Hold Everything (
1930-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: All Quiet on the Western Front - Universal Studios*Best Actress: Norma Shearer - The Divorcee*Best Actor: George Arliss - Disraeli...
) is an early all-talking film. It was the first musical comedy film to be released that was photographed entirely in early
two-color TechnicolorTechnicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Thomson SA. Technicolor was the second major color film process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color motion picture process in Hollywood...
. It was adapted from the DeSylva-Brown-Henderson
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
musicalMusical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
of the same name that had served as a vehicle for
Bert LahrBert Lahr was a Tony Award-winning American actor and comedian. Lahr is best remembered today for his role as the Cowardly Lion and the farmworker Zeke in the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, but was well known during his life for work in burlesque, vaudeville, and Broadway.-Early life:Born...
and starred
Winnie LightnerWinnie Lightner was an American motion picture actress. Perhaps her most famous role was as a gold-digger named Mabel, in Gold Diggers of Broadway...
and
Joe E. BrownJoseph Evans Brown was an American actor and comedian. In 1902 at the age of 10, he joined a troupe of circus tumblers known as the Five Marvellous Astons which toured the country on both the circus and vaudeville circuits. He gradually added comedy into his act and transformed himself into a...
as the comedy duo. The romantic subplot was played by
Georges CarpentierGeorges Carpentier was a French boxer. He fought mainly as a light heavyweight and heavyweight in a career lasting from 1908-26. Nicknamed the "Orchid Man", he stood and his fighting weight ranged from...
and
Sally O'NeilSally O'Neil was an American film actress of the 1920s. She was born as Virginia Louise Noonan, one of 11 children born to a judge in Bayonne, New Jersey. One of her sisters was actress Molly O'Day....
. Only one song from the stage show remained: "
You're the Cream in My Coffee"You're the Cream in My Coffee" is a popular song.The music was written by Ray Henderson, the lyrics by Buddy G. DeSylva and Lew Brown for the Broadway musical Hold Everything! and was featured in the Warner Brothers film version of the musical in 1930....
".
Hold Everything (
1930-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: All Quiet on the Western Front - Universal Studios*Best Actress: Norma Shearer - The Divorcee*Best Actor: George Arliss - Disraeli...
) is an early all-talking film. It was the first musical comedy film to be released that was photographed entirely in early
two-color TechnicolorTechnicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Thomson SA. Technicolor was the second major color film process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color motion picture process in Hollywood...
. It was adapted from the DeSylva-Brown-Henderson
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
musicalMusical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
of the same name that had served as a vehicle for
Bert LahrBert Lahr was a Tony Award-winning American actor and comedian. Lahr is best remembered today for his role as the Cowardly Lion and the farmworker Zeke in the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, but was well known during his life for work in burlesque, vaudeville, and Broadway.-Early life:Born...
and starred
Winnie LightnerWinnie Lightner was an American motion picture actress. Perhaps her most famous role was as a gold-digger named Mabel, in Gold Diggers of Broadway...
and
Joe E. BrownJoseph Evans Brown was an American actor and comedian. In 1902 at the age of 10, he joined a troupe of circus tumblers known as the Five Marvellous Astons which toured the country on both the circus and vaudeville circuits. He gradually added comedy into his act and transformed himself into a...
as the comedy duo. The romantic subplot was played by
Georges CarpentierGeorges Carpentier was a French boxer. He fought mainly as a light heavyweight and heavyweight in a career lasting from 1908-26. Nicknamed the "Orchid Man", he stood and his fighting weight ranged from...
and
Sally O'NeilSally O'Neil was an American film actress of the 1920s. She was born as Virginia Louise Noonan, one of 11 children born to a judge in Bayonne, New Jersey. One of her sisters was actress Molly O'Day....
. Only one song from the stage show remained: "
You're the Cream in My Coffee"You're the Cream in My Coffee" is a popular song.The music was written by Ray Henderson, the lyrics by Buddy G. DeSylva and Lew Brown for the Broadway musical Hold Everything! and was featured in the Warner Brothers film version of the musical in 1930....
". New songs were written for the film by
Al DubinAl Dubin was a Jewish-American Swiss-born lyricist. He was born in Zurich, Switzerland and died in New York City....
and Joe Burke, including one that became a hit in 1930: "When The Little Red Roses Get The Blues For You". The songs in the film were played by
Abe LymanAbe Lyman was a popular bandleader from the 1920s to the 1940s. He made recordings, appeared in films and provided the music for numerous radio shows, including Your Hit Parade....
and his orchestra.
History
In 1930, this was the first film shown at the newly opened
Warner Bros. Hollywood Theatre, a luxurious
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
movie palace specifically designed to showcase its then-revolutionary
VitaphoneVitaphone was a sound film process used on features and nearly 2,000 short subjects produced by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. This was not the original process. The first process was called Fuchessound. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the...
sound films. The theatre later became a
legitimateThe term Legitimate theater goes back to the Licensing Act of 1737 that restricted "serious" theatre performances to the two patent theatres that had been licensed to perform "spoken drama" after the English Restoration in 1662...
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
venue, the
Mark Hellinger TheatreThe Mark Hellinger Theatre is a generally used name of a former legitimate Broadway theatre located at 237 West 51st Street in midtown Manhattan. The building is still standing and substantially unaltered; in 1991, it was converted into the Times Square Church...
, and is now the home of the
Times Square ChurchTimes Square Church is an inter-denominational church located at 51st Street and Broadway in New York City. A large number of people representing many nationalities gather to worship together every week. Volunteers from the congregation participate in over forty ministries, ranging from feeding the...
.
Synopsis
Brown plays Gink Schiner, a third-rate fighter who is at the same training camp as Georges LaVerne (played by Georges Carpentier), a contender for the heavyweight championship. Although he needs to be concentrating all of his energies on the upcoming bout, Georges keeps getting distracted: Norine Lloyd, a society dame, has a distinct interest in him, but the interest is strictly one-sided. Georges prefers Sue, an old buddy and confidante. Gink has woman trouble of his own, as his flirtations do not sit at all well with Toots (played by Winnie Lightner), his erstwhile girl friend. More trouble arrives when Larkin, manager of current heavyweight champ Bob Morgan, appears at the camp with the goal of fixing the fight. He is sent packing, after which he attempts to slip a Mickey Finn to the challenger -- a plan which goes awry when Gink switches the drinks. Meanwhile, Gink, who is fighting in a preliminary in advance of the big fight, actually wins. Things don't look so bright for Georges, who initially gets the worst of it in his encounter with Morgan, but who eventually comes out on top.
When the picture was released in 1930, Bert Lahr, who had created the role of Gink on Broadway, strongly criticized the fact that Joe E. Brown had copied many of Lahr's mannerisms in the film.
While the sound to the film, recorded on
VitaphoneVitaphone was a sound film process used on features and nearly 2,000 short subjects produced by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. This was not the original process. The first process was called Fuchessound. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the...
disks, still survives, it seems as if all film elements have been lost.
Cast (in credits order)
- Joe E. Brown
Joseph Evans Brown was an American actor and comedian. In 1902 at the age of 10, he joined a troupe of circus tumblers known as the Five Marvellous Astons which toured the country on both the circus and vaudeville circuits. He gradually added comedy into his act and transformed himself into a...
as Gink Schiner
- Winnie Lightner
Winnie Lightner was an American motion picture actress. Perhaps her most famous role was as a gold-digger named Mabel, in Gold Diggers of Broadway...
as Toots Breen
- Sally O'Neil
Sally O'Neil was an American film actress of the 1920s. She was born as Virginia Louise Noonan, one of 11 children born to a judge in Bayonne, New Jersey. One of her sisters was actress Molly O'Day....
as Sue Burke
- Georges Carpentier
Georges Carpentier was a French boxer. He fought mainly as a light heavyweight and heavyweight in a career lasting from 1908-26. Nicknamed the "Orchid Man", he stood and his fighting weight ranged from...
as Georges La Verne
- Edmund Breese
Edmund Breese was an American stage and film actor of the silent era. He appeared in 129 films between 1914 and 1935.He was born in Brooklyn, New York and died in New York, New York.-Selected filmography:...
as Pop O'Keefe
- Bert Roach
Bert Roach was an American film actor. He appeared in 327 films between 1914 and 1951.He was born in Washington, D.C., and died in Los Angeles, California.-Selected filmography:* Fatty's Magic Pants...
as Nosey Bartlett
- Dorothy Revier
Dorothy Revier was an American actress.She was educated in the public schools of Oakland before going to New York City to study classical dancing...
as Norine Lloyd
- Jack Curtis
Jack Curtis , was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 157 films between 1915 and 1950.He was born in San Francisco, California and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:...
as Murph Levy
- Tony Stabenau as Bob Morgan
- Lew Harvey
Lew Harvey , was an American film actor. He appeared in 145 films between 1918 and 1950.He was born in Wisconsin and died in Los Angeles, California.-Selected filmography:* The Oklahoma Kid...
as Dan Larkin
- James Quinn
James Quinn may refer to:*James Quinn , gold-medal winning American athlete at the 1928 Summer Olympics*James Quinn , Northampton Town F.C...
as The Kicker
- Abe Lyman
Abe Lyman was a popular bandleader from the 1920s to the 1940s. He made recordings, appeared in films and provided the music for numerous radio shows, including Your Hit Parade....
as Orchestra Leader