Glorifying the American Girl (1929)

The rise of a showgirl, Gloria Hughes, culminating in a Ziegfeld extravaganza "Glorifying the American Girl".

Director:

Millard Webb

Writers:

J.P. McEvoy (from the story by), Millard Webb (from the story by)

Stars:

Mary Eaton, Eddie Cantor, Helen Morgan

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Mary Eaton	...	Gloria Hughes
Eddie Cantor	...	Eddie Cantor - Appearance in Revue Scenes
Helen Morgan	...	Helen Morgan - Appearance in Revue Scenes
Rudy Vallee	...	Rudy Vallee - Appearance in Revue Scenes
Dan Healy	...	'Miller'
Kaye Renard	...	'Mooney'
Edward Crandall	...	Buddy
Gloria Shea	...	Barbara (as Olive Shea)
Sarah Edwards	...	Mrs. Hughes
Singing and Dancing Chorus of Seventy-Five Glorified Beauties	...	Chorus Members

Storyline

Gloria, Barabara and Buddy are working at the sheet music counter in a New York department store. On a trip of the whole store, Gloria, who's in love with Buddy, is spotted by vaudeville hoofer Miller, whom his partner Mooney, like her predecessors, has just left. Miller tours with Gloria and both are spotted by Ziegfeld's talent scouts, just before they were splitting up, leaving Gloria with a contract giving Miller a part of her earnings in the next few years. Gloria becomes the star of a new Ziegfeld production, but Barbara, who has been pining for buddy for quite a while, seems to have more luck with him.

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Plot Keywords:

vaudeville | partner | contract | ziegfeld follies | unrequited love | 

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Taglines:

With a galaxy of Broadway's famous stars- See how Broadway's darlings are glorified! (Print Ad-The Evening Tribune,((Providence, R.I.)) 5 December 1929)

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Musical

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 December 1929 (USA)

Also Known As:

Glorificação da Beleza

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min (Raymond Rohauer print)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric System)

Color:

Black and White Color (2-strip Technicolor) (some sequences)

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Eddie Cantor, Helen Morgan and Rudy Vallee are listed early in the credits, and are NOT in the comprehensive cast list presented later. Because of this, the IMDb cast list uses all actor names in order of being printed in the credits.

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Connections

Featured in Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1920s: The Dawn of the Hollywood Musical (2008)

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Soundtracks

Blue Skies
(1926) (uncredited)
Written by Irving Berlin
Played by the band during the acrobat act at the picnic

User Reviews

Early Backstage Musical

While the Ziegfeld Follies is GLORIFYING THE American GIRL, one young lady sacrifices love for success.

This antique musical, produced under the personal supervision of Florenz Ziegfeld for Paramount Studios, is another backstage melodrama (a very popular genre at the time) about finding happiness through fame and success on the stage. Like so many other pictures of the era, it revels in Talk & Music; unfortunately, the sound quality is generally poor, making much of the dialogue & lyrics rather hard to decipher.

The representation of Ziegfeld's lavish production numbers is interesting in a historical context, and would be more pleasing to the eye if the original Technicolor footage still survived. Celebrated dancer Ted Shawn was responsible for the ballet numbers, while Irving Berlin supplied some of the music. A careful attention to the soundtrack will disclose the use of old standard tunes in the soundtrack: "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody," "Bye, Bye, Blackbird," "Side By Side" & "Blue Skies."

The regular cast is made up of long-forgotten performers who still give the material their best efforts: Mary Eaton plays the dancer looking for fame in the Follies; Dan Healy is her rapacious but talented partner. Edward Crandall is Miss Eaton's doe-eyed department store boyfriend; Olive Shea plays the salesgirl who loves him desperately. Sarah Edwards has a few good moments as Miss Eaton's crocodilian mother.

Ziegfeld brought in three big stars to liven things up during the movie's final lap. Regrettably, Rudy Vallee's rendition of his hit "Vagabond Lover" is both wooden & unintelligible. Perched on a piano, Helen Morgan is equally difficult to understand, but her personality still comes through in her rendition of a torch song. Hyperactive Eddie Cantor comes off best of all during a boisterous sketch about a Jewish haberdasher.