The Song of Fame

Ruth Etting was a star...just not in Hollywood, where she made just a few appearances. Instead, her songs were huge hits and she sold tons of records. She's best remembered today as the subject of a very fictionalized biopic, "Love Me or Leave Me". Here in "The Song of Fame" you have a rare chance to see her on film and she sings several of her big hits. Unfortunately, this short film also features the first appearance by Judy Canova and her family...and they are just godawful and I have no idea how she ever became famous. Infamous....now THAT I can understand.

The story begins with Ruth working as a singing cigarette girl in a nightclub. She hopes to be discovered and her agent swears that some big talent scout will come see her act. But to speed up the process, she and her agent plan on auditioning for the guy...whether he likes it or not!

Every time Etting was on the screen, I enjoyed it. She had a lovely voice and my assumption is that she didn't become a screen star because she was a bit old here--nearly 40. It's a shame, but 38 was considered old for leading ladies back in the day...and perhaps things haven't changed that much.

On the other hand, I have no idea why they put the Canova family in this short. Their style is the complete opposite of Etting's. Ruth was classy and smooth...and Judy was anything but either! Unless you've heard her sing, you probably think I am exaggerating but I think she's about the most annoying singer of the 1930s and 40s....and a terrible complement to Etting.

Overall, worth seeing...just do the dishes or take a bathroom break when the Canovas come on screen. They are THAT bad....but the rest is quite lovely.

Ruth Etting had pretty much aged out by the time sound came around, but this short is a nice way to capture her face and voice.

I wonder how many other pre-talkie stars got this treatment in films that are now lost.

The Busby Berkley-type number was enjoyable. The Canova family was grating.

Also, I hated Love Me or Leave Me, the Cagney/Day movie about Etting and her objectionable boyfriend or whatever he was.

Cigarette girl Ruth Eaton (Ruth Etting) needs a new job. Her agent Dave promises to bring impresario Silvio Martinetti to hear her sing. Martinetti refuses to do business outside his office. Dave sets up an impromptu audition at the barber shop where Martinetti visits.

I know the hillbillies are supposed to be funny. More than anything, their performances grade on my nerves. I would cut that section down with Martinetti interrupting them. Any jokes would work in half the time and cutting them off could be funny. Otherwise, this is fine for Ruth Etting fans. The story isn't much more than that.

Ruth Etting was a Broadway star who made occasional passes at the movies, but they never took. An interesting biopic, LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME, starring Doris Day as Miss Etting and stolen by Jimmy Cagney was made in the mid-fifties at MGM (not Warners). How much truth is involved is a matter of conjecture.

In this one there is a plot as she and her agent try to get her to see an impresario who can give her a break. She sing three songs. There is also one interlude in which the Canova family appears. It is Judy Canova's first screen appearance.

The director of this short film is Joseph Henabery, who basically operated out of the old Vitaphone studio in Brooklyn until it went into war work. One of D.W. Griffith's disciples, he tells a bit of his story in Kevin Brownlow's THE PARADE'S GONE BY.