Whoopee is an "All-Talking All-Color" musical comedy film from 1930 photographed in two-color Technicolor. The film closely followed the stage show produced by Florenz Ziegfeld in 1928.
Production
The film was produced by Florenz Ziegfeld and Samuel Goldwyn and directed by Thornton Freeland. Whoopee made a movie star of Eddie Cantor, already one of the leading stars of Broadway revues and musical comedies as well as being a popular recording artist in the United States. George Olsen and his Music, already well-known Victor recording artists, repeated their work from the stage version. Other stars in the film were Eleanor Hunt, Ethel Shutta (George Olsen's wife), and Paul Gregory. Future stars Betty Grable, Ann Sothern, and Virginia Bruce appeared uncredited as "Goldwyn Girls". The film also launched the Hollywood career of Busby Berkeley and was Alfred Newman's first job in Hollywood. Richard Day did the set designs and behind the camera was Gregg Toland, who later found fame with Orson Welles.
Plot
Poster for the 1930 film. Notice the naked women on the poster for this Pre- Production code film.
The story line of Whoopee is somewhat aged by today's standards but there are several interesting moments in the movie, particularly Cantor's rendition of the song "Makin' Whoopee" (later a hit for Ray Charles), and some of the big production numbers with the Goldwyn Girls.
Whoopee is an important but overlooked film in the history of the Hollywood musical. Made a year before the movie industry began to fully feel the effects of the Great Depression, it had a ticket price of five dollars when it opened and made Samuel Goldwyn a lot of money. In the history of musicals, it shows a look years ahead of its time and foreshadows all of the great Warner Bros. musicals of the 1930s.
External links
|
Busby Berkeley: Choreographer and director |
|
Broadway
pre-Hollywood |
Holka Polka (chor,1925) · The Wild Rose (chor,1926) · Lady Do (chor,1927) · A Connecticut Yankee (chor,1927) · White Eagle (chor,1927) · Present Arms (chor,1928) · Earl Carroll's Vanities (1928) (chor,1928) · Good Boy (chor,1928) · Rainbow (chor,1928) · Hello, Daddy (chor,1928) · Pleasure Bound (chor,1929) · A Night in Venice (chor,1929) · Broadway Nights (chor,1929) · The Street Singer (dir & prod,1929) · Nine-Fifteen Revue (chor,1930) · The International Review (chor,1930) · Sweet and Low (chor,1930)
|
|
| 1930s |
Whoopee! (chor,1930) · Kiki (chor,1931) · Palmy Days (chor,1931) · Flying High (chor,1931) · Sky Devils (chor,1932) · Girl Crazy (chor,1932) · Night World (chor,1932) · Bird of Paradise (chor,1932) · The Kid From Spain (chor,1932) · 42nd Street (chor,1933) · Gold Diggers of 1933 (chor,1933) · She Had To Say Yes (dir,1933) · Footlight Parade (chor,1933) · Roman Scandals (chor,1933) · Dames (dir mus nmbrs,1934) · Fashions of 1934 (chor & dir mus nmbrs,1934) · Wonder Bar (chor,1934) · Gold Diggers of 1935 (dir & chor,1935) · Bright Lights (dir,1935) · I Live For Love (dir & chor,1935) · In Caliente (chor & dir mus nmbrs,1935) · Stars Over Broadway (chor & dir mus nmbrs,1935) · Stage Struck (dir,1936) · Varsity Show (dir finale,1937) · The Singing Marine (chor & dir mus nmbrs,1937) · Gold Diggers of 1937 (dir mus nmbrs,1937) · The Go Getter (dir,1937) · Hollywood Hotel (dir & chor,1937) · Men Are Such Fools (dir,1938) · Gold Diggers in Paris (chor & dir mus nmbrs,1938) · Garden of the Moon (dir,1938) · Comet Over Broadway (dir,1938) · Broadway Serenade (dir finale,1939) · They Made Me a Criminal (dir,1939) · Fast and Furious (dir,1939) · Babes in Arms (dir,1939) · The Wizard of Oz (Scarecrow's dance-cut,1939)
|
|
| 1940s |
Forty Little Mothers (dir,1940) · Strike Up The Band (dir,1940) · Blonde Inspiration (dir,1941) · Lady Be Good (dir mus nmbrs,1941) · Ziegfeld Girl (dir mus nmbrs,1941) · Babes on Broadway (dir,1941) · For Me and My Gal (dir,1942) · Calling All Girls (chor & dir mus nmbrs,1942) · Born to Sing (dir finale,1942) · Cabin in the Sky (dir "Shine" seq,1943) · The Gang's All Here (dir & chor,1943) · Three Cheers for the Girls (chor,1943) · Girl Crazy (dir."I Got Rhythm",1943) · All Star Musical Revue (dir mus nmbrs,1945) · Cinderella Jones (dir,1946) · Romance on the High Seas (chor,1948) · Take Me Out to the Ball Game (dir,1949)
|
|
| 1950s |
Annie Get Your Gun (dir-cut,1950) · Big Town (dir TV series,1950) · Weeks With Love (chor,1950) · Call Me Mister (chor,1950) · Ticket to Broadway( chor,1951) · The Blue Veil (dir,1951) · Million Dollar Mermaid (chor,1952) · Town Girl (chor,1953) · Easy to Love (chor,1953) · Rose Marie (chor,1954)
|
|
| 1960s |
|
|
Broadway
post-Hollywood |
|
|
|
