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Precode, Meet Vaudeville


Stage Mother (1933) and Cruel Climb To Show Biz Top



Alice Brady takes the lead as a hard-bitten climber up Vaudeville, and then B'way revues, daughter Maureen O'Sullivan the object of machinations that don't stop at blackmail/extortion. Vaude was seldom sugared by 30's Hollywood, hardships of the life too fresh for writers of which many had served in variety trenches, or knew well those who did. So had Alice Brady, who had done oodles of stock work, then prestige starring parts, and came from prosperous biz background besides. Title character here loses an acrobat husband in the first reel, his fall from high off a stage an event that must have happened often among small and big timers. Ted Healy is a second spouse, loud-mouthed and ultimately a faithless drunk, a near-home portrayal by Ted, who has but one stooge for company (Larry Fine with but a single line). Brady is a sort of Stella Dallas of the stage that no polite society wants part of, this a same way variety performers were treated when they tried breaking out of life on the road. Boarding house signs that read "No Actors or Dogs" were no joke. Vaudeville acts as shown in Stage Mother are strictly from hunger. We're given to understand why the tradition fell to ruin well before this movie came along. Movies served themselves with such unflattering depiction, as in look how much better our entertainment is than what you used to sit through. So long as vaudeville was dead, Hollywoodwanted to make sure it got decent buried. Stage Mother benefits too for precode arrival, a lot of situations here would not have survived even a year's later scrutiny.


This post first appeared on Greenbriar Picture Shows, please read the originial post: here

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Precode, Meet Vaudeville

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