Part of a 7-part series exploring all aspects of Hollywood.
Carter DeHaven announces that he will perform a series of "impressions." For each we see him applying makeup and changing the combing of his hair or putting on a wig. When he tilts his head down during each supposed makeover, up pops the actual celebrity (Keaton, Lloyd, Arbuckle, Valentino, Fairbanks, Coogan) he appears to have been making himself up as.
Hollywood on Parade was a series of short subjects produced by Paramount Pictures between 1932 and 1934. They showcased the studio's stars both in newsreel-type footage (glimpses of Hollywood figures at premieres, parties, the races, etc.) and in new material such as sketches or musical numbers.
"Stuart Erwin acts as master of ceremonies in this variety skit, the second in the series produced by Lewis Llewyn for Paramount release. Erwin introduces Bing Crosby, who engages in some comedy byplay with George Burns and Gracie Allen, after which the crooner sings a number. The rest of the short is devoted to Olsen and Johnson, the comedy headliners, who do some nutty stuff on the beach with the support of a bunch of bathing beauties".
A glamorous film star rebels against the studio, her pushy press agent and a family of hangers-on.
Comedian Lloyd Hamilton escorts a group of beauty contest winners to various Hollywood night spots.
Songwriter Mack Gordon introduces flagpole sitter Shipwreck Kelly, who hoists some girls aloft with him and shows them sights around Hollywood.
This short shows the entrances of the various Hollywood studios, then specifically visits Warner Bros. / First National Studios. We start at the casting office, then see Busby Berkeley and choreographer Bobby Connolly working with chorus girls on production numbers. Then come some candid shots of several contract stars. Finally we see comedian Hugh Herbert filming a scene for an upcoming release, then the various behind the scenes steps that transition the raw film in the camera into the finished product.
Basically this is a commercial for Hollywood's Lido Lounge and for MGM contract players. The Lido is a large watering hole; we visit one afternoon with an orchestra playing, all sorts of stars and would-be stars sitting at tables near the pool alongside paying customers, and bathing beauties parading and diving. The Lido's manager, Reggy Denny, introduces the stars in the audience. He's sometimes interrupted by someone who does a bit, sings a song, or otherwise entertains: most of these are novelty acts. By the end, everyone's having a swell time.
A promotional short to hype the production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935).
A visit to a Hollywood nightclub, featuring caricatures of, among others, Walter Winchell, Hugh Herbert, W.C. Fields, Katharine Hepburn, Ned Sparks, Johnny Weissmuller, Lupe Velez, John Barrymore, Harpo Marx, George Arliss, Mae West, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Clark Gable, Edna May Oliver, Gary Cooper, The Dionne Quintuplets, Groucho Marx, Helen Morgan, Wallace Beery, Edward G. Robinson and George Raft.
This short promotes the premise that movies often create a demand for the fashions seen in them. It starts with a vignette in rural America. A mother and daughter go to town to buy a new dress. In the dress shop window is a designer dress worn by Joan Crawford in a recent movie. We then go to Hollywood and visit Adrian, MGM's chief of costume design, and see how multiple copies of a single clothing pattern are produced. The film ends with short segments of several MGM features.
A young woman pretends to be a fortune teller in order to find romance.
In 1927 Hollywood, a silent film production company and cast make a difficult transition to sound.
A compilation of early-day silent films that serves as a glimpse back to the formative days of the movie industry as a salute to Hollywood's Golden Year, so proclaimed by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce as 1953.
The daughter of iconic actor John Barrymore is reunited with her father after a ten year estrangement and engages in his self-destructive lifestyle.
A governess put in charge of two young children begins to see the ghost of her dead predecessor.
A girl on the road to stardom fights the dehumanizing effects of Hollywood life.
Hollywood, 1930s. Tod Hackett, a young painter who tries to make his way as an art director in the lurid world of film industry, gets infatuated with his neighbor Faye Greener, an aspiring actress who prefers the life that Homer Simpson, a lone accountant, can offer her.
Lewis Tater writes Wild West dime novels and dreams of actually becoming a cowboy. When he goes west to find his dream he finds himself in possession of the loot box of two crooks who tried to rob him.