Old Hollywood
Cinema
1900-1979
Nostalgia is a seductive liar - George Wildman Ball
Wini Shaw in Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935, dir. Busby Berkeley)

Wini Shaw in Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935, dir. Busby Berkeley)

Wini Shaw & Dick Powell w/Dick Jurgens & his Orchestra - Lullaby of Broadway (via Gold Diggers of 1935 soundtrack)

One of the most famous Busby Berkeley numbers is actually a short film-within-a-film, which tells the story of a “Broadway Baby” who plays all night and sleeps all day. It opens with a head shot of singer Wini Shaw against a black background, then the camera pulls back and up, and Shaw’s head becomes the Big Apple, New York City. As everyone rushes off to work, Shaw returns home from her night’s carousing and goes to sleep. When she awakens, that night, we follow her and her beau (Dick Powell) from club to club, with elaborate large cast tap numbers, until she is pushed off a balcony to her death. The sequence ends with a return to Shaw’s head, as she sings the end of the song.

Sequence is viewable on youtube starting here (part II here)

Charlotte Henry in Alice in Wonderland (1933, dir. Norman Z. McLeod)  Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge. In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again. -Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Charlotte Henry in Alice in Wonderland (1933, dir. Norman Z. McLeod) 

Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

-Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Sylvia Sidney in City Streets (1931, dir. Rouben Mamoulian)

Sylvia Sidney in City Streets (1931, dir. Rouben Mamoulian)

Margaret Hamilton in publicity still for The Wizard of Oz (1939, dir. Victor Fleming) (photo by Virgil Apger, via drmacro) [On making personal appearances] “Almost always they want me to laugh like the Witch. And sometimes when I go to schools, if we’re in an auditorium, I’ll do it. And there’s always a funny reaction, like Oh geez, they wish they hadn’t asked. They’re scared. They’re really scared for a second. Even adolescents. I guess for a minute they get the feeling they got when they watched the picture. They like to hear it but they don’t like to hear it. And then they go, ‘Ohhhhhhhhhh.’…The picture made a terrible impression of some kind on them, sometimes a ghastly impression, but most of them got over it, I guess… Because when I talk like the Witch and when I laugh, there is a hesitation, and then they clap. They’re clapping at hearing the sound again.” -via The Making of the Wizard of Oz by A. Harmetz

Margaret Hamilton in publicity still for The Wizard of Oz (1939, dir. Victor Fleming) (photo by Virgil Apger, via drmacro)

[On making personal appearances] “Almost always they want me to laugh like the Witch. And sometimes when I go to schools, if we’re in an auditorium, I’ll do it. And there’s always a funny reaction, like Oh geez, they wish they hadn’t asked. They’re scared. They’re really scared for a second. Even adolescents.

I guess for a minute they get the feeling they got when they watched the picture. They like to hear it but they don’t like to hear it. And then they go, ‘Ohhhhhhhhhh.’…The picture made a terrible impression of some kind on them, sometimes a ghastly impression, but most of them got over it, I guess… Because when I talk like the Witch and when I laugh, there is a hesitation, and then they clap. They’re clapping at hearing the sound again.”

-via The Making of the Wizard of Oz by A. Harmetz

James Cagney & Edward Woods dodge bullets in The Public Enemy (1931, William A. Wellman)

James Cagney & Edward Woods dodge bullets in The Public Enemy (1931, William A. Wellman)

Katharine Hepburn as Queen Mary in Mary of Scotland (1936, dir. John Ford) “I was probably the worst choice in the world for the part. I can’t stand Mary of Scotland. I think she was an absolute ass. I thought Elizabeth was absolutely right to have her condemned to death.”

Katharine Hepburn as Queen Mary in Mary of Scotland (1936, dir. John Ford)

“I was probably the worst choice in the world for the part. I can’t stand Mary of Scotland. I think she was an absolute ass. I thought Elizabeth was absolutely right to have her condemned to death.”

William Powell in The Thin Man (1934, dir. Woody Van Dyke) (via brightlightsfilm.com)

William Powell in The Thin Man (1934, dir. Woody Van Dyke) (via brightlightsfilm.com)

Enrique Rivero in The Blood of a Poet (1930, dir. Jean Cocteau)

Enrique Rivero in The Blood of a Poet (1930, dir. Jean Cocteau)

Jean Harlow in Beast of the City (1932, dir. Charles Brabin) (via TCM) “Are ya gonna to try and reform me?” “What for?”

Jean Harlow in Beast of the City (1932, dir. Charles Brabin) (via TCM)

“Are ya gonna to try and reform me?”

“What for?”

Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935, dir. Busby Berkeley)

Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935, dir. Busby Berkeley)

Claude Rains as The Invisible Man (1933; dir. James Whale) “Power, I said! Power to walk into the gold vaults of the nations, into the secrets of kings, into the Holy of Holies; power to make multitudes run squealing in terror at the touch of my little invisible finger. Even the moon’s frightened of me, frightened to death!”

Claude Rains as The Invisible Man (1933; dir. James Whale)

“Power, I said! Power to walk into the gold vaults of the nations, into the secrets of kings, into the Holy of Holies; power to make multitudes run squealing in terror at the touch of my little invisible finger. Even the moon’s frightened of me, frightened to death!”

Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind (1939, dir. Victor Fleming)

Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind (1939, dir. Victor Fleming)

“Without discipline, there’s no life at all.” -Katharine Hepburn (via nytimes.com/getty)

“Without discipline, there’s no life at all.”

-Katharine Hepburn (via nytimes.com/getty)

Still from the sublime Trouble In Paradise (1932, dir. Ernst Lubitsch) “I have a confession to make to you: Baron, you are a crook. You robbed the gentleman in 253, 5, 7 and 9. May I have the salt? Thank you.” “You’re very welcome. Countess, believe me, before you left this room, I would have told you everything. And let me say this, with love in my heart: Countess, you are a thief. The wallet of the gentleman in 253, 5, 7 and 9 is in your possession. I knew it very well when you took it out of my pocket. In fact, you tickled me. But your embrace was so sweet.”

Still from the sublime Trouble In Paradise (1932, dir. Ernst Lubitsch)

“I have a confession to make to you: Baron, you are a crook. You robbed the gentleman in 253, 5, 7 and 9. May I have the salt? Thank you.”

“You’re very welcome. Countess, believe me, before you left this room, I would have told you everything. And let me say this, with love in my heart: Countess, you are a thief. The wallet of the gentleman in 253, 5, 7 and 9 is in your possession. I knew it very well when you took it out of my pocket. In fact, you tickled me. But your embrace was so sweet.”