Rambling 'Round Radio Row #6 (1933) User Reviews

Some interpretative film historians recently have quibbled over . . .

[oscaralbert · 5/10 · 29 December 2018]

. . . a trumped up "shortfall" in the always eponymous Warner Bros.' warning output concerning Bozo the Burnt Orange POTUS for We Americans of (The Then) Far Future. Such criticism smacks of not seeing the Garden for the Weeds. Warner's prophetic prognosticators of the 1900s should NOT be blamed if the roster of available prediction decoders in Our Modern 21st Century are insufficient in number to decipher EVERY clairvoyant Warner warning simultaneously. As it is, startling "new" Messages from the Past are being revealed every day now. Take RAMBLING 'ROUND RADIO ROW #6, for instance. As explicated in this week's issue of "Not So Looney After All," the sloshed emcee of RAMBLING 'ROUND RADIO ROW #6--"Harry"--projects our current deplorable White House Occupant in 14 distinctive ways. One of the best examples of Warner foresight cited in this piece concerns the way in which BOTH of these clowns claim to be surrounding themselves with "the best team of talent ever assembled." Admittedly, Harry's falsetto trio, his mumbling orchestra conductor, his European stag film mistress, and his marathon child mesmerizer stand head and shoulders above the Real Life miscreants, thugs, and scoundrels with which Red Commie KGB Chief "Mad Vlad's" puppet has stocked his West Wing. But at least RAMBLING 'ROUND RADIO ROW #6 represents yet another entry into the bulging Ledger Book of Warner Bros.' plethora of warnings against the Pachyderm Party Polluters Put in our government by the Red Commie KGB.

More forgotten acts

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 29 December 2018]

Whether you like the kind of entertainment that these Vitagraph shorts have to offer you have to admit that they do preserve the acts of a lot of people who would be forgotten today. Jerry Wald later to be one of the big producers in Hollywood in the 50s serves as a bartender for these lounge acts.

I think the only name you might know is that of Buddy Rogers who maybe most famous as Mary Pickford's last husband. His career ran out of gas in the early 30s , but he probably is most famous for being one of the stars of Wings and one of his wife's classics My Best Girl.

The Three Keys I swore were the Mills Brothers and they seem to be a copycat act. Harriet Lee&her Boyfriends and Lew Conrad and orchestra are pretty obscure. Uncle Don Carney was the host of a popular children's radio program whose career went right in the toilet when he said something nasty on a live mike.

But these people and their acts are preserved for history and that's what's important with this Vitagraph short.

A lot better than #4!

[planktonrules · 24 August 2011]

I recently got a hold of the multi-disk set "Warner Brothers Big Band, Jazz & Swing Short Subject Collection". It's made up of over 11 hours of Vitaphone musical shorts. Disk 1 is a bit different in style, as it consists mostly of the "Ramblin' Round Radio Row" shorts. These mostly star Jerry Wald. Wald apparently was famous for a newspaper column on radio programs and this was parlayed into him getting the chance to produce these shorts.

This film, like the rest in the series, come off like a variety show with slightly better production values. You get a chance to see the actor Buddy Rogers (who would soon become Mary Pickford's husband and was the star of the Oscar-winning film "Wings") and an enjoyable group called the Three Keys--three black-Americans who are all but forgotten today but who managed to be included in a production geared for white audiences (that was a bit of an achievement in 1933). Also, in a first for the series, there was a guy who sang song for and with kids. All in all, a lot better than the previous short in the series (that was dreadfully uninteresting) and worth a look today.

Fun Entry

[Michael_Elliott · 17 April 2010]

Rambling 'Round Radio Row #5 (1933)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Fifth entry in the series has Jerry Wald aboard a train with a group of people around him. He shows them how to properly mix a drink and then we jump to the music and comedy acts. Included here as The Three Keys doing "Them There Eyes", Harriet Lee and Her Boyfriend doing "A Great Big Bunch of You" and the highlight being Harry Rose, The Broadway Gesture, doing "I'm Just Wild About Harry". This entry in the series actually contains some of the best music we've heard so far. The highlight is certainly The Broadway Gesture who easily steals the film with his blend of rock and jazz. The comedy bits really aren't funny and the entire opening intro could have been replaced with a different music act but fans of these old shorts will want to check this one out.