Isham Jones at The Hollywood Restaurant, Manhattan (1932)

[@benzo4029]

What a thrill to get a chance to see inside that famous New York nightclub in the early thirties! Rudy Vallee also performed engagements there! I have a 1931 souvenir from this whoopee place, a wooden party noisemaker/clacker paddle with Rudy's picture on it, plus the clubs name and location stamped on. Same as this! Imagine my delight at seeing this fantastic revue from thirty two!!!! So happy you located and preserved this little talkie film jewel Peter! It's grand! Those Zeigfeld style showgirls blow me away!! What a band, what a chorus line, what a show! Now thats Entertainment! Here's the proof: New York had the blueprint twenty years before Las Vegas!! Look at young Ed Sullivan's pan. That guy could have been a movie star! Bert Lahr (seen at his table) was in Ziegfeld's show "Hotcha" at about this time. I wonder if he got those Ziegfeld showgirls to go over to this club right after the show, to be in this film?! The costumes seem way too big for the club room. Would be nice publicity for "Hotcha" to do that! I guess we will never know...anyway, thankyou Peter! Awesome find!

[@woody8851]

Wow, terrific video, Peter! Had to rewind a little to catch Jack Benny just before the intro of Joe Frisco- Ed Sullivan and Bert Lahr are easier to spot although Ed is considerably younger than I have ever seen him.

[@thephotoplayer]

So great to see this. Really reinforces how cramped those clubs were, even when they were shot on a set!

[@RatPfink66]

that whole idiom of entertainment depended on New York sensibility…nerve-wracking up tempos, cramping and crowding, and a kind of post-whoopee pace that left no memories behind.

[@artcraftrolls]

You really find the gens, Peter.

[@kathyraygoza3299]

Always learng something new. Ho knew that Pat Boone was singing an oldie but a goodie in my teenage years? Why Must This Night sung well but my Mom Dad and I preferred Dick Powells version even better. Loved my Moms Isham Jones records also.

[@HansLimburger1930]

Anyone know the name of the first song?

[@petermintunmusic]

I wish I did.

[@RatPfink66]

Sad to say Peter, Isham is only the main attraction to you and me and a subsection of filberts. Nils T. Granlund ran the Hollywood for some time. It's probably his appraising eye who picked out those uniformly leggy dancers. He called 'em the "Congress of Beauty." I can't fault Isham not conducting to Frisco's turn. Definitely not his job. And good for that proud Welshman putting the Red Dragon on his desk fronts.

[@jaredcravens2658]

How did you get ahold of this?

[@petermintunmusic]

@@jaredcravens2658 How did I get a hold of this? I wish I could remember. Before the Internet all of us collectors traded films, tapes and DVDs back-and-forth. We had to admit the print quality was often execrable, but it was the only copy we knew of!

[@jaredcravens2658]

@@petermintunmusic what do you think the likelihood is that a studio print of something like this (or the two reel shorts you post) will ever see the light of day? Do you think the 16mm prints are our last hope for some of this stuff? I’m assuming that’s what this is…

Just two meaningless points from me: 1) Joe Frisco, the definitive answer to "who killed vaudeville?". 2) Isham Jones on his way down after ruling the 1920s music scene (apologies to Paul Whiteman, Jones was better -- at least Paul had Margaret Livingston to go home to!).

[@RatPfink66]

Jones' way down was a long slow one, and irony of ironies, it resulted in some of his best music.