We open with the Benny Goodman band's rendering of "Hooray for Hollywood" and after a few bars of that we are whisked away to night shots of Thirties Hollywood and a movie premiere complete with spotlights and movie stars including Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Marlene Dietrich, Douglas Fairbanks Jnr. and Claudette Colbert. Then we're into the titles and from that into shots of an abandoned movie studio being torn down. Fortunately we don't stay with this depressing sight too long before we're back at the dawn of the Thirties and the early stars struggling to come to terms with the microphone and talking pictures.
Among the rare shots we see Norma Talmadge with Gilbert Roland, Emil Jannings, Pola Negri, John Gilbert and Ray Mackeivoy. Fortunately sound holds no terrors for Rin Tin Tin. Then the future great stars of the Thirties make their appearance. Clark Gable slugs Barbara Stanwyck, James Cagney snivels when slapped by his mother, Archie Leach (Cary Grant) fails to Impress a Chinese beauty and W.C. Fields demonstrates his juggling prowess that made him a star in Vaudeville.
The spotlight then shifts to the unknowns and there is a very touching screen test by a young women who does her best to woo the camera but fails hopelessly. Among even younger hopefuls featured are Jackie Coogan (how did he ever grow up so ugly?), Jackie Cooper, Jane Withers, Bobble Breen, Deanna Durbin, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Sabu the elephant boy and the babe of them all, Shirley Temple. In one short sequence she is seen surrounded by "ordinary" children on a beach. It's as if our own dear Queen tried to act natural among a Bingo crowd.
It's back to period shots of Hollywood showing Charles Boyer on his way to a Radio Studio, a bespectacled Cary Grant at the wheel of his car and Carole Lombard stepping out of hers. From there we join a coach tour of the stars homes, pools, pets, cars, planes and yachts with their skippers Errol Flynn, Bert Lahr, Preston Foster, Humphrey Bogart and Charlie Chaplin. After that how can you fall to think of Hollywood as anything but the Capital of Glamour?
The spotlight then turn to horse racing and we're treated to candid shots of Marlene Dietrich, Irene Dunne, Myrna Loy, Constance and Joan Bennett, Anne Southern. Roz Russell, Loretta Young and her sister Sally Blaine, Dick Powell William Powell, Jimmy Cagney, George Raft, Edward G. Robinson, Betty Furness, Jimmy Stewart, Arthur Treacher, Oliver Hardy, Milton Berle, George Burns and Joe E. Brown.
From the Race track to the Restaurant and the gloriously daffy architecture of eating places are paraded before us. If you thought the Brown Derby eccentric wait till you see Mother Goose Big Shoe Eaterama. After Food come the Fads including Horse Shoe Golf, Ice Skating and Monkey Island. Stars are then shown making monkeys of themselves for the benefit of the publicity department. Fred Astaire and Louella Parsons just manage to retain their dignity. But Hedda Hopper poses with a cow (perhaps it's part of the annual "Which one is Hedda Hopper" competition) and the Three Stooges mug gloriously for the camera. Gene Autry hugs kids, Clerk Gable crowns beauty Queens, Jane Wyman poses as an early version of a Bunny Girl, and Walt Disney allows himself to be kissed awkwardly by a French official who presents him with an award.
Jack Benny who might really have been thirty nine when these shots are taken is seen returning to his home town of Waukegan. And Grace Moore is seen alighting from the Super Chief. The L.A. Police Force is seen lying in wait to welcome Edward G. Robinson as a publicity stunt for his latest release "Little Caesar".
Then it's back the studios and the spotlight turns to the work of the special effects men including avalanches, earthquakes and train disasters. We're treated to extracts from Cimarron, All Quiet on the Western Front and Robin Hood.
Turning to Musicals the work of Busby Berkeley is featured before we move on to the Screwball Comedies another product of the Thirties represented by Cary Grant and Irene Dunne In The Awful Truth. The final film memories of Thirties are stirred by stills of romantic duos Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer, Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr, Robert Taylor and Garbo, Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich and to crown the decade Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh In Gone with the Wind.
The film ends with shots of Times Square New Years Eve 1940. The Thirties were gone but If you have this film, you can relish and relive them any time you want. The original print has a few blemishes and scratches but these are mainly down the far right hand side and won't mar your pleasure.
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This page was last updated 02 Dec 2002