El rey del Jazz

Today's audiences could not possibly have any idea of how big in every way Paul Whiteman was during the 1920s. Radio was in its infancy and Paul Whiteman's band was the first orchestra to achieve popularity through that medium. Whiteman records were the biggest sellers of their time. And The King of Jazz was his auspicious debut in motion pictures.

The King of Jazz was also how Whiteman billed himself. He was maybe taking a bit much on to himself with that one, he surely didn't have anything to do with the development of jazz as an art form. But he did help a great deal to popularize it with a wider {white} audience. That was primarily done with that famous jazz concert that Whiteman gave in the mid twenties where George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue made its debut. And Rhapsody is reprised here in the movie.

Whiteman's greatest contribution may have been the training of the greatest group of musicians ever. At one time or other, the Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman, Bix Biederbecke and so many others were members of the Whiteman orchestra. And of course he was the very first band to hire a vocalist specifically for that role. Previously singers were just musicians who just stopped playing and sang a chorus or two.

Whiteman hired a trio, the Rhythm Boys whose lead singer was Bing Crosby. They are prominent in the film and in fact Bing Crosby made his singing film debut here over the opening credits as he sang Music Hath Charms. He was Whiteman's biggest discovery.

The film is just a musical review done in the style of some of the great musical reviews of the time like the Ziegfeld Follies, Earl Carroll's Vanities, George White's Scandals. Some of the acts are better than others, but's The King of Jazz encapsulates a great era in show business.

The biggest song from the film was It Happened in Monterey sung by John Boles who was Universal's biggest musical star at that point. Boles also got to do the film's finale, The Song of the Dawn, when Crosby who was guzzling a little too much bathtub gin got himself arrested and missed doing the finale which he was scheduled for.

Shortly after recording some of the songs from The King of Jazz the Rhythm Boys left Whiteman and broke up soon after that. Bing Crosby would be heard from again.

For a wonderful piece of nostalgia and filmed in early technicolor at that as an added treat, you can't beat The King of Jazz.

Paul Whiteman was a huge star in the 20s with his terrific jazz band. He might have been the original star band leader. In "The King of Jazz" he also shows himself to be a decent comic actor as well. He's best remembered for his recording of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," which is featured in this early revue film.

"King of Jazz" is solid entertainment with some lavish and grand-scale production numbers that boast Bing Crosby, John Boles, Laura LaPlante, the Brox Sisters, Jeanie Lang, and of course Whiteman's band.

Best songs are "Happy Feet," "A Bench in the Park," "The Song of the Dawn," and a jazzy "Bluebirds and Blackbirds" number with Crosby as one of the Rhythm Boys (with Harry Barris and Al Rinker).

Al Norman does an amazing dance number to "Happy Feet." Jeanette Loff is rather bland in the "bridal veil" number. The Sisters G in their Louise Brooks hairdos are OK in their dance numbers. And there's a lot of short comedy bits that feature Walter Brennan, Slim Summerville, Grace Hayes, Merna Kennedy, William Kent, and others.

Although I still prefer "The Hollywood Revue of 1929" this revue is also excellent in its use of lavish production numbers, color, and special effects. For fans of early musicals this one is not to be missed.

Whiteman, Crosby, and Boles are all great.

1930's King of Jazz is the strangest and most surreal of the early sound cycle of movie studio revues. Very few films shot completely in two-strip Technicolor survive - this is one of them. Warner Bros. probably made the most all-Technicolor films in the early sound era, but since most of them were Vitaphone the films have long since been lost in most cases.

The 1929 and 1930 early sound revues were made by the studios primarily to showcase their talent in an all-talking setting. MGM's "Hollywood Revue of 1929" started the cycle, and did a pretty good job. However, other studios lost sight of the goal and the revues that followed were often clumsily put together and didn't even showcase talent that belonged to the studio.

"The King of Jazz" is a surprise not only because it holds up so well with time, but because it is such a non-typical product for Universal Studios of that era. Universal of the 20's and 30's mainly made westerns for rural moviegoers with an occasional prestige picture and they were beginning to dabble in the horror genre for which the studio is most remembered. However, at this time they were also known for their thrift, which went out the window when they made this film. The film starts out with a cartoon showing how Paul Whiteman - who called himself The King of Jazz - discovered Jazz. What follows are a sequence of musical and comedy routines. This film doesn't make the mistake of trying to sew the numbers together with some maudlin backstage melodrama. It simply presents the numbers in sequence. Most of the talent here is not under long-term contract to Universal. Laura LaPlante is one of the rare exceptions to that rule. The musical numbers are a delight and it is great to see Bing Crosby at the very beginning of his career. The Brox Sisters light up this film just as they did MGM's revue with "Singin in the Rain". The whole thing is so lively and done with with such innovation and energy considering the static camera of the early talkie era that I can't believe Universal has never thought to put this on DVD. They made this one great musical and didn't really make another one until 1936's "Showboat".

My favorite number is "Song of the Dawn" featuring handsome John Boles with his piercing eyes in close up during most of the number belting out a song with that wonderful tenor voice of his. The most memorable number though has got to be "Happy Feet" with dancing shoes and the Sisters G as singing heads in a shoebox. This number also has the aptly named Al "Rubber Legs" Norman showing us the moon dance 28 years before Michael Jackson was even born.

Highly recommended for the fun of it all.

"King Of Jazz" is a museum piece. Let's face it, anyone under 50 probably never heard of Paul Whiteman, and anyone under 40 only knows Bing Crosby from his Christmas album. That leaves the rest of us.

For The Rest Of Us, it doesn't get any better than "King Of Jazz". That, of course, was Paul Whiteman, rotund band leader of a bygone era who is the nominal star of this film. He was not an actor, and so the film is given over to actors and other entertainers. The accent here is on 'entertainer', as this movie is festooned with lots and lots of them.

Ever see Bing Crosby with his real hair? Ever see the Radio City Rockettes, thunder-thighed in the late 20's? Ever see George Gershwin in a movie? How about vaudevillian Al Norman with his rubber-legged dancing? It's all here, in a non-stop revue of old and almost-forgotten songs and dance numbers (there are 18 in all), interspersed with blackouts and comedy skits. Plus, it's in color (sort of) - actually, it's primitive 2 strip color.

I could go on and on but if you are a hard-core movie fan or a film historian, "King Of Jazz" is for you. The jokes are stale, the singers still trilled their 'R's, and the gowns in the bridal number are so out of style they are probably coming back. The overall effect was both sheer delight and visually overwhelming and I wished it would never end. It is available only on VHS and hasn't been seen on TV in years. It is a must for The Rest Of Us.

P.S. Ever see Paul Whiteman tap dance?

"The King Of Jazz" 1930, is a wonderful example of just what the movies could do in the late 20's early 30's if they put their mind to it. The technical achievement is extremely high, for a film of this period, and one wonders at how cinema audiences of 1930 must have been amazed by this picture. It is photographed in a system called "Two Strip Technicolor". (Full 3-strip Technicolor would not be invented until 1932). The 2-strip Technicolor system managed to capture Red and Green, but not blue. To get around this they would use dyes that were a kind of orange/red and aqua-marine/green to trick audiences into thinking there was blue on screen.

In this movie the "Rhapsody in Blue" number is very convincing.

There is no plot to "The King Of Jazz", it is just one mammoth musical number after another, and that adds to its unique charm. My three favourite numbers are "Ragamuffin Romeo", "It Happened In Monterey", and "My Bridal Veil".

The "Bridal Veil" number utilizes one of the biggest indoor sets I have ever seen. A lot of money was spent on this picture, and it shows. The Bridal Veil itself looks to be about 100 feet long and the bride needs about 40 bridesmaids to help hold it up.

The print that is currently in circulation of "The King Of Jazz" is sadly not in 100% excellent condition. It seems to be made up of pristine sections of print, and battered and scratched dupes. Its a real patchwork version that is probably in need of some restoration work. The title sequence, (with vocals over the titles by Bing Crosby singing "Music Hath Charms") is very clear and in good shape, but then halfway through cuts to an extremely battered dupe copy? The same occurrence happens during the "It Happened In Monterey" number, and also "Bench In The Park", we are given a beautiful print with rich colours and rock steady picture stability, only to cut variously to scratched beaten dupes. I cannot understand why certain sections of the film were preserved but others were not.

I am eagerly awaiting the DVD release of this unique and wonderful film and hope it wont be too long before it gets its well deserved release. There don't seem to be any plans as yet and the only way to see this movie is on television or VHS. This is a true lost opportunity to DVD producers because the film has many wonderful Bing Crosby numbers in it and would be very popular with Bing's fans.