[Dixielandjazz] Paul Whiteman--appears in the movie London 1926

[Norman Vickers]

To:  DJML  & Bill Haesler

>From : Norman Vickers, Jazz Society of Pensacola

 

See our listmate Bill Haesler's query and my reply.


>From: Bill Haesler [mailto:bhaesler at bigpond.net.au] 
>Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 5:02 PM
>To: Norman Vickers; Dixieland Jazz Mailing List
>Subject: Paul Whiteman

 

> Since Paul Whiteman films have been recently discussed on DJML, I  thought
I'd give a "plug" for Don Rayno's definitive two-volume work on Paul
Whiteman.

 

>Dear Norman,And why not?It's on my 'to buy' list.

>Did you check to see if the film "London" was mentioned?

>Very kind regards, Bill.

Norman wrote:  

Bill--  Re:  Movie London  is mentioned in Don Rayno's book on Whiteman:
Vol 1 P 137--brief summary-- he was invited to play the male role opposite
Dorothy Gish.  He passed a screen test but declined to play that role.
However  he and his band appeared   briefly in the movie.  Initially called
Tiptoes, it was retitled London.  Released in fall of 1926.

 

Notes-Rayno, as above.   p 305 vol 1  London was filmed from an original
screenplay by Thomas Burke and opened at the Rivoli Theatre in New York on
October 23, 1926.  Gish plays an abandoned child in the slums of London.
Variety (October 27, 1926): "...also included (are) a few snaps of Paul
Whiteman and his twenty-eight men pretty well bunched on their stand in the
Kit-Cat Club.  This scene at least should prove to bandsmen who see it the
handicap of which Whiteman complained of the Kit-Cat....In toto, London can
go into the major film auditoriums as a filler.  It'll never break a record
for receipt totals dipping a bit where it plays....A matinee Rivoli audience
received it indifferently."

 

Norman continues: There is a chronology-Whiteman was in England from Apr 6,
1926 to 3 June when they departed for the US.  He had a several week
engagement at the Kit-Cat Club. No doubt, film crew filmed the band there as
they performed.   P 417  volume one.

 

This may be of some help.  

 

 
--End--