involving an electrical connection he had recently patented, four years later, Gaumont introduced the Elgéphone, a compressed-air amplification system based on the Auxetophone, developed by British inventors Horace Short and Charles Parsons
Talkies
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1908 poster advertising
Gaumontu 's sound films. The
Chronomégaphone, designed for large halls, employed compressed air to amplify the recorded sound.
Talkies
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Image from the
Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894 or 1895), produced by
W.K.L. Dickson as a test of the early version of the
Edison Kinetophone, combining the
Kinetoscope and
phonograph.
Talkies
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Poster featuring
Sarah Bernhardt and giving the names of eighteen other "famous artists" shown in "living visions" at the
1900 Paris Exposition using the Gratioulet-Lioret system.
Talkies
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Newspaper ad for a 1925 presentation of
De Forest Phonofilms shorts, touting their technological distinction: no phonograph.
9.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California and it is one of the worlds oldest film studios. In 1971, it was announced that MGM would merge with 20th Century Fox, over the next thirty-nine years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3,2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MGM, is not currently affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1966, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr. whose son Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios, the studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were released through other studios, mostly United Artists. Kerkorian did, however, commit to increased production and a film library when he bought United Artists in 1981. MGM ramped up production, as well as keeping production going at UA. It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production, the studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few later, sold the company back to Kerkorian to recoup massive debt. The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt, MGM was bought by Pathé Communications in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the major creditor. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australias Seven Network in 1996, the debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGMs ability to survive as an independent motion picture studio. In 1924, movie theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem and he had bought Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919 for a steady supply of films for his large Loews Theatres chain. With Loews lackluster assortment of Metro films, Loew purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to improve the quality, however, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theaters. Mayer, Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures on April 17,1924, Mayer became head of the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Irving Thalberg as head of production. MGM produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years, in 1925, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur, taking a $4.7 million profit that year, its first full year. Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loews passed to Nicholas Schenck, in 1929, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation bought the Loew familys holdings with Schencks assent. Mayer and Thalberg disagreed with the decision, Mayer was active in the California Republican Party and used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay final approval of the deal on antitrust grounds
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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MGM Tower, former company headquarters highlighted by the famous
Leo the Lion logo at the top
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Clark Gable
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Marie Dressler and
Wallace Beery in
Min and Bill (1930)
10.
Warner Brothers
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Entertainment Inc. – colloquially known as Warner Bros. or Warner Bros. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios, Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. The companys name originated from the four founding Warner brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, Jack, the youngest, was born in London, Ontario. The three elder brothers began in the theater business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania. In the beginning, Sam and Albert Warner invested $150 to present Life of an American Fireman and they opened their first theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1903. When the original building was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called the current building owners, the owners noted people across the country had asked them to protect it for its historical significance. In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, in 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditor named Paul Ashley Chase. By the time of World War I they had begun producing films, in 1918 they opened the first Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert, along with their auditor and now controller Chase, handled finance and distribution in New York City. During World War I their first nationally syndicated film, My Four Years in Germany, on April 4,1923, with help from money loaned to Harry by his banker Motley Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated. The first important deal was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwoods 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, however, Rin Tin Tin, a dog brought from France after World War I by an American soldier, established their reputation. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North Begins, the movie was so successful that Jack signed the dog to star in more films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin became the top star. Jack nicknamed him The Mortgage Lifter and the success boosted Darryl F. Zanucks career, Zanuck eventually became a top producer and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jacks right-hand man and executive producer, with responsibilities including day-to-day film production. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director, lubitschs film The Marriage Circle was the studios most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for that year. Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners remained a lesser studio, Sam and Jack decided to offer Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel. The film was so successful that Harry signed Barrymore to a contract, like The Marriage Circle. By the end of 1924, Warner Bros. was arguably Hollywoods most successful independent studio, as the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan
Warner Brothers
Warner Brothers
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Warner Bros.
Warner Brothers
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Lobby card from Open Your Eyes (1919)
Warner Brothers
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Lobby card from
The Beautiful and Damned (1922)
11.
Short subject
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A short film, is a cinema format, denoting any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. The term featurette originally applied to a longer than a short subject. The increasingly rare term short subject means approximately the same thing and it is an industry term which carries more of an assumption that the film is shown as part of a presentation along with a feature film. Short is an abbreviation for either term, Short films are often screened at local, national, or international film festivals and made by independent filmmakers for non profit, either with a low budget or no budget at all. They are usually funded by grants, non profit organizations. Short films are used by filmmakers to gain experience or prove their talent in order to gain funding for future films from private investors, entertainment companies. Longer and shorter films coexisted with similar popularity throughout the days of film. However, comedy films were produced in large numbers compared to lengthy features such as D. W. Griffiths The Birth of a Nation. By the 1920s, a ticket purchased a varied program including a feature and several supporting works from such as second feature, short comedy, 5–10 minute cartoon, travelogue. Short comedies were popular, and typically came in a serial or series. Even though there was no set release schedule, these series could be considered somewhat like a modern TV sitcom – lower in status than feature films. Animated cartoons came principally as short subjects, in the 1930s, the distribution system changed in many countries owing to the Great Depression. Instead of the cinema owner assembling a program of their own choice, the studios sold a package centered on a main and supporting feature, with the rise of the double feature, two reel shorts went into decline as a commercial category. Hal Roach, for example, moved Laurel and Hardy full-time into feature films after 1935, by the mid-1950s, with the rise of television, the commercial live-action short was virtually dead, The Three Stooges being the last major series of 2-reelers, ending in 1959. Short films had become a medium for student, independent and specialty work, cartoon shorts had a longer life, due in part to the implementation of lower-cost limited animation techniques, but also declined in this period. Warner Bros. one of the most prolific of the golden era, the Pink Panther was the last regular theatrical cartoon short series, having begun in 1964 and ended in 1980. By the 1960s, the market for animated shorts had largely shifted to television, a few animated shorts continue within mainstream commercial distribution. For instance, Pixar has screened a short along with each of its feature films during its theatrical run since 1995
Short subject
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William Garwood starred in numerous short films, many of which were only 20 minutes in length
12.
Barney Google
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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, originally Take Barney Google, Frinstance, is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Billy DeBeck. Since its debut on June 17,1919, the strip has gained an international readership. The initial appeal of the led to its adaptation to film, animation, popular song. It added several terms and phrases to the English language and inspired the 1923 hit tune Barney Google with lyrics by Billy Rose, as well as the 1923 record, Come On, Spark Plug. Barney Google himself, once the star of the strip and a popular character in his own right, has been almost entirely phased out of the feature. An increasingly peripheral player in his own strip beginning in the late 1930s, Google was officially out in 1954. These cameos were often years apart—from a period between 1997 and 2012, Barney Google wasnt seen in the strip at all, Google was reintroduced to the strip in 2012, and has been seen very occasionally since, making several week-long appearances. Snuffy Smith, who was introduced as a supporting player in 1934, has now been the comic strips central character for over 60 years. Nevertheless, the feature is still titled Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, like Mutt and Jeff, Barney Google started out on the sports page. First appearing as a strip in the sports sections of the Chicago Herald and Examiner in 1919, it was originally titled Take Barney Google. The title character, a fellow with big banjo eyes, was an avid sportsman and neer-do-well involved in poker, horse racing. The goggle-eyed, moustached, gloved and top-hatted, bulbous-nosed, cigar-chomping shrimp was relentlessly henpecked by a three times his size. The formidable Mrs. Lizzie Google, a. k. a. the sweet woman, sued Barney for divorce, by October 1919, the strip was distributed by King Features Syndicate and was published in newspapers across the country. Beginning on July 17,1922, the strip would take a turn in popularity with the seemingly innocuous introduction of an endearing race horse named Spark Plug. Barneys beloved brown-eyed baby was a bow-legged nag who seldom raced, Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz was known to his friends as Sparky, a lifelong nickname given to him by his uncle as a diminutive of Barney Googles Spark Plug. Comics historian Don Markstein noted that, Sparkys first race became one of comics first national media events, so great was the publics enthusiasm that DeBeck, who had been planning to retire the plug after that one storyline, made him a permanent part of the cast. Spark Plug was such a star during the 1920s that children who enjoyed the comics were liable to get Sparky for an example, Charles M. Sparky Schulz. In deference to his enormous popularity during this period, the strip was retitled Barney Google, DeBecks strip hit its peak of popularity with Spark Plug at about the same time the song Barney Google by Billy Rose and Con Conrad was sweeping the country
Barney Google
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Bunky and Barney Google and Snuffy Smith (July 26, 1942)
Barney Google
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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith
Barney Google
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Billy DeBeck's Barney Google (February 5, 1931)
Barney Google
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Menu for planned Snuffy's Shanty hot dog shops
13.
Billy Rose
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Billy Rose was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. For years both before and after World War II, Billy Rose was a force in entertainment, with shows such as Billy Roses Crazy Quilt, Jumbo, Billy Roses Aquacade. As a lyricist, he is credited with many songs, notably Me and My Shadow, More Than You Know, Without a Song, It Happened in Monterrey. Despite his accomplishments, Rose may be best known today as the husband of famed comedian, William Samuel Rosenberg was born to a Jewish family in New York City. He attended Public School 44, where he was the 50-yard dash champion, while in high school, Billy studied shorthand under John Robert Gregg, the inventor of the Gregg System for shorthand notation. He won a dictation contest using Gregg notation, taking over 150 words per minute, Billy Rose began his career as a stenographic clerk to Bernard Baruch of the War Industries Board during World War I, and became head of the clerical staff. Most of Roses lyrical credits were collaborations, biographer Earl Conrad said, Nobody clearly knew what he wrote or didnt write. Publishers tend to him with writing the songs known to bear his name as a lyricist. That Billy could feed and toss in a remark and monkey around, lyricists might have been willing to tolerate a Rose credit grab because Rose was very successful at promoting his songs. He went on to become a Broadway producer, and a theatre/nightclub owner, in June 1934, he opened The Billy Rose Music Hall at 52nd and Broadway in New York with the first Benny Goodman Orchestra. He produced Jumbo, starring Jimmy Durante, at the New York Hippodrome Theatre, for the Fort Worth Frontier Days fair, he constructed the huge elaborate dinner theatre Casa Mañana which featured stripper Sally Rand and the worlds largest revolving stage. He presented a show at the Great Lakes Exposition in Cleveland, when he attended a show, his practice was to book four seats, one for himself, one for his date, and the two in front of those so he would have an unobstructed view. In 1929, he married Fanny Brice, who would star in the 1931 Broadway production of Billy Roses Crazy Quilt, the marriage would last for nine years, ending in divorce in 1938. In 1938, he opened Billy Roses Diamond Horseshoe, a nightclub in New York Citys Times Square in the basement of the Paramount Hotel and it initially opened with a version of his Fort Worth show. The Diamond Horseshoe operated under that name until 1951, at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair, Billy Roses Aquacade starred Olympian Eleanor Holm in what the fair program called a brilliant girl show of spectacular size and content. Future MGM star Esther Williams and Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller were both Aquacade headliners, Rose began an affair with the then-married Holm, who left her husband for Rose. Following the 1939 Worlds Fair, Rose asked John Murray Anderson, Anderson recommended Gene Kelly, then performing in William Saroyans One for the Money. Rose objected that he wanted someone who could choreograph tits and asses, however, after seeing Kellys performance, he gave Kelly the job, an important step in Kellys career
Billy Rose
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Billy Rose (standing) visiting
David Ben-Gurion in 1960
Billy Rose
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Billy Rose's mausoleum in
Westchester Hills Cemetery
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Lonnie Donegan
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Anthony James Donegan MBE, known as Lonnie Donegan, was a Scottish skiffle singer, songwriter and musician, referred to as the King of Skiffle, who influenced 1960s British pop musicians. The British Hit Singles & Albums lists him as Britains most successful and he had 31 UK Top 30 single hits,24 being successive and three at number one. He was the first British male singer with two US Top 10 hits, Donegan received an Ivor Novello lifetime achievement award in 1997 and in 2000 he was made an MBE. Lonnie Donegan was born Anthony James Donegan in Bridgeton, Glasgow, Scotland and he was the son of an Irish mother and a Scots father, a professional violinist who had played with the Scottish National Orchestra. In 1933, he moved with his family to East Ham in East London, Donegan was evacuated to Cheshire to escape the Blitz in the Second World War and attended college in Altrincham. He had two daughters by his first wife, Maureen Tyler, a son and a daughter by his wife, Jill Westlake. He had had problems since the 1970s and had several heart attacks. As a child growing up in the early 1940s Donegan listened mostly to swing jazz and vocal acts, country & western and blues records, particularly by Frank Crumit and Josh White, attracted his interest and he bought his first guitar at 14 in 1945. He learned songs such as Frankie and Johnny, Puttin On the Style, by the end of the 1940s he was playing guitar around London and visiting small jazz clubs. Donegan first played in a band after Chris Barber heard that he was a good banjo player and, on a train. Donegan had never played the banjo but he bought one for the audition, a posting to Vienna brought him into contact with American troops, and access to US records and the American Forces Network radio station. In 1952 he formed the Tony Donegan Jazzband, which played around London, on 28 June 1952 at the Royal Festival Hall they opened for the blues musician Lonnie Johnson. Donegan had adopted his first name as a tribute and he used the name at a concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 2 June 1952. In 1953 cornetist Ken Colyer was imprisoned in New Orleans for a visa problem and he returned to Britain and joined Chris Barbers band. That changed name to Ken Colyers Jazzmen and made its first public appearance on 11 April 1953 in Copenhagen, the following day, Chris Albertson recorded Ken Colyers Jazzmen and the Monty Sunshine Trio – Sunshine, Barber, and Donegan – for Storyville Records. These were Donegans first commercial recordings, while in Ken Colyers Jazzmen with Chris Barber, Donegan sang and played guitar and banjo in their Dixieland set. In 1954 Colyer left, and the band became Chris Barbers Jazz Band, with a washboard, tea-chest bass and a cheap Spanish guitar, Donegan played folk and blues songs by artists such as Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie. This proved popular and in July 1954 he recorded a fast version of Leadbellys Rock Island Line, featuring a washboard but not a tea-chest bass and it was a hit in 1956, but, because it was a band recording, Donegan made no money beyond his session fee
Lonnie Donegan
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Lonnie Donegan in the 1970s
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