‘Mo’ McIsaac and his sidekick Donald try to find work to support a young orphan girl he finds dancing for pennies in the street, Miriam, unaware she is really the missing daughter of rich aristocrat, Major Burnett. Gangster Al Baloney and Mae West impersonator Kate kidnap the girl and Mo is blamed for her disappearance.
Three young women with dark, curly hair stand on a stage with a black background and patterned carpet or tile underfoot. They wear tights, ballet shoes, and frilly dresses to the knee with multiple petticoats and ruffled drawers. They begin by raising their right legs up by their heads, and then perform a dance with a variety of kicks and leg movements, their hands either in the air or pulling up their skirts. The sisters also grab their right legs again and hop in a circle, then do cartwheels and land on the floor in the splits. Jumping back to their feet, the women twirl in circles and around each other in circles in what appears to be a type of pirouette, while holding up their skirts and showing their bloomers in a manner similar to the cancan.
Georgie Price tells Bryan Foy, who is to direct his short film, that he is nervous about performing to a camera and microphone instead of an audience. He then sings a couple songs, in an Al Jolson/Eddie Cantor style.
A miniature vaudeville show, complete with a title card introducing each act, is presented. First up is The On-Wah Troupe, an East Asian group of contortionists. Next, Blossom Seeley and Benny Fields sing a duet of the song, "Why Don't You Practice What You Preach". Third up, father and son Pat Rooney and Pat Rooney Jr. perform a recitation and dance musing about if they will ever be as clever as their dad. And the last act on the bill is The Runaway Four, a group of comic acrobats.
When the paperhangers go on strike, guests at a newlyweds' housewarming party try to finish the job with disastrous results.
Swinging and twirling Dorothy Toy Fong the legendary tap dancer is still exciting at 99 years old. Award-winning reporter Rick Quan traces Fong’s journey as a famous duo with Paul Wing and exciting run with her Oriental Showgirl group. Fong’s wondrous spirit dances off the screen and into your heart.
Benny Rubin performs vaudeville routines between singing and dancing acts.
Two vaudeville acrobats adopt the son of an actor friend.
After getting kicked out of a vaudeville show for misbehaving, they decide to put on a show of their own.
Sitting in a theater box, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy make comments between the acts of a vaudeville show.
Olive rushes over to show Popeye the headline: Vaudeville is coming back. They agree to rehearse their old act. After a brief song-and-dance intro, the act begins: Popeye demonstrating his strength while Olive displays her flexibility and balance; impersonations of Jimmy Durante, Stan Laurel and Groucho Marx; and the last act, more feats of strength and agility.
The Baroness de Courtebise presides over an association of mothers-in-law with grievances against their sons-in-law. Armed with her prerogatives, she forbids the marriage of her daughter-in-law to the mayor's nephew, especially as an inheritance is in doubt. The ladies kidnap, the men kidnap, the election campaign turns sour and the Baroness must capitulate. She takes revenge by falling into the mayor's arms.
On 1 November 1895, the brothers Max and Emil Skladanowsky presented their pioneer film work and legendary Bioscop program in Berlin′s Wintergarten Theater. With live musical accompaniment, the compilation program included short film sequences with famous artists of the time: Italienischer Bauerntanz, Komisches Reck, Der Jongleur, Das boxende Känguruh, Kamarinskaja, Die Serpentintänzerin, Akrobatisches Potpourri, Ringkampf, and Apotheose, with the Skladanowsky brothers bowing to their audience.
The landowner Mordashov, in order to please his future son-in-law Alexei Fursikov, marks his daughter’s entire dowry with the monogram “A.F.” But the groom gives compensation. So that the goods are not lost, the prudent father begins the search for a groom with the appropriate initials Az and Firth.
"Hey, kids, let's get together and put on a show!" That's the idea behind this raucous spoof about a vaudeville performer who's sent to college to spy on his bratty son.
The Marquise de Saint-Ange wants to marry her niece Nicole, but the young girl, put off by the chosen suitor, flees with her friend Jacques.
Comedy. A father whose looking for a suitable candidate for his daughter ends up having a mistress and tigers prowling all around him.
A joyful insight into the creative world of Barry and Joan Grantham, two British eccentrics who have kept the skills of vaudeville alive for over seventy years. Since becoming stage-struck lovers in 1948, Barry and Joan have taught, danced and acted alongside the greats of British film and theatre. They are the last of the golden generation of vaudeville, eager to pass their legacy on to future generations.
Young Gloria's father and mother go out for the evening to see a television broadcast. Gloria's grandfather entertains her with stories about his days in vaudeville.
A man performs tricks on a theatre stage with a bowler hat and a billiards ball in equilibrium on his arms and body.