HAPPY DAYS (1929) Charles E. Evans, Marjorie White & Richard Keene | Comedy | B&W | Golden Age Film

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Happy Days is a 1929 American pre-Code musical film directed by Benjamin Stoloff, which was the first feature film shown entirely in widescreen anywhere in the world, filmed using the Fox Grandeur 70 mm process. French director Abel Gance's Napoléon (1927) had a final widescreen segment in what Gance called Polyvision. Paramount released Old Ironsides (1927), with two sequences in a widescreen process called "Magnascope", while MGM released Trail of '98 (1928) in a widescreen process called "Fanthom Screen".

The film features an array of stars who were contracted to William Fox's Fox Film Corporation at that time, including Marjorie White, Will Rogers, Charles Farrell, Janet Gaynor, George Jessel, El Brendel, Ann Pennington, Victor McLaglen, Dixie Lee, Edmund Lowe, and Frank Richardson. It also featured the first appearance of Betty Grable on film, aged 12, as a chorus girl, and Sir Harry Lauder's nephew, Harry Lauder II, a conductor for Fox, who was drafted into the chorus.

Synopsis

Originally titled New Orleans Frolic, the story centers around Margie (played by Marjorie White), a singer on a showboat who, when she hears that the showboat is in financial trouble, travels to New York City in an effort to persuade all the boat's former stars to perform in a show to rescue it. She is successful and the stars all fly to New Orleans to surprise the showboat's owner, Colonel Billy Blacher, with a grand show, the proceeds of which will go to rescue the showboat.

Cast & Crew

Charles E. Evans as Colonel Billy Batcher
Marjorie White as Margie
Richard Keene as Dick
Stuart Erwin as Jig
Martha Lee Sparks as Nancy Lee
Clifford Dempsey as Sheriff Benton
James J. Corbett as Interlocutor – Minstrel Show
George MacFarlane as Interlocutor – Minstrel Show
Janet Gaynor as Janet Gaynor
Charles Farrell as Charles Farrell
Victor McLaglen as Minstrel Show Performer
Edmund Lowe as Minstrel Show Performer
El Brendel as Minstrel Show Performer
William Collier Sr. as End Man – Minstrel Show
Walter Catlett as End Man – Minstrel Show
Tom Patricola as Minstrel Show Performer
George Jessel as Minstrel Show Performer
Will Rogers as Minstrel Show Performer
Warner Baxter as Minstrel Show Performer
Ann Pennington as "Snake Hips" Speciality Dancer

Directed by: Benjamin Stoloff
Written by: Sidney Lanfield, Edwin J. Burke
Produced by: William Fox
Cinematography: Lucien N. Andriot, John Schmitz, J.O. Taylor
Edited by: Clyde Carruth
Music by: Harry Stoddard
Production Company: Fox Film Corporation
Distributed by: Fox Film Corporation
Release Dates: September 17, 1929 (preview), February 13, 1930
Running Time: 80 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English