Rambling 'Round Radio Row #10

The camera checks out the listings for the radio broadcast, then shows us the performers: Baby Rose Marie; Morton Downey singing "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling"; Frank Novak Jr. Playing "St. Louis Blues" on a variety of instruments; Harriet Lee singing Sitting on a Log"; and Roy Atwell doing a comic stuttering act..

It's one of 10 "Rambling 'Round Radio Row" shorts produced by Warner's Vitaphone division, and one of thousands of shorts in which several acts make up a reel or two. Originally conceived as a substitute for the live acts that rounded out the show at the movie palaces that sat three thousand, they were a popular selected short subject to play along with the feature. Here there are a couple of acts that survived into the 1960s.

I have recently begun watching the 11-hour DVD set of Vitaphone's jazz and big band shorts. And, after a short time I really appreciated the comedy acts that sometimes were interspersed throughout--they were a nice break from one song after another after another. However, in this final installment of the "Rambling 'Round Radio Row", I really, really hated the comedian as he grated on my nerves and my daughter kept yelling "fast-forward!" because the guy was just awful. His shtick was spoonerisms and it took him FOREVER just to say a sentence! Talk about the proverbial 'beating a dead horse'! Uggh! Despite this, the singing is better than normal--with three very nice songs. The most interesting was Baby Rose Marie's belting out a song--and it's nice to see her decades before she was a TV regular on "The Dick Van Dyke Show". Every performance I've seen of her is just filled with energy! In addition, Morton Downey, Sr. (father of the TV parasite from the 1980s) sings a decent rendition of "Irish Eyes". So, if you can fast-forward past the non-comedic comedian, the rest of this final short in the series is pretty decent.

With the framework of a Walter Winchell like column talking about various radio entertainers, moviegoers got to see a lot of voices that people only knew from radio. The names that are possibly familiar today are Morton Downey and Rose Marie. Although Frank Nowak showed us his versatility with an act playing several musical instruments.

If people know Rose Marie it's from the Dick Van Dyke Show of the early Sixties when she was grownup. But in the Depression years before Shirley Temple she was a child star of considerable note. Look at her and I think you'll see Sally Rogers.

The name Morton Downey is associated with a loudmouth right wing talk show host who smoked like Edward R. Murrow without his class and died of what Murrow died of. But his father was a fine Irish lyric tenor coming up in that same era that Rudy Vallee, Bing Crosby and Russ Columbo did. They tried him as a movie star, but the senior Downey had a bit too much heft and girth to him to be accepted as a leading man musical star. Nothing wrong with his voice as he sings When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.

Not a great film, but an invaluable historical archive.

Rambling 'Round Radio Row (Second Group) #3 (1934)

** (out of 4)

Final film in the RAMBLING 'ROUND RADIO ROW series has Harriet Lee doing a version of "Sittin' on a Log (Pettin' My Dog)" and this is followed by a rather amusing performance of "St. Louis Blues" by Frank Novak, Jr.. We then get Baby Rose Marie doing "You're Gonna Lose Your Gal" and we close with Morton Downey doing "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling". This final entry in the series goes out with a few good numbers and I'm sure most will be tuning in to catch Baby Rose Marie. Once again she comes off extremely charming and it's easy to see why so many people fell for her back in the 30s. Novak also comes off pretty good here with his strange keyboard and horn playing. The Downey song has him on piano and doing the singing but the song itself isn't the greatest.