Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen was an American vaudevillian, singer, actress, and comedian who became internationally famous as the zany partner and comic foil of husband George Burns, her straight man, appearing with him on radio, television and film as the duo Burns and Allen.
George Burns was an American comedian, actor, writer, and singer, and one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, radio, film and television. His arched eyebrow and cigar-smoke punctuation became familiar trademarks for over three-quarters of a century. He and his wife Gracie Allen appeared on radio, television and film as the comedy duo Burns and Allen.
Cabell Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he became a popular vocalist of the swing era. His niche of mixing jazz and vaudeville won him acclaim during a career that spanned over 65 years.
Richard Armstrong Whiting was an American composer of popular songs, including the standards "Hooray for Hollywood", "Ain't We Got Fun?" and "On the Good Ship Lollipop". He also wrote lyrics occasionally, and film scores most notably for the standard "She's Funny That Way".
George White's Scandals were a long-running string of Broadway revues produced by George White that ran from 1919–1939, modeled after the Ziegfeld Follies. The "Scandals" launched the careers of many entertainers, including W. C. Fields, the Three Stooges, Ray Bolger, Helen Morgan, Ethel Merman, Ann Miller, Eleanor Powell, Bert Lahr and Rudy Vallée. Louise Brooks, Dolores Costello, Barbara Pepper, and Alice Faye got their show business start as lavishly dressed chorus girls strutting to the "Scandal Walk". Much of George Gershwin's early work appeared in the 1920–24 editions of Scandals. The Black Bottom, danced by Ziegfeld Follies star Ann Pennington and Tom Patricola, touched off a national dance craze.
Peggy Hopkins Joyce was an American actress, artist's model, columnist, dancer and socialite. In addition to her performing career, Joyce was widely known for her flamboyant life, numerous engagements and affairs, six marriages — four wealthy men, subsequent divorces, collections of diamonds and furs, and her lavish lifestyle.
The Big Broadcast is a 1932 American pre-Code musical comedy film directed by Frank Tuttle and starring Bing Crosby, Stuart Erwin, and Leila Hyams. Based on the play Wild Waves by William Ford Manley, the film is about a radio-singer who becomes a popular hit with audiences, but takes a disrespectful approach to his career. His repeated latenesses leads to the bankruptcy of the radio station, but his career is saved by a new friend who buys the station and gives him his job back.
The Big Broadcast of 1937 is a 1936 Paramount Pictures production directed by Mitchell Leisen, and is the third in the series of Big Broadcast movies. The musical comedy stars Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Bob Burns, Martha Raye, Shirley Ross, Ray Milland, Benny Fields, Frank Forest and the orchestra of Benny Goodman. It was in this film that Leopold Stokowski made his movie debut conducting two of his Bach transcriptions. Uncredited roles include Jack Mulhall.
The bouncing ball is a virtual device used in motion picture films and video recordings to visually indicate the rhythm of a song, helping audiences to sing along with live or prerecorded music. As the song's lyrics are displayed on the screen in a lower third of projected or character-generated text, an animated ball bounces across the top of the words, landing on each syllable when it is to be sung.
The Old Man of the Mountain is a 1933 American pre-Code live-action/animated short in the Betty Boop series, produced by Fleischer Studios. Featuring music by Cab Calloway and his Orchestra, the short was originally released to theaters on August 4, 1933 by Paramount Pictures. Calloway voices all of the characters in the cartoon save for Betty herself. Calloway and his orchestra also perform all of the music in the cartoon, including two songs Calloway co-wrote.
Sari Maritza was a British film actress of the early 1930s.
Stoopnagle and Budd were a popular radio comedy team of the 1930s, who are sometimes cited as forerunners of the Bob and Ray style of radio comedy. Along with Raymond Knight, they were radio's first satirists.
"You’re Driving Me Crazy" is an American popular song composed by Walter Donaldson in 1930 and recorded the same year by Lee Morse, Rudy Vallée & His Connecticut Yankees and Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians.
The Chez Paree was a Chicago nightclub known for its glamorous atmosphere, elaborate dance numbers, and top entertainers. It operated from 1932 until 1960 in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago at 610 N. Fairbanks Court. The club was the epitome of the golden age of entertainment, and it hosted a wide variety of performers, from singers to comedians to vaudeville acts. A "new" Chez Paree opened briefly in the mid-1960s on 400 N. Wabash Avenue and was seen in the film Mickey One with Warren Beatty.
Hollywood on Parade (1932–1934) is a series of short subjects released by Paramount Pictures.
Jive talk, also known as Harlem jive or simply Jive, the argot of jazz, jazz jargon, vernacular of the jazz world, slang of jazz, and parlance of hip is an African-American Vernacular English slang or vocabulary that developed in Harlem, where "jive" (jazz) was played and was adopted more widely in African-American society, peaking in the 1940s.
Many Happy Returns is a 1934 American pre-Code Paramount Pictures comedy film directed by Norman Z. McLeod and starring Gracie Allen, George Burns, and George Barbier.
Love in Bloom is a 1935 American comedy film directed by Elliott Nugent and written by Frank R. Adams, J.P. McEvoy, John P. Medbury and Keene Thompson. The film stars George Burns, Gracie Allen, Joe Morrison, Dixie Lee, J. C. Nugent, Lee Kohlmar and Richard Carle. The film was released on March 15, 1935, by Paramount Pictures.
Shea's Hippodrome was a historic film and play theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Hippodrome was located in downtown Toronto, at the southwest corner of Albert and Bay streets. At its opening in 1914, it was the largest movie palace in Canada, and one of the largest vaudeville theatres in the world. The Hippodrome included 12 opera boxes, a Wurlitzer organ, as well as a full-size orchestra pit. It debuted some of Canada's first non-silent films. It was built by brothers Jerry and Michael Shea and situated directly across from Toronto's City Hall. The Hippodrome was operated by Famous Players and managed for decades by Leonard N. Bishop. It was demolished in 1957 to make way for Toronto's new City Hall.
