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.
6 Reviews
Radio stars of the day
bkoganbing27 May 2016
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.
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.
Once upon a yesteryear there was a collage of old timey stuff . . .
pixrox117 November 2018
Warning: Spoilers
. . . called something such as "THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT" which was so successful that they brought out AT LEAST a T.E. Part 2 and a T.E. Part 3. However, the apparent existence of a minimum of ten episodes of RAMBLING 'ROUND RADIO ROW does NOT mean that this goulash is 3.3 times as compelling at THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT. Among the more descriptive possibilities for this vintage series of live-action variety acts are "Wasn't That Just Awful?" or "Would You Call THIS Entertainment?!" Another more apt heading for RAMBLING 'ROUND RADIO ROW might be "Bobbing among the Flotsam in the Airwaves." I've heard of variety acts which have been denigrated as "second-rate" or even "third-rate," but is there even such a thing as "29th-rate?" My guess is that the big draw of RAMBLING 'ROUND RADIO ROW for this series' contemporary audiences was the big debate sure to ensue after each sorry episode as to which act was WORST. It's important to remember that when RAMBLING 'ROUND RADIO ROW was sucking people into movie theaters, there was NOT an option to stay home and watch kittens scampering along piano keyboards on YouTube!
Final of Nine Films
Michael_Elliott17 April 2010
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.
** (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.
Just as our parents had a "Morton Downey, Jr." . . .
oscaralbert31 January 2017
Warning: Spoilers
. . . our Great-Grandpeople had Morton Downey, Sr. to sing for them (though he's simply called "Morton Downey" during Warner Bros.' Pepper Pot RAMBLING 'ROUND RADIO ROW #8--as this program of "entertainers" is labeled on-screen, but MISLABELED as #10 on this site!!), which is a less appetizing gumbo than one might think. Though young Mr. Downey's rendition of "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" may feature the requisite lilt, Harriet Lee's opening number about "just sitting on a log, petting my dog, waiting for you" to come is almost demanding that listeners switch the words "dog" and "log" around. Sandwiched between these two vocal soloists are three more miserable acts, prompting us to ponder whether the bottom of the barrel on "Radio Row" has been thoroughly scraped, or whether--Heaven Forbid!--a 9th, or even 19th Edition of RAMBLING 'ROUND was shoveled over an abused public. People thinking Today of posting YouTube videos of themselves should remember that there's slightly less than a 100% chance that Trump will destroy the World in our lifetime. They should watch this RADIO ROW material before they YouTube as a timely caution about how well YOUR stuff will "hold up" 83 years from now.
A couple of familiar names in this Vitaphone short.
classicsoncall22 December 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Trying to match up the individual 'Radio Rows' with their description here on IMDb takes a little bit of detective work, calling up each of the numbered titles and checking the credits to see who was in them. A couple of these I caught on Turner Classics didn't have numbers attached to them, so they all have the same title.
This one offers up a couple of familiar names, like Morton Downey, not listed as 'Senior' here because his more famous irritating son was only a toddler at the time. And then there was the young singer introduced as Baby Rose Marie, more like eleven or twelve years old, but bearing an uncanny resemblance to the actress who we came to know as Sally Rogers on "The Dick van Dyke Show' TV series. Looking up her stats here on IMDb I see she'll be ninety years old next year with yet another appearance in a film to be released in 2017! God bless her, still going strong!
Other than those two highlights though, there's not a lot to recommend here. These Radio Row programs took the unusual tack of featuring radio performers in a film short venue, and a lot of them didn't translate well. Another singer featured here was Harriet Lee, and a vocabulary challenged announcer named Roy Atwell who's gimmick went a little too long. There was also a guy named Frank Novak Jr, hailed as playing so many instruments that he was keeping 'thousands' of musicians out of work! I don't think so, his repertoire here included a squeezebox, trumpet, trombone and a xylophone with passable results.
So overall, the value here is whether you're interested in old time short subjects with a view of what passed for entertainment in the Thirties. Though most of the folks were talented, they wouldn't really stand out today, except of course for Rose Marie. Glad she made it!
This one offers up a couple of familiar names, like Morton Downey, not listed as 'Senior' here because his more famous irritating son was only a toddler at the time. And then there was the young singer introduced as Baby Rose Marie, more like eleven or twelve years old, but bearing an uncanny resemblance to the actress who we came to know as Sally Rogers on "The Dick van Dyke Show' TV series. Looking up her stats here on IMDb I see she'll be ninety years old next year with yet another appearance in a film to be released in 2017! God bless her, still going strong!
Other than those two highlights though, there's not a lot to recommend here. These Radio Row programs took the unusual tack of featuring radio performers in a film short venue, and a lot of them didn't translate well. Another singer featured here was Harriet Lee, and a vocabulary challenged announcer named Roy Atwell who's gimmick went a little too long. There was also a guy named Frank Novak Jr, hailed as playing so many instruments that he was keeping 'thousands' of musicians out of work! I don't think so, his repertoire here included a squeezebox, trumpet, trombone and a xylophone with passable results.
So overall, the value here is whether you're interested in old time short subjects with a view of what passed for entertainment in the Thirties. Though most of the folks were talented, they wouldn't really stand out today, except of course for Rose Marie. Glad she made it!
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
