A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic

Name: A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic
Director: Joseph Santley
Genre: Music
Released: 1929
Cast: Eddie Cantor, Richard Dix, Mary Eaton, Oscar Shaw, Eddie Elkins

1929 Music 2 reels Directed by Joseph Santley

About A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic

Eddie Cantor, in the blackface he used on stage, does a Midnight Frolic turn: songs, talk, and dances, with Mary Eaton, Oscar Shaw, and Richard Dix appearing as themselves. Eddie Elkins leads the orchestra. The setting is dressed as Florenz Ziegfeld's rooftop room. The opening titles say the picture was produced at Paramount's Long Island studio.

Cast & crew

More about A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic

Joseph Santley directed. Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky presented it, and Paramount distributed it. Cantor is billed by courtesy of Florenz Ziegfeld. Joshua Polster wrote that Ziegfeld produced it on the New Amsterdam Theatre roof in early 1929. The credits contradict that and name the Paramount Long Island studio. Silent Era notes a short stereoscopic section shot in the Porter-Waddell process and printed as an anaglyph.

Themes

A Broadway bill filmed as a short
Cantor in his stage makeup
A rooftop show built in a studio
Eddie Cantor
blackface
Mary Eaton
Richard Dix
Oscar Shaw
Astoria
3D

Background

Broadway names were being rushed into two-reel talkies in 1929. Cantor, Eaton, Shaw, and Dix are presented as guests of a Frolic, not as characters in a story.

Making

The rooftop Frolic was a real Ziegfeld late show. This short recreates that bill on the Astoria soundstage and adds a brief 3D passage.

Look

The body of the short is a straight record of the acts. A short section was shot stereoscopically and released as an anaglyph.

Technique

A brief Porter-Waddell 3D sequence was reduced from dual-strip photography to a single-strip anaglyph print.

Music

Full synchronized sound. Elkins's orchestra is on screen, and Cantor sings.

Preservation

Silent Era reports a 16mm reduction positive in a private collection. The film is public domain in the United States.

Notes

The New York opening was at the Criterion Theatre on March 7, 1929, ahead of the May 4 release.
Cantor's songs and monologue do not refer to African American life. The blackface is the stage makeup he was already using.
His first talkie short was A Few Moments with Eddie Cantor, Star of Kid Boots (1923), for De Forest Phonofilm.
Silent Era lists both Movietone sound-on-film and Vitaphone disc as possible systems.
A 16mm reduction print is in a private collection.
The film is in the public domain in the United States.

Scenes

Cantor performs in blackface with Elkins's band behind him.
Dix, Eaton, and Shaw appear as themselves between the numbers.
A short stretch of the film switches to anaglyph 3D.

Influenced by

Florenz Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic