GLORIFYING THE American GIRL (Paramount, 1929), personally supervised by Florenz Ziegfeld, directed by Millard Webb, features Broadway dancer/singer, Mary Eaton, in a musical drama about a young girl's dream on becoming a Ziegfeld girl with her name in lights. Best known for her co-starring performance opposite the Four Marx Brothers in THE COCOANUTS (1929), where she twice sang the Irving Berlin tune, "When My Dreams Come True," which could very well have been the title for this production, Eaton's opportunity starring in a major motion picture did mark the beginning as well as the end of her movie career.
The story opens with an interesting montage of an overview of the United States map glorifying various girls from different backgrounds becoming Ziegfeld girls. These scenes, accompanied by underscoring and singing of popular songs from 1917 to 1927 era, lead to the introduction of Gloria Hughes (Mary Eaton) singing in the sheet music department of Heimer's Department Store, accompanied by Buddy Moore (Edward Crandall), at the piano. Buddy loves Gloria, but he's secretly loved by Barbara (Olive Shea), another fellow co-worker. During the company's employee outing at Cedar Grove Park, Gloria encounters Danny Miller (Dan Healy), an entertainer who, after breaking up with his partner, Mooney (Kaye Renard), coaxes her into teaming up with him, much to Buddy's dismay. With her nagging mother (Sarah Edwards) constantly pushing her into the spotlight and Miller forcing his advances on her, Gloria realizes her partnership with Danny to be a mistake. When producers start paying more attention to Gloria than with her partner, Danny, with the help of her mother, schemes into having Gloria sign a five year agreement with him, so wherever Gloria goes, Danny's not very far behind living off her fame and fortune. Further complications arise with Gloria's newfound life finds her slowly parting from her best friends, Danny and Barbara.
With a mix of old and new tunes by various composers, the soundtrack listing is as follows: "Tulip Time," "Sally Won't You Come Back?" "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" "No Foolin'" (sung by off-screen singers), "No Foolin'" and "Baby Face" (both sung by Mary Eaton); "Side By Side," "Bye, Bye Blackbird," "I'll Be There," "Just Alone," "Spooning With the One You Love" (sung by Dan Healy and Kaye Renard); "Blue Skies" (instrumental during acrobatic sequence); "Sam, the Accordian Man" (danced by Mary Eaton); "Hot Feet" (sung and danced by Eaton and Healy); and instrumental dance number. For the Ziegfeld Follies Show: "Gorgeous Girl," "I'm Just a Vagabond Lover" (sung by Rudy Vallee); "What Wouldn't I Do for That Man?" (sung by Helen Morgan); "Swan Lake Ballet" (performed by ensemble); "Cheap Charlie Skit" (with Eddie Cantor); and "There Must Be Someone Waiting For Me" (sung by Mary Eaton).
Aside from the rise to fame theme quite prominent in early sound musicals, the script overall lacks whatever strength necessary for a satisfactory story as a whole. Mary Eaton, a former Ziegfeld girl herself, who, at times resembles that of Ziegfeld's top headliner, Marilyn Miller, makes a satisfactory heroine surrounded by unsympathetic characters enacted by the obnoxious Dan Healy and domineering Sarah Edwards. On two occasions, Mrs. Hughes (Edwards) quips the unsung words at the time of, "Damn it!" whenever having difficulty opening her eyeglasses. Medium shots of semi-nude principals in the finale show should take any viewer by surprise. Sources indicate Johnny Weissmuller, Olympic champion and future "Tarzan" of the screen, to be one of the extras in that particular sequence.
Produced at Paramount's Long Island Studios, GLORIFYING THE American GIRL offers the great opportunity looking back at some New York City landmarks with location shooting ranging from Grand Central Station to the streets of Broadway. Preceding its final half hour musical finale, there's also a glimpse of famous personalities of the day (apparently lifted from newsreels) introduced by Norman Brokenshire, CBS radio announcer, including Florenz Ziegfeld and his wife, Billie Burke; actor Noah Beery; Adolph Zukor, head of Paramount Pictures; playwright, Ring Lardner; banker, Otto Kahn; entertainer Texas Guinan; along with New York Mayor Jimmy Walker and wife attending the premiere of Ziegfeld's latest follies. Highlights include Rudy Vallee singing his signature number; Helen Morgan, "Famous Star of 'Show Boat'" doing her torch song sitting on top of the piano; and Eddie Cantor as the Jewish tailor in a comedy skit lasting 12 minutes, giving full indication of what vaudeville was all about. Production numbers by others don't offer much promise of interest.
Originally released with Technicolor sequences, circulating prints of GLORIFYING THE American GIRL are available on black and white format only. Distributed to home video by various distributors as early as the 1980s, namely Video Yesteryear, the film itself became available on television around the same time, ranging from public TV, cable channels (Tempo Television) before turning up on classic movie channels as Turner Classic Movies (1990s), American Movie Classics (1996-2000), and finally DVD. For a film supervised by Broadway producer, Florenz Ziegfeld, one would expect GLORIFYING THE American GIRL to be equivalent to a lavish scale MGM musical rather than a second rate edition to the Academy Award winning "The Broadway Melody" (1929). As for Mary Eaton, in her final movie role, she leaves a legacy, that of an American girl glorified. No foolin.' (**)
The story opens with an interesting montage of an overview of the United States map glorifying various girls from different backgrounds becoming Ziegfeld girls. These scenes, accompanied by underscoring and singing of popular songs from 1917 to 1927 era, lead to the introduction of Gloria Hughes (Mary Eaton) singing in the sheet music department of Heimer's Department Store, accompanied by Buddy Moore (Edward Crandall), at the piano. Buddy loves Gloria, but he's secretly loved by Barbara (Olive Shea), another fellow co-worker. During the company's employee outing at Cedar Grove Park, Gloria encounters Danny Miller (Dan Healy), an entertainer who, after breaking up with his partner, Mooney (Kaye Renard), coaxes her into teaming up with him, much to Buddy's dismay. With her nagging mother (Sarah Edwards) constantly pushing her into the spotlight and Miller forcing his advances on her, Gloria realizes her partnership with Danny to be a mistake. When producers start paying more attention to Gloria than with her partner, Danny, with the help of her mother, schemes into having Gloria sign a five year agreement with him, so wherever Gloria goes, Danny's not very far behind living off her fame and fortune. Further complications arise with Gloria's newfound life finds her slowly parting from her best friends, Danny and Barbara.
With a mix of old and new tunes by various composers, the soundtrack listing is as follows: "Tulip Time," "Sally Won't You Come Back?" "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" "No Foolin'" (sung by off-screen singers), "No Foolin'" and "Baby Face" (both sung by Mary Eaton); "Side By Side," "Bye, Bye Blackbird," "I'll Be There," "Just Alone," "Spooning With the One You Love" (sung by Dan Healy and Kaye Renard); "Blue Skies" (instrumental during acrobatic sequence); "Sam, the Accordian Man" (danced by Mary Eaton); "Hot Feet" (sung and danced by Eaton and Healy); and instrumental dance number. For the Ziegfeld Follies Show: "Gorgeous Girl," "I'm Just a Vagabond Lover" (sung by Rudy Vallee); "What Wouldn't I Do for That Man?" (sung by Helen Morgan); "Swan Lake Ballet" (performed by ensemble); "Cheap Charlie Skit" (with Eddie Cantor); and "There Must Be Someone Waiting For Me" (sung by Mary Eaton).
Aside from the rise to fame theme quite prominent in early sound musicals, the script overall lacks whatever strength necessary for a satisfactory story as a whole. Mary Eaton, a former Ziegfeld girl herself, who, at times resembles that of Ziegfeld's top headliner, Marilyn Miller, makes a satisfactory heroine surrounded by unsympathetic characters enacted by the obnoxious Dan Healy and domineering Sarah Edwards. On two occasions, Mrs. Hughes (Edwards) quips the unsung words at the time of, "Damn it!" whenever having difficulty opening her eyeglasses. Medium shots of semi-nude principals in the finale show should take any viewer by surprise. Sources indicate Johnny Weissmuller, Olympic champion and future "Tarzan" of the screen, to be one of the extras in that particular sequence.
Produced at Paramount's Long Island Studios, GLORIFYING THE American GIRL offers the great opportunity looking back at some New York City landmarks with location shooting ranging from Grand Central Station to the streets of Broadway. Preceding its final half hour musical finale, there's also a glimpse of famous personalities of the day (apparently lifted from newsreels) introduced by Norman Brokenshire, CBS radio announcer, including Florenz Ziegfeld and his wife, Billie Burke; actor Noah Beery; Adolph Zukor, head of Paramount Pictures; playwright, Ring Lardner; banker, Otto Kahn; entertainer Texas Guinan; along with New York Mayor Jimmy Walker and wife attending the premiere of Ziegfeld's latest follies. Highlights include Rudy Vallee singing his signature number; Helen Morgan, "Famous Star of 'Show Boat'" doing her torch song sitting on top of the piano; and Eddie Cantor as the Jewish tailor in a comedy skit lasting 12 minutes, giving full indication of what vaudeville was all about. Production numbers by others don't offer much promise of interest.
Originally released with Technicolor sequences, circulating prints of GLORIFYING THE American GIRL are available on black and white format only. Distributed to home video by various distributors as early as the 1980s, namely Video Yesteryear, the film itself became available on television around the same time, ranging from public TV, cable channels (Tempo Television) before turning up on classic movie channels as Turner Classic Movies (1990s), American Movie Classics (1996-2000), and finally DVD. For a film supervised by Broadway producer, Florenz Ziegfeld, one would expect GLORIFYING THE American GIRL to be equivalent to a lavish scale MGM musical rather than a second rate edition to the Academy Award winning "The Broadway Melody" (1929). As for Mary Eaton, in her final movie role, she leaves a legacy, that of an American girl glorified. No foolin.' (**)