Hollywood Varieties

HOLLYWOOD VARIETIES was produced by former vaudeville dancer and producer June Carr. She rounded up a number of her old colleagues to appear in this picture, which re-creates a typical vaudeville show of bygone years. There are some movie names here: vaude veteran Robert Alda is very much at home as a genial master of ceremonies; former big-studio juvenile leads Glenn Vernon and Eddie Ryan now teamed as a songs-and-jokes act; B-Western ingenue Peggy Stewart given a rare chance to sing; Western comic Britt Wood doing one of his usual monologues; The Rio Brothers emulating The Ritz Brothers; and the famous stage-screen-and-radio quartet The Hoosier Hot Shots. Al Shaw and Sam Lee, rediscovered by modern audiences in their early-talkie Vitaphone shorts, appear here with the same eccentric dancing and cross-talk.

The rest of the cast members are vaudeville specialties, and producer Carr presents them in strict order to resemble a traditional vaudeville bill. The show opens with a silent acrobatic specialty, just as old vaude shows did as the audience was finding seats. The emcee takes the stage and welcomes a parade of entertainers: dancers, comedians, a barbershop quartet, a dog act, and a trained-seals act. The Hot Shots appear "next to closing," as the star attraction, and are followed by an acrobatic troupe -- again a traditional closing act.

The production is thrifty but serviceable (it was filmed in five days, not one as the "trivia" section of IMDb claims), with crew members familiar to low-budget movies of the period. The live orchestra is a little ragged in spots, and bits of the action are under-rehearsed, but overall the gang delivers a good hour of variety. If you're curious about what vaudeville was like, this is a typical sample -- some grade-A talent mixed in with lesser acts, as you'd see in any theater. Definitely a "B-minus" production but it rates a solid "A" for effort.

Well, it's certainly not a great vaudeville show. There are none of the top acts of the form's heyday. What you have here are the animal acts -- the funny dog acts, the juggling seals --some dancing, some singing, one or two sketches. You don't have any of the great monologists, certainly, nor the headliners that you would have gotten in a big house in the days gone by.

Nonetheless, if you're in the mood for a variety show -- which died out even on television with the death of Ed Sullivan -- this is a fair sampling of what you'd get. I happen to remember and like this sort of show. But it requires a certain mindset, aesthetic and expectation, just like going to see a movie made from a graphic novel.

Robert Alda, Alan Alda's father, does a pretty good job as master of ceremonies and the harmonica playing and animal acts are a lot of fun. Good enough for me.