Show Girl in Hollywood

Some years ago, I bought the novel for 25 cents in a library book sale. It was obviously published as a movie tie-in since it contained tantalizing stills from the film. Since I could not find a listing in any of the popular film guides, I presumed it was another "lost film" until I caught it on cable earlier this month. In this context, the quality of the film was irrelevant and I agree it was slow-going. The exception was Blanche Sweet-- a name entirely unknown to me until this film. Her performance was both understated and devastating, delineating the soul-rending panic that aging Hollywood actresses must still feel today. It's an odd feeling to be moved by performance that was filmed 70 years ago: I'm glad I wasn't alone in appreciating its underlying desperation.

"Show Girl in Hollywood" (First National, 1930), directed by Mervyn LeRoy, stars that pert blonde, Alice White, as Dixie Dugan, show girl from Brooklyn, a role she originated in the part-talkie, "Show Girl" (First National, 1928). In that earlier edition, Charles Delaney co-starred as her love interest, Jimmie Doyle, a role enacted here by Jack Mulhall. Based on the comic strip character, this musical sequel, based "Hollywood Girl" by Joseph Patrick McEvoy, is an interesting look back at the studio system in the days of early talkies, with added treats of non-credited guest stars as legendary singer, Al Jolson and his then wife, Ruby Keeler (in non-speaking parts); Loretta Young, Noah Berry and his son, Noah Beery Jr., all briefly glimpsed in the movie premiere sequence; along with the youthful but almost unrecognizable, Walter Pidgeon, as master of ceremonies at the Hollywood gathering.

Opening inter-title: "Jimmie Doyle's musical show, 'RAINBOW GIRL' opened and closed." Regardless of its two-week run for which Dixie Dugan (Alice White) worked as an understudy, playwright Jimmie Doyle (Jack Mulhall) intends on improving the story, this time giving his girl, Dixie, the nominal lead, which she should ha played in the first place. Escorted to a nightclub by Jimmy, Dixie does a number for its visiting guest, Frank Buelow (John Miljan), a movie director from Hollywood. Taking an interest in this free-spirited girl, Buelow persuades Dixie to come to Hollywood and appear in his forthcoming motion picture. Going against Jimmy's wishes, Dixie takes the next train west, sending her occasional telegrams to Jimmy at his Brooklyn residence: 41 Pineapple Street. While in Hollywood, Dixie's meeting with Sam Otis's (Ford Sterling), the production head, proves shattering when she is told she's one of many girls tricked into coming to the studio only to learn no such arrangements have been made. Along the way, Dixie learns more of the downside of Hollywood when she meets and befriends her favorite movie actress, Dottie Harris (Blanche Sweet), now a 32-year-old has-been. Not only does Dottie get the runaround from Buelow, her former husband, but must accept the fact she's only just a memory. As fate would have it, Sam Otis acquires the script of "Rainbow Girl" which he likes, and sends for its author, Jimmy Doyle. During their meeting, both Jimmie and Otis agree its leading lady should be Dixie Dugan. All goes well during production of the movie until Dixie meets with Buelow, now fired by the industry. Buelow, however, manages in changing the sweet innocent girl into a temperamental and conceited actress, causing friction and delays that could literally put an end to Dixie's film career before it's even started.

A distinguished early talkie with acceptable tunes by Buddy Green and Sammy Stept, include: "I've Got My Eye on You" (sung by Alice White); "There's a Tear for Every Smile in Hollywood" (sung by Blanche Sweet); "I've Got My Eye on You" (reprise) and "Hang on to the Rainbow" (Alice White). Of the three song interludes, only "Rainbow" gets the production number A portion of the "Rainbow" number was used for the final chapter to the 13-week documentary of Kevin Brownlow and David Gill's Hollywood: The End of an Era (1980).

Blanche Sweet (1895-1986), a long time veteran actress of the silent screen dating back to 1909, is quite effective as a drifting movie queen who becomes Dixie Dugan's guide through the studio system. Her vocalizing to a sentimental tune revealing the happiness and hardship of Hollywood comes very much as a surprise as does her character, limited somewhat in the photo-play yet crucial to the story. Film buffs would also delight in witnessing the behind-the-scenes activity of movie making, then called "Vitaphoning." Also taking part in the supporting cast are Herman Bing, Virginia Sale and Spec O'Donnell.

Although the "Dixie Dugan" character would never be enacted by Alice White again, further adventures of this comic strip character would be revamped and reintroduced to the screen again as a programmer titled DIXIE DUGAN (20th Century-Fox, 1943) starring Lois Andrews in the title role. An attempt for a movie series based on that character never got past the initial entry.

While "Show Girl in Hollywood" remains a rare find indeed, it did consist of several television broadcasts during its early stages of Turner Classic Movies cable channel . As it stands for now, this and other Dixie Dugan stories remain, "just a memory." (*** Vitaphone discs)

If you're fascinated by early "talkie" musicals, this should be considered a must-see. There's a lot to like about it, most especially, its three lead performers (Alice White, Jack Mulhall and Blanche Sweet). Alice White is adorable as 'Dixie Dugan'--and is ably assisted by Mulhall as her steadfast beau. Mulhall is largely forgotten today, though he shows a fresh naturalness in an era when many actors seemed strait-jacketed by the new technology of sound (the fact that Mulhall had already been acting in films for over 20 years when this one was made may have helped!). Blanche Sweet has some touching moments as the premature 'has-been' actress, 'Donnie Harris'. The film moves along fairly briskly, under the direction of Mervyn LeRoy (in one of his earliest feature film directing assignments). I was struck by the scoring of the film, too. It effectively uses the featured tunes in different variations that are unusually subtle for that era (presumably, scored by Leo Forbstein). The 'big finale' is fairly typical of early talkie musicals--and one can imagine how much more effective it must have been when it was originally released in early Technicolor (no color copy of the final reel is known to exist). All-in-all, a pleasant and appealing little film that's surely worth a peek.

In the closing days of the silent era and for a few years into talkies Alice White was a star at First National/Warners. She was most often seen as a wise-cracking blonde kewpie doll of a flapper, and the studio often put her into musicals or films with musical segments.

One of her biggest silent films, GENTLMEN PREFER BLONDES remains among the lost, but it made her a star in 1928. By the end of the year she had made her talkie debut. In SHOW GIRL IN HOLLYWOOD, White plays Dixie Dugan, that intrepid chorine for the second time, having starred in the silent SHOW GIRL in 1928 (a silent film with a Vitaphone synchronized score).

Dixie Dugan started out as a character in in a couple of novels by J.P. McEvoy that followed her exploits as a show girl. They caused a mild sensation and First National snapped up the right. These two films are based on the character in the novels. In 1929 Dixie Dugan popped up in the comic strips and ran until 1966.

The 1928 SHOW GIRL was discovered in an Italian film archive several years ago and has been reassembled with the Vitaphone disks but the film has not yet been released on DVD>

This 1930 film was released in April of 1930 and stars Alice White as Dugan, a lowly chorine in a show that has just flopped on Broadway. Written by her boyfriend (Jack Mulhall), the two go to a nightclub to drown their sorrows. Dixie is asked to sing a number from the show and she launches into "I've Got My Eye on You" which catches the attention of a visiting Hollywood director (John Miljan). He encourages her to look him up when she's in Hollywood.

Dixie immediately heads west and runs into studio interference after she meets the studio head (Ford Sterling) who's just about to fire Miljan. Coincidentally the studio buys the failed Broadway show and sends for Mulhall who insist Dixie get the starring role.

Meanwhile, Dixie is befriended by the down-and-out actress Donnie Hall (Blanche Sweet) who tries to warn Dixie about the perils of Hollywood, but to no avail. After an extended scene where Dixie again sings and dances in a mammoth production number, we see how the scene is filmed and recorded by the studio crew in a sort of documentary manner.

Dixie immediately "goes Hollywood" and starts demanding changes to the movie and is fired. Donnie, who had landed a role in the film, is also fired as the production shuts down. Despondent she accidentally takes too many pills. When Dixie realizes what she has done, she swallows her pride and crawls back to the studio head.

In the final scene, we see a movie premiere where stars like Loretta Young, Al Jolson, Ruby Keeler, Noah Beery and son arrive. Next we see Dixie on screen in another gigantic production number, singing and dancing to "Hang on to a Rainbow" (originally filmed in 2-strip Technicolor). Dixie Dugan has become a star and is introduced by Walter Pidgeon to the cheering audience.

Alice White is sensational and is perfect as the boop-a-doop singer with her tossled hair and big eyes. Sweet is also a standout as the tragic has-been actress. She gets to sing "There's a Tear for Every Smile in Hollywood." Sweet was near the end of her Hollywood career and made only one more film. She was 34 years old and had been a big star in silent films.

Mulhall, Miljan, and Sterling are all fine. Spec O'Donnell plays the reception boy, Virginia Sale is the secretary, and Herman Bing plays a yes man. Natalie Moorhead and Jane Winton have bits as Miljan's dates.

This would be of interest mainly to fans of early sound film. If Avatar is your thing, you probably would not be interested in this one.

The film is actually a sequel of sorts to the 1928 part talkie, "Show Girl, also starring Alice White as Dixie Dugan. Even though Alice had done six films since that one, it was decided to move her story to Hollywood two years later. I have no idea if the original Show Girl still exists, although people on this site are apparently rating it.

The big attractions here are the exhibition of several things you could only see in 1929-1930 motion pictures, in addition to several ironies. The first irony is that Vitaphone is being prominently displayed as the technology of sound film when, by this time, even Warner Brothers knew it was time to move to sound on film rather than sound on disc, which was so limiting in how and where films could be shot. Another irony is that Blanche Sweet is pretty much playing herself here as Donny Harris, the faded star who considers a supporting role to Alice White's Dixie Dugan in "Rainbow Girl" to be her last chance. In real life, 1930 was Blanche Sweet's last year in films. However, Ms. Sweet did get a somewhat happy ending with a long time stage career and a long marriage to another star of the stage, Raymond Hackett, that only ended with his death.

Also of interest is the big bizarre musical number "I've Got My Eye on You" in which Alice White and her accompanying chorus emerge from and disappear into a large clown-like head. During this number you get a good look at the way a Vitaphoned film was shot with three cross-cutting camera booths set up, along with a look at the Vitaphone technicians inside supervising the making of the sound discs.

Finally, note the movie premiere of "Rainbow Girl" shown at the end of the film. Several Warner Brothers stars of note appear at the microphone including Al Jolson, Loretta Young, and Noah Beery. Notice that a very young Noah Beery Jr. (Rockford Files) accompanies his father. Some think that this scene was the basis for the Hollywood premiere scene at the beginning of "Singin in the Rain".

The story is pedestrian, and actually the title says it all, but it is cute and appealing in the way that many of First National's early sound films were. You can definitely see a difference in First National's and Warner Brothers' early sound films even though by this time they had been one company for a year. Warner's early sound films seemed to go for a goofy over-the-top style in 1929 and 1930, while First National seemed to "look for the silver lining" with a feel good flavor.

Highly recommended for those interested in the Dawn of Sound.