Broadway Babies

1929 film

Broadway Babies

Official poster

Directed by| Mervyn LeRoy
Screenplay by|

* Monte M. Katterjohn
* Humphrey Pearson

Based on| "Broadway Musketeers"
by Jay Gelzer
Produced by| Robert North
Starring| Alice White
Cinematography| Sol Polito
Edited by| Frank Ware
Music by| Leo F. Forbstein

Production
company

First National Pictures

Distributed by| Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.

Release dates

* June 30, 1929 (1929-06-30) (sound)
* July 28, 1929 (1929-07-28) (silent)

Running time

| 86 minutes[1]
Country| United States
Language| English
"Broadway Babies" ad in The Film Daily, 1929

Broadway Babies, aka Broadway Daddies (UK) and Ragazze d'America (Italy), is a 1929 all-talking Pre-Code black and white American musical drama film produced and distributed by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers. The film was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starred Alice White and Charles Delaney. This was White's first sound film with dialogue. As a copyright renewed work from 1929, the film entered the American public domain on January 1, 2025.[a]

## Plot

[edit]

The full film

Chorus girl Delight "Dee" Foster (Alice White) is in love with stage manager Billy Buvanny (Charles Delaney) and he also loves her. They plan to marry until bootlegger Perc Gessant (Fred Kohler) steps in. Dee is led to believe that Billy is in love with another girl, so she agrees to play around with Gessant when he becomes interested in her. When Gessant proposes marriage, Dee accepts. As they are about to be married, rival gangsters shoot Gessant and he ends up dying. Dee is reconciled with Billy and they become engaged.

## Cast

[edit]

* Alice White as Delight "Dee" Foster
* Marion Byron as Florine Chanler
* Sally Eilers as Navarre King
* Charles Delaney as Billy Buvanny
* Tom Dugan as Scotty
* Bodil Rosing as Sarah Durgan
* Maurice Black as Nick Stepanos
* Fred Kohler as Perc Gessant
* Louis Natheaux as August 'Gus' Brand
* Lew Harvey as Joe, one of the poker players (uncredited)
* Aggie Herring as Landlady (uncredited)
* Al Hill as One of Perc's henchmen (uncredited)
* Armand Kaliz as Tony Ginetti, the nightclub manager (uncredited)

## Production

[edit]

Broadway Babies was one of the many movie musicals with a Broadway setting that were made at the dawn of the "talkie" era. Such films were called "backstagers", a vogue that evolved during the emergence of sound pictures and from the success of The Jazz Singer (1927) and The Singing Fool (1928), both also Warner Bros.' films.[2] Broadway Babies was also one of a number of similar vehicles created for Alice White; it was White's first all-sound as well as her most successful picture.[3] The film was adapted from "Broadway Musketeers", a story by Jay Gelzer.[4]

### Music

[edit]

Three songs were written for White to perform in Broadway Babies: "Wishing and Waiting for Love" with lyrics by Grant Clarke and music by Harry Akst; "Jig, Jig, Jigaloo", lyrics by Al Bryan, music by George W. Meyer; and "Broadway Baby Dolls", also by Bryan and Meyer.[5] Incidental music included "Give My Regards to Broadway" (George M. Cohan), "Vesti La Giubba" (Ruggero Leoncavallo), and "Bridal Chorus (Here Comes the Bride)" (Richard Wagner).

## Preservation

[edit]

As was common in the era, a silent version was also prepared for theatres not yet equipped for talkies. Only the sound version survives, as a 16mm reduction positive in the Library of Congress collection, although it has been preserved and is shown occasionally on Turner Classic Movies. The film's trailer also survives incomplete.[6][7][8] The film was released on DVD by Warner Archive in 2017.

## See also

[edit]

* List of early sound feature films (1926–1929)

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Broadway Babies". Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved September 11, 2015.
2. ^ Furia, Philip; Patterson, Laurie (2010). The Songs of Hollywood. Oxford University Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-19-979266-5.
3. ^ Barrios, Richard (1995). A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film. Oxford University Press. pp. 191, 207–211\. ISBN 978-0-19-508811-3.
4. ^ "Trianon now Sound Theatre; opens with 'Broadway Babies'". The Birmingham News. September 15, 1929. p. 63. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
5. ^ Bradley, Edwin M. (2004). The First Hollywood Musicals: A Critical Filmography of 171 Features, 1927 through 1932. McFarland. pp. 47–48\. ISBN 978-0-7864-2029-2.
6. ^ Bennett, Carl (ed.). "Broadway Babies". Progressive Silent Film List. Retrieved September 12, 2015 - via SilentEra.com.
7. ^ Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress, p. 22 c.1978 by The American Film Institute
8. ^ Broadway Babies - Trailer - 1929 - Alice White

1. ^ Under R182904

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Broadway Babies.

* Broadway Babies at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
* Broadway Babies at IMDb
* Broadway Babies at the TCM Movie Database
* Broadway Babies at the British Film Institute[better source needed]

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Mervyn LeRoy

1920s|

* No Place to Go (1927)
* Flying Romeos (1928)
* Harold Teen (1928)
* Oh, Kay! (1928)
* Naughty Baby (1928)
* Hot Stuff (1929)
* Broadway Babies (1929)
* Little Johnny Jones (1929)

1930s|

* Playing Around (1930)
* Showgirl in Hollywood (1930)
* Numbered Men (1930)
* Top Speed (1930)
* Little Caesar (1931)
* Gentleman's Fate (1931)
* Too Young to Marry (1931)
* Broadminded (1931)
* Five Star Final (1931)
* Local Boy Makes Good (1931)
* Tonight or Never (1931)
* Big City Blues (1932)
* Two Seconds (1932)
* Three on a Match (1932)
* The Heart of New York (1932)
* I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
* High Pressure (1932)
* Elmer, the Great (1933)
* Hard to Handle (1933)
* Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
* Tugboat Annie (1933)
* The World Changes (1933)
* Heat Lightning (1934)
* Hi Nellie! (1934)
* Sweet Adeline (1934)
* Happiness Ahead (1934)
* Page Miss Glory (1935)
* I Found Stella Parish (1935)
* Oil for the Lamps of China (1935)
* Anthony Adverse (1936)
* Three Men on a Horse (1936)
* The King and the Chorus Girl (1937)
* They Won't Forget (1937, uncredited)
* Fools for Scandal (1938)
* The Wizard of Oz (1939, uncredited)

1940s|

* Waterloo Bridge (1940)
* Escape (1940)
* Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
* Unholy Partners (1941)
* Johnny Eager (1941)
* Random Harvest (1942)
* Madame Curie (1943)
* Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
* The House I Live In (1945)
* Without Reservations (1946)
* Desire Me (1947, uncredited)
* Homecoming (1948)
* Any Number Can Play (1949)
* East Side, West Side (1949)
* Little Women (1949)

1950s|

* Quo Vadis (1951)
* Lovely to Look At (1952)
* Million Dollar Mermaid (1952)
* Latin Lovers (1953)
* Rose Marie (1954)
* Mister Roberts (1955)
* Strange Lady in Town (1955)
* The Bad Seed (1956)
* Toward the Unknown (1956)
* No Time for Sergeants (1958)
* Home Before Dark (1958)
* The FBI Story (1959)

1960s|

* Wake Me When It's Over (1960)
* A Majority of One (1961)
* The Devil at 4 O'Clock (1961)
* Gypsy (1962)
* Mary, Mary (1963)
* Moment to Moment (1966)
* The Green Berets (1968)

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