August 30, 2011 (XXIII:1)

Mervyn LeRoy, GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 (1933, 97 min)

Directed by Mervyn LeRoy

Written by Erwin Gelsey, James Seymour, David Boehm, Ben
Markson, & Avery Hopwood (play)
Produced by Robert Lord, Jack L. Warner
Cinematography by Sol Polito
Edited by George Amy
Art Direction by Anton Grot
Costume Design by Orry-Kelly
Makeup by Perc Westmore
Music & lyrics byAl Dubin, Harry Warren
Conducted by Leo F. Forbstein
Arranged by Ray Heindorf
Numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley

Warren William...Lawrence 1935 Oil for the Lamps of China, 1933 Tugboat Annie, 1933 Gold
Joan Blondell...Carol Diggers of 1933, 1932 I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, 1932
Aline MacMahon...Trixie Three on a Match, 1932 Big City Blues, 1932 The Heart of New
Ruby Keeler...Polly York, 1931 Five Star Final, 1931 Broadminded, 1931 Little Caesar,
Dick Powell...Brad 1930 Show Girl in Hollywood, 1929 Broadway Babies, 1928 Flying
Guy Kibbee...Peabody Romeos, and 1927 No Place to Go.
Ned Sparks...Barney
Ginger Rogers...Fay Jack L. Warner (August 2, 1892 in London, Ontario, Canada –
Billy Barty...Baby in 'Pettin' in the Park' Number September 9, 1978, Los Angeles, California) was a prolific
Busby Berkeley...Call Boy producer: he has almost 300 producing credits. He won two Oscars,
Dennis O'Keefe...Chorus Boy the 1965 Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award and the 1965 Best
Jane Wyman...Gold Digger Picture Award for My Fair Lady (1964). Some of his other films
are 1972 Dirty Little Billy, 1972 1776, 1967 Camelot, 1964 My Fair
Awards Lady, 1949 Beyond the Forest, 1949 Night Unto Night, 1948 The
2003 National Film Registry Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1947 My Wild Irish Rose, 1947 Dark
Passage, 1947 Life with Father, 1947 Nora Prentiss, 1946
Mervyn LeRoy (October 15, 1900 in San Francisco, California – Humoresque, 1946 The Beast with Five Fingers, 1946 Deception,
September 13, 1987, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California) 1946 The Big Sleep, 1946 A Stolen Life, 1946 Of Human Bondage,
directed 78 films, some of which were 1968 The Green Berets, 1946 Night and Day, 1945 Saratoga Trunk, 1945 Confidential
1965 Moment to Moment, 1964 Mary, Mary, 1962 Gypsy, 1961 A Agent, 1945 Mildred Pierce, 1945 Pride of the Marines, 1945 The
Majority of One, 1960 Wake Me When It's Over, 1959 The FBI Horn Blows at Midnight, 1944 To Have and Have Not, 1944
Story, 1958 Home Before Dark, 1958 No Time for Sergeants, 1956 Arsenic and Old Lace, 1944 The Mask of Dimitrios, 1944 Mr.
Toward the Unknown, 1956 The Bad Seed, 1955 Mister Roberts, Skeffington, 1944 Passage to Marseille, 1944 In Our Time, 1943
1955 Strange Lady in Town, 1954 Rose Marie, 1952 Million Dollar Destination Tokyo, 1943 Watch on the Rhine, 1943 This Is the
Mermaid, 1952 Lovely to Look at, 1951 Quo Vadis, 1949 East Side, Army, 1943 Background to Danger, 1943 Action in the North
West Side, 1949 Any Number Can Play, 1949 Little Women, 1948 Atlantic, 1943 Mission to Moscow, 1942 Casablanca, 1942 Yankee
Homecoming, 1945 The House I Live In, 1944 Thirty Seconds Over Doodle Dandy, 1942 Murder in the Big House, 1941 Bad Men of
Tokyo, 1943 Madame Curie, 1942 Random Harvest, 1941 Johnny Missouri, 1939 Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase, 1939 Torchy
Eager, 1940 Waterloo Bridge, 1939 The Wizard of Oz, 1937 They Blane.. Playing with Dynamite, 1939 The Cowboy Quarterback,
Won't Forget, 1936 Anthony Adverse, 1936 Three Men on a Horse, 1939 Nancy Drew... Trouble Shooter, 1939 Nancy Drew...
 LeRoy—GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933—2

Reporter, 1938 The Dawn Patrol, 1938 Angels with Dirty Faces, the Air, 1934 Babbitt, 1934 Madame Du Barry, 1934 Dames, 1934
1938 Girls on Probation, 1937 The Adventurous Blonde, 1937 The Here Comes the Navy, 1934 Fog Over Frisco, 1934 Merry Wives of
Footloose Heiress, 1937 The Life of Emile Zola, 1937 San Quentin, Reno, 1934 Mandalay, 1933 Lady Killer, 1933 Mary Stevens, M.D.,
1937 They Won't Forget, 1937 The Singing Marine, 1937 Kid 1933 Baby Face, 1933 Private Detective 62, 1933 Gold Diggers of
Galahad, 1936 Gold Diggers of 1937, 1936 Three Men on a Horse, 1933, 1933 42nd Street, 1932 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, 1932 I Am
1936 The Charge of the Light Brigade, 1936 Anthony Adverse, a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, and 1932 The Rich Are Always with
1936 The Green Pastures, 1936 Bullets or Ballots, 1935 Captain Us.
Blood, 1935 Stars Over Broadway, 1935 A Midsummer Night's
Dream, 1935 'G' Men, 1935 A Night at the Ritz, 1933 Gold Diggers Busby Berkeley (November 29, 1895, Los Angeles, California –
of 1933, 1932 The Cabin in the Cotton, 1932 So Big!, and1918 My March 14, 1976, Palm Springs,
Four Years in Germany . California) was choreographer
for 37 films, among them 1962
Sol Polito (November 12, 1892, Palermo, Sicily, Italy – May 23, Billy Rose's Jumbo, 1952
1960, Hollywood, California) was cinematographer for 167 films, Million Dollar Mermaid, 1951
some of which are 1949 Anna Lucasta, 1948 Sorry, Wrong Number, Call Me Mister, 1950 Annie
1947 The Voice of the Turtle, 1947 Escape Me Never, 1946 Cloak Get Your Gun, 1943 The
and Dagger, 1946 A Stolen Life, 1946 Cinderella Jones, 1945 Gang's All Here, 1939 The
Rhapsody in Blue, 1945 The Corn Is Green, 1944 Arsenic and Old Wizard of Oz, 1938 Gold
Lace, 1944 The Adventures of Mark Twain, 1943 This Is the Army, Diggers in Paris, 1937 The
1942 Now, Voyager, 1941 Sergeant York, 1941 The Sea Wolf, 1940 Singing Marine, 1936 Gold
Santa Fe Trail, 1940 The Sea Hawk, 1940 Virginia City, 1939 Four Diggers of 1937, 1935 In
Wives, 1939 Essex and Elizabeth, 1939 Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Caliente, 1935 Gold Diggers
1939 Dodge City, 1938 Angels with Dirty Faces, 1938 Gold of 1935, 1933 42nd Street,
Diggers in Paris, 1938 The Adventures of Robin Hood, 1937 The Gold Diggers of 1933, 1932
Prince and the Pauper, 1936 Three Men on a Horse, 1936 The Girl Crazy, 1931 Flying High,
Charge of the Light Brigade, 1936 The Petrified Forest, 1935 'G' 1931 Kiki, and 1930 Whoopee!
Men, 1935 The Woman in Red, 1934 Madame Du Barry, 1933 Gold
Diggers of 1933, 1933 The Working Man, 1933 42nd Street, 1932 I Warren William (December 2, 1894, Aitkin, Minnesota –
Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, 1932 Three on a Match, 1932 September 24, 1948, Hollywood, California) acted in 65 films,
The Dark Horse, 1932 Fireman, Save My Child, 1931 Woman some of which were 1947 The Private Affairs of Bel Ami, 1946
Hungry, 1930 Madonna of the Streets, 1930 The Girl of the Golden Fear, 1945 Strange Illusion, 1943 Passport to Suez, 1942 Counter-
West, 1930 No, No, Nanette, 1929 House of Horror, 1929 Seven Espionage, 1942 Wild Bill Hickok Rides, 1941 The Wolf Man, 1941
Footprints to Satan, 1928 The Hawk's Nest, 1926 Satan Town, 1925 Secrets of the Lone Wolf, 1941 The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance,
The People vs. Nancy Preston, 1925 The Bad Lands, 1925 Beyond 1940 Trail of the Vigilantes, 1940 Arizona, 1940 The Lone Wolf
the Border, 1924 The Flaming Forties, 1924 The Lightning Rider, Keeps a Date, 1940 The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady, 1940 The Lone
1920 Alias Jimmy Valentine, 1919 Are You Legally Married?, 1918 Wolf Strikes, 1939 Day-Time Wife, 1939 The Man in the Iron Mask,
Her Husband's Honor, 1915 M'Liss, 1915 Wildfire, and 1914/I Rip 1939 The Gracie Allen Murder Case, 1939 The Lone Wolf Spy
Van Winkle. Hunt, 1938 Arsène Lupin Returns, 1937 Madame X, 1937 Midnight
Madonna, 1936 Go West Young Man, 1936 Satan Met a Lady, 1936
Orry-Kelly (December 31, 1897 in Kiama, New South Wales, Times Square Playboy, 1935 The Case of the Curious Bride, 1934
Australia – February 27, 1964 in Hollywood, California) won three Imitation of Life, 1934 Cleopatra, 1933 Lady for a Day, 1933
Academy Awards for Costume Design: 1951 (An American in Goodbye Again, 1933 Gold Diggers of 1933, 1932 Three on a
Paris), 1957 (Les Girls), and 1959 (Some Like It Hot). He was Match, 1932 The Mouthpiece, 1931 Under 18, 1931 Expensive
costume designer for almost 300 films, some of which were Women, 1923 Plunder, and 1922 The Town That Forgot God.
1963 Irma la Douce, 1962 Gypsy, 1962 The Chapman Report, 1962
Five Finger Exercise, 1962 Sweet Bird of Youth, 1958 Auntie Joan Blondell (August 30, 1906, New York City, New York –
Mame, 1955 Oklahoma!, 1951 An American in Paris, 1950 Harvey, December 25, 1979, Santa Monica, California) appeared in 157
1948 For the Love of Mary, 1948 One Touch of Venus, 1947 films and TV series, some of which were 1981 The Woman Inside,
Mother Wore Tights, 1947 The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, 1945 The 1979 The Glove, 1979 The Champ, 1978 “The Love Boat”, 1978
Dolly Sisters, 1945 The Corn Is Green, 1944 Arsenic and Old Lace, Grease, 1976 Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood, 1975
1944 Mr. Skeffington, 1944 The Adventures of Mark Twain, 1943 “Police Story”, 1971-1973 “Love, American Style”, 1971 Support
Watch on the Rhine, 1943 This Is the Army, 1942 Casablanca, 1942 Your Local Gunfighter, 1968 “Petticoat Junction”, 1967 “The Guns
Now, Voyager, 1942 In This Our Life, 1942 Murder in the Big of Will Sonnett”, 1967 “Winchester 73”, 1965 “My Three Sons”,
House, 1942 Kings Row, 1942 The Man Who Came to Dinner, 1941 1965 “The Lucy Show”, 1965 The Cincinnati Kid, 1964 “Dr.
The Maltese Falcon, 1941 The Little Foxes, 1941 The Strawberry Kildare”, 1964 “Bonanza”, 1964 “Twilight Zone”, 1963 “Wagon
Blonde, 1940 All This, and Heaven Too, 1940 Virginia City, 1939 Train”, 1963 “The Virginian”, 1962 “The Dick Powell Theatre”,
Essex and Elizabeth, 1939 Dark Victory, 1938 Angels with Dirty 1957 Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, 1957 Desk Set, 1947 The
Faces, 1938 Jezebel, 1937 Kid Galahad, 1936 Gold Diggers of Corpse Came C.O.D., 1945 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, 1943 Cry
1937, 1936 Jailbreak, 1936 Satan Met a Lady, 1936 The Petrified 'Havoc', 1942 Lady for a Night, 1941 Three Girls About Town,
Forest, 1935 We're in the Money, 1935 Oil for the Lamps of China, 1941 Topper Returns, 1939 Good Girls Go to Paris, 1938 There's
1935 In Caliente, 1935 Gold Diggers of 1935, 1935 Devil Dogs of Always a Woman, 1937 The King and the Chorus Girl, 1936 Gold
 LeRoy—GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933—3

Diggers of 1937, 1936 Three Men on a Horse, 1936 Bullets or Guy Kibbee (March 6, 1882 in El Paso, Texas – May 24, 1956 in
Ballots, 1935 We're in the Money, 1934 Smarty, 1934 He Was Her East Islip, Long Island, New York) has 114 acting credits, among
Man, 1933 Footlight Parade, 1933 Goodbye Again, 1933 Gold which are 1950 “The Billy Rose Show”, 1948 3 Godfathers, 1948
Diggers of 1933, 1933 Blondie Johnson, 1932 Lawyer Man, 1932 Fort Apache, 1946 Gentleman Joe Palooka, 1945 The Horn Blows
Central Park, 1932 Three on a at Midnight, 1943 Girl Crazy,
Match, 1932 Big City Blues, 1942 Scattergood Rides High,
1932 Miss Pinkerton, 1932 1941 Design for Scandal, 1941 It
Make Me a Star, 1932 The Started with Eve, 1941
Famous Ferguson Case, 1932 Scattergood Meets Broadway,
The Crowd Roars, 1932 The 1941 Scattergood Pulls the
Greeks Had a Word for Them, Strings, 1941 Scattergood Baines,
1932 Union Depot, 1931 The 1940 Chad Hanna, 1940 Our
Public Enemy, 1930 The Devil's Town, 1939 Mr. Smith Goes to
Parade, 1930 Broadway's Like Washington, 1938 Three
That, and 1930 The Heart Comrades, 1936 Three Men on a
Breaker. Horse, 1936 Little Lord
Fauntleroy, 1935 Captain Blood,
Aline MacMahon (May 3, 1934 Babbitt, 1934 Dames, 1933
1899, McKeesport, Footlight Parade, 1933 Gold
Pennsylvania – October 12, Diggers of 1933, 1933 42nd
1991, New York City, New Street, 1932 The Conquerors,
York) appeared in 53 films and 1932 Rain, 1932 The Mouthpiece,
TV series, some of which are 1932 So Big!, 1932 Union Depot,
1975 “For the Use of the Hall”, 1974 “Great Performances”, 1969 1931 Laughing Sinners, 1931 City Streets,and 1931 Stolen Heaven.
“NET Playhouse”, 1963-1964 “The Defenders”, 1963 All the Way
Home, 1963 Diamond Head, 1960 Cimarron, 1955 The Man from Ned Sparks (November 19, 1883 in Guelph, Ontario, Canada –
Laramie, 1953 The Eddie Cantor Story, 1948 The Search, 1944 April 3, 1957 in Victorville, California) and his forever unlighted
Dragon Seed, 1941 Out of the Fog, 1935 Ah, Wilderness!, 1934 cigar appeared in 86 films, including 1947 Magic Town, 1941 For
Babbitt, 1933 Gold Diggers of 1933, 1932 Silver Dollar, 1932 One Beauty's Sake, 1939 The Star Maker, 1936 One in a Million, 1935
Way Passage, 1932 The Mouthpiece, 1932 The Heart of New York, George White's 1935 Scandals, 1934 Sweet Adeline, 1934 Imitation
and 1931 Five Star Final. of Life, 1934 Sing and Like It, 1933 Alice in Wonderland, 1933
Gold Diggers of 1933, 1933 Secrets, 1933 42nd Street, 1931
Ruby Keeler (August 25, 1910 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada – Corsair, 1931 Iron Man, 1928 On to Reno, 1927 Alias the Lone
February 28, 1993 in Rancho Wolf, 1927 Alias the Deacon,
Mirage, California) has only 1925 Seven Keys to Baldpate,
15 film and TV credits, 1920 Nothing But the Truth,
among which are 1964 “The and 1915 The Little Miss
Greatest Show on Earth”, Brown.
1937 Ready, Willing and Able,
1935 Go Into Your Dance, Ginger Rogers (July 16, 1911
1934 Flirtation Walk, 1934 in Independence, Missouri –
Dames, 1933 Footlight April 25, 1995 in Rancho
Parade, 1933 Gold Diggers of Mirage, California) won the
1933, and 1933 42nd Street. 1940 Best Actress Oscar for
Kitty Goyle: The Natural
Dick Powell (November 14, History of a Woman (1939).
1904 in Mountain View, Some of her other 90 film and
Arkansas – January 2, 1963 in TV roles were in 1987
West Los Angeles, California) “Hotel”, 1965 Harlow, 1963-
has 69 film and TV credits, 1964 The Red Skelton Hour”,
among which are 1962 “The Dick Powell Theatre”, 1961 “The Law 1964 The Confession, 1960 “Zane Grey Theater”, 1954 Black
and Mr. Jones”, 1957-1961 “Zane Grey Theater”, 1952-1956 “Four Widow, 1954 Forever Female, 1951 Storm Warning, 1949 The
Star Playhouse”, 1954 “Climax!”, 1952 The Bad and the Beautiful, Barkleys of Broadway, 1947 It Had to Be You, 1944 I'll Be Seeing
1951 Cry Danger, 1950 The Reformer and the Redhead, 1948 To You, 1942 The Major and the Minor, 1942 Roxie Hart, 1941 Tom
the Ends of the Earth, 1947 Johnny O'Clock, 1944 Murder, My Dick and Harry, 1940 Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a
Sweet, 1943 True to Life, 1938 Cowboy from Brooklyn, 1937 The Woman, 1939 The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, 1935 Top Hat,
Singing Marine, 1935 A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1935 Gold 1935 Roberta, 1934 The Gay Divorcee, 1934 Upperworld, 1933
Diggers of 1935, 1934 Dames, 1933 Footlight Parade, 1933 Gold Flying Down to Rio, 1933 Sitting Pretty, 1933 Gold Diggers of
Diggers of 1933, 1933 42nd Street, 1932 Too Busy to Work, and 1933, 1933 42nd Street, 1933 Broadway Bad, 1932 The Tenderfoot,
1932 Blessed Event. 1930 Queen High, and1929 A Day of a Man of Affairs.
 LeRoy—GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933—4

Billy Barty (October 25, 1924, Millsboro, Pennsylvania – further than Oakland, where LeRoy and his father frequently visited
December 23, 2000, Glendale, California) appeared in 177 film and them, but the event was the first trauma of the boy’s childhood. The
TV series, among them 2001 I/O Error, 2000 The Extreme second followed within a year—the San Francisco earthquake of
Adventures of Super Dave, 1999 “L.A. Heat”, 1997 “The New 1906. It ruined LeRoy’s father, destroying both the family home
Batman Adventures”, 1993 The Naked Truth, 1991 Life Stinks, and Harry LeRoy’s beloved store. He subsequently found work as a
1990 “Adventures of the Gummi Bears”, 1989 Lobster Man from salesman, but “he was a beaten man.”
Mars, 1987 Masters of the Universe, 1987 Snow White, 1987 LeRoy never went hungry, but he wanted more than bare
Rumpelstiltskin, 1985 Legend, 1984 “Trapper John, M.D.”, 1979- subsistence and, at the age of twelve or thirteen, quit school to
1982 “Little House on the Prairie”, 1981 Under the Rainbow, 1978 become a newsboy. “I saw life in the raw in the streets of San
“The Love Boat”, 1978 “Charlie's Angels”, 1978 The Lord of the Francisco,” he says. I met the cops and the whores and the reporters
Rings, 1977 “Redd Foxx”, 1977 The Happy Hooker Goes to and the bartenders and the Chinese and the fishermen and the
Washington, 1976 Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood, shopkeepers….When it came time for me to make motion pictures,
1976 W.C. Fields and Me, 1975 The Day of the Locust, 1972 “The I made movies that were real, because I knew firsthand how real
Waltons”, 1968 “Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In”, 1957 The Undead, people behaved.” “Newsboys had to battle it out for choice corners”
1954 Fireman Save My Child, 1950 Jungle Jim in Pygmy Island, and LeRoy, who was small but wiry, fought his way from a corner
1935 A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1935 Bride of Frankenstein, in Oakland to the two pitches he most desired, “the lucrative corner
1934 Mickey's Medicine Man, 1934 Mickey's Rescue, 1934 Mickey's at the St. Francis Hotel in the morning, and the exciting corner in
Minstrels, 1933 Alice in Wonderland, 1933 Mickey's Covered front of the Alcazar Theatre in the evening.”
Wagon, 1933 Mickey's Tent Show, 1933 Mickey's Touchdown, 1933 When he was fourteen, hawking his papers outside the
Footlight Parade, 1933 Gold Diggers of 1933, 1933 Mickey's Race, Alcazar, the actor Theodore Roberts noticed him and gave him a
1933 Mickey's Ape Man, 1932 Mickey's Charity, 1932 Mickey's Big one-line role in a pay called Barbara Fritchie. After that, he says,
Business, 1931 Mickey's Sideline, 1931 Mickey's Helping Hand, “The stage bug had bitten and the itch would never leave me.” He
1931 Mickey's Thrill Hunters, 1931 Mickey's Wildcats, 1931 began to compete in amateur talent contests as “the Singing
Mickey's Diplomacy, 1931 Mickey's Rebellion, 1931 Daddy Long Newsboy,” before long promoting himself to “Mervyn LeRoy, the
Legs, 1931 Mickey's Crusaders, 1931 Mickey's Stampede, 1930 Boy Tenor of the Generation.” According to some accounts, he
Mickey's Bargain, 1930 Mickey's Musketeers, 1930 Mickey's appeared around this time as a child actor in one or more of Bronco
Winners, 1930 Mickey's Merry Men, 1930 Mickey the Romeo, 1930 Billy Anderson’s films.
Mickey's Warriors, 1930 Mickey's Whirlwinds, 1930 Mickey's Luck, In 1916, LeRoy met another would-be vaudevillian, Clyde
1930 Mickey's Master Mind, 1930 Mickey's Champs, 1929 Mickey's Cooper, and teamed up with him as “LeRoy and Cooper, Two Kids
Strategy, 1929 Mickey's Big Moment, 1929 Mickey's Mix-Up, 1929 and a Piano.” After a while they were signed by one of the
Mickey's Surprise, 1929 Mickey's Midnite Follies, 1928 Mickey the vaudeville circuits and toured all over the country with growing
Detective, 1928 Mickey in School, 1928 No Kidding, and 1927 success. LeRoy says: “I learned show business from the bottom up.
Mickey's Eleven. I learned the value of dialogue, the value of music, the value of
timing. After three years the act broke up. Stranded in New York
Mervyn LeRoy from World Film Directors, Vol. I. Ed. John and penniless LeRoy swallowed his pride and went to see his cousin
Wakeman. The H.W.Wilson Co., NY, 1987 Jesse Lasky, who had quit vaudeville and risen to power and wealth
as one of the first movie moguls, chief of Famous Players-Lasky.
American director and producer, LeRoy was born in San Jesse gave him his train fare to Los Angeles and a note to the
Francisco, the only child of Harry LeRoy and the former Edna studio.
Armer. His father owned the Fair, a small LeRoy arrived in Hollywood in
department store in the city. Both parents 1919 (not in 1923 as for some reason he
came from Jewish families that, as LeRoy states in his autobiography). He found that
says in his autobiography, “had been in he had a menial job in the wardrobe
San Francisco for a couple of department at $12.50 a week. Whenever
generations” and had become he could, he would “visit the stages and
“assimilated to the point of complete watch them make movies,” soon deciding
absorption.” that “the director seemed to be at the
LeRoy had two older cousins, center of the artistic universe” there.
Jesse and Blanche Lasky, who were Tired of the smell of mothballs,
vaudevillians, a circumstance that LeRoy talked himself into a job in the lab
“helped kindle my interest in show as a film tinter, at the same time trading
business.” His mother was also devoted on his extraordinarily youthful appearance
to vaudeville and the theatre, though only to secure juvenile roles in two or three
as a spectator. Thanks to her contacts, forgotten movies. One day, William
LeRoy made his stage debut at six DeMille was directing a movie that called
months, carried on at the Alcazar Theatre for the effect of moonlight shining on
as the papoose in The Squaw Man. … water. No one knew how to achieve this,
When LeRoy was five, his but that night LeRoy stayed late at the lab
mother went off with the man who and rigged the shot with a black box full
subsequently became her second of distilled water and a spotlight. This
husband, Percy Temple. They moved no coup brought LeRoy a back-breaking job
 LeRoy—GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933—5

as assistant cameraman. responsible for loading the camera and LeRoy made six films in 1931….The most notable of the
pulling focus. That advance was short-lived, ending when LeRoy year’s output was Five Star Final, a tough newspaper story…. I Am
ruined the first footage he handled. a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932) broke box-office records and
Deciding that his movie career was finished, he returned to shared an Oscar as best picture with Forty Second Street….
vaudeville. Within a year he was back in Hollywood, intent on a After a couple of minor pieces came the “ebullient and
new career as an actor. LeRoy played a ghost in Alfred E. Green’s witty” Gold Diggers of 1933, generally regarded as one of the
The Ghost Breaker (1922), a crooked jockey in Arthur Rosson and classic film musicals of the 1930s. The “gold diggers” are Ruby
Johnny Hines’ Little Johnny Jones (1923), a bellboy in Lloyd Keeler, Ginger Rogers, Joan Blondell, and Aline MacMahon—
Ingraham’s Going Up (1923), and three or four other small roles in showgirls looking for work. Ned Sparks plays a producer looking
1923-1924. He was evidently only moderately talented as an actor, for an “angel,” and Dick Powell is the playboy songsmith who
but had impressed Alfred E. Green with his gifts as a gagman writes, subsidizes, and stars in the show that makes all their dreams
during the filming of The Ghost Breaker. In 1924, when Green come true. The movie features some of Busby Berkeley’s most
offered him a job as gagwriter, he moved behind the camera “with spectacular production numbers, including the stunning opening
no regrets.” with Ginger Rogers garbed in gold dollars and the Depression-
LeRoy worked with Green and others as a “comedy conscious finale, “My Forgotten Man.”…
constructor” on a series of films…. The majority of these pictures A musical comedy, Happiness Ahead (1934) was followed
starred Colleen Moore, who became a close friend. It was through by Oil for the Lamps of China (1935) from the novel by Alice
her influence at First National that LeRoy secured his first Tisdale Hobart. The book deals with the activities of a ruthless
directorial assignment, No Place To Go (1928), starring Mary Astor American oil company in China, centering on an executive (Pat
as a banker’s daughter who sails to the South Seas in search of O’Brien) whose devotion to the company costs him the love of his
romance and finds more than she bargained for. wife and the life of his child. The novel’s indictment of the methods
No Place To Go was adapted from a Saturday Evening and morals of big business is considerably softened in Laird
Post story that LeRoy had found himself. In his first film he Doyle’s screenplay, but the picture has nevertheless been much
initiated a number of policies that he was to follow throughout his admired for the quality of its direction and acting and for Tony
career–wide and constant reading in search of stories with “heart”; Gaudio’s photography. John Baxter calls it “one of the few films of
insistence that the script be complete before shooting began (by no the Thirties to deal exclusively with the problems of work,” and “a
means as general a policy as might be supposed); and the equally brave attempt to generalise about the conflict between individuality
thorough advance working-out of camera angles. Shot in five weeks and social allegiance.”…
at a cost of about $70,000, No Place To Go made a modest profit— One of the finest movies of LeRoy’s career followed in
another useful precedent. LeRoy claimed that “all my pictures—and 1937, They Won’t Forget, adapted by Robert Rossen and Aben
I made seventy-five of them—have been money-makers.” Kandel from a novel by Ward Greene. Claude Rains plays an
His second film, Harold unscrupulous Southern district
Teen (1928), certainly was. attorney ambitious for the
Based on Carl Ed’s popular governorship who sees his
comic strip, and starring Arthur chance when a coed is found
Lake and Alice white, it murdered. (The coed, in a tight
apparently grossed a million sweater, is Lana Turner, one of
dollars. By the end of 1928, LeRoy’s discoveries.)...The
LeRoy was making a thousand poisonous claustrophobia and
dollars a week…. demoralizing heat of small-town
LeRoy’s most important Southern life are powerfully
contribution to the burgeoning conveyed in a film that Frank S.
gangster genre was Little Caesar Nugent called “a brilliant
(1930)….LeRoy had to fight for sociological drama and a
permission to film Burnett’s trenchant film editorial against
rawly realistic novel, the intolerance and hatred.”...
Warners’ front office then being LeRoy also acted as
of the opinion that Depression producer of James Whale’s The
audiences wanted only light Great Garrick in 1937 and the
relief….Richard Watts Jr. called following year he directed his
Little Caesar “the truest, most last film for Warners, a comedy
ambitious and most distinguished” of the contemporary rash of called Fools for Scandal. After that he moved to MGM, succeeding
gangster movies, “pushing into the background the usual romantic Irving Thalberg as supervisor of production at the phenomenal
conventions of theme and concentrating on characterization rather salary of $6,000 a week. He produced four films, including the
than on plot.” Dwight Macdonald went so far as to call it “the most hugely successful The Wizard of Oz (1939), but found himself
successful talkie that has yet been made in this country.” ...Forty increasingly frustrated in the role of executive. In the end, MGM
years later Peter Waymark found it “still as fast and abrasive as gave way and let him return to directing. At the MGM “glamor
when it was made.” Though there was a good deal of criticism of factory,” LeRoy became a very different kind of filmmaker from
the film’s callousness and violence, it was an overwhelming box- the socially conscious realist he had been at Warners….
office success.
 LeRoy—GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933—6

LeRoy had been finding life at MGM increasingly President of American Telephone and Telegraph, the movies were a
difficult after the enthronement of Dore Shary, and in 1955 he necessity to be ranked just behind food and clothing….
returned to Warners…. Sixty millions persons did not escape into a void each
Raymond Rohauer suggests that LeRoy’s “range and week; escapism is hardly a useful concept. People do not escape
diversity have seldom been equaled by any other producer- into something they cannot relate to. The movies were meaningful
director,” but the same could be said about the unevenness of his because they depicted things lost or things desired. What is
work. His worst films, as John Baxter remarks, are “impossible to “fantastic” in fantasy is an extension of something real. To Arthur
watch.” But, working for Warners in the 1930s, he made eight or Schlesinger, Jr., American film in the thirties had “a vital
nine movies that fully justify Peter Waymark’s description of him connection with American emotions—more, I think, than it ever
as “one of the great Hollywood craftsmen,” and John Baxter’s claim had before….The movies were near the operative center of the
that he was, at his best, “an artist of ideas.” nation’s consciousness.”...
We’re in the money,
from We’re in the Money Depression America and Its Films. We’re in the money.
Andrew Bergman. Elephant Paperbacks. Ivan R. Dee, Chucago, We’ve got a lot of what
1971. It takes to get along.

During the most abyssmal days of the early thirties, as economic We never see a headline
paralysis spread, snuffing out a shop here, a bank there, a factory About a breadline
somewhere else, movie attendance still averaged an astonishing Today.
sixty to seventy-five Ginger Rogers sings
millions persons each this in Gold Diggers
week. Although this of 1933, as dozens
was a considerable of girls sing along,
comedown from the holding silver
one hundred and ten currency, giant
million moviegoers coins, swaying and
of 1930 (when sound serpentining. This is
was still a great a rehearsal for a
novelty), it remained new show, but the
a powerful show never sees
testimonial to the opening night
sway movies held because the bank
over the national closes it for
imagination. For, as nonpayment. Just
the number of when the girls are
unemployed moved singing about never
towards fifteen seeing a headline
million, and millions about a breadline,
more became the sheriff walks in
partially employed, it and tells everybody
was evident that the to get out of the
total of sixty million, theatre.
even including Then
repeats, included a producer Ned
great many people who could scarcely afford to be there. In those Sparks gets the idea to put on a show about the Depression. Ruby
painful days, the marquees of America’s Broadways and Main Keeler and Aline MacMahon and Joan Blondell, hungry chorines
Street attracted the dispossessed farmers, the failed bankers and all all, give him the idea—and songs will be by the “poor” boy
the sellers who had no buyers. (actually a Boston blueblood with a yen for Broadway) who lives
Americans needed their movies. Moving pictures had down the hall from the girls. They can hear him playing through the
come to play too important a role in their lives to be considered just window and think he’s great. He’s Dick Powell!…
another luxury item. Immediately after the stock market had Of course they [the musicals] were escapist—a nation
crashed, motion picture executives began stating that people would could drown its sorrows in legs and glitter, and plumes and teeth
part with a great deal before they stopped going to the movies. and sweet harmonizing. But the three musicals that made the most
Harry Warner of Warner Brothers thought that films were “as money...all had Depression motifs. Warner Baxter is broke in 42nd
necessary as any other daily commodities,” and E.W. Hammons of Street, everybody is broke in Gold Diggers of 1933 and star
Educational Films felt financial hardship would not hurt the producer Jimmy Cagney is on the skids (“Breadline I hear you
industry: people “can always afford the price of a seat…” And as calling”) in Footlight Parade….
the crisis deepened in 1932, Walter Gifford, the head of President The backstage musicals, in all their lavishness, were still
Hoover’s Organization on Unemployment Relief, advocated the related to facts of life in 1933. Their pointless successors were
distribution of free movie tickets to the poor. According to Gifford, found to be a bore….
 LeRoy—GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933—7

“No medium has contributed more greatly than the film to and the immense success of Warner’s musicals demonstrate the
the maintenance of the national morale during a period featured by pulling power of that dead model during the worst years of financial
revolution, riot and political turmoil in other countries. It has been hardship. So the gang cycle emerges as less despairing and lawless
the mission of the screen, without ignoring the serious social than willfully optimistic: the nation going to the bottom of the
problems of the day, to reflect aspiration, optimism, and kindly social barrel before finding a credible vehicle for its success
humor in its entertainment.” Will Hays, dreams.
1934
from Movies and Mass
“We were Culture. Ed John
against revolution. Belton. Rutgers
Therefore, we waged war University Press. New
against those conditions Brunswick NJ, 1996.
which make “The Crowd, the
revolutions—against Collective, and the
those resentments and Chorus: Busby Berkeley
inequalities which bred and the New Deal”
them. In America in Martin Rubin.
1933 the people did not
attempt to remedy
wrongs by overthrowing “Remember My
their institutions. Forgotten Man”
Americans were made to The climactic Busby
realize that wrongs could Berkeley number of Gold
and would be set right Diggers of 1933
within their institutions.” combines two major
ideas involved in early
Franklin 1930s political
Roosevelt, 1936 revisionism:

The movies 1. the spirit of the

made a central Great Crusade—the
contribution toward high ideals that were
educating Americans in aroused by the First
the fact that wrongs World War and later
could be set right within their existing institutions. They did so not betrayed, first by the materialism of the 1920s, then by the
by haunting the screen with bogeyman Reds but, as Hays noted, by catastrophe of the Crash
reflecting aspiration and achievement. They showed that individual 2. the New Deal equation between the emergency of the war
initiative still bred success, that the federal government was a and the emergency of the Depression, resulting in a call for a
benevolent watchman, that we were a classless, melting pot nation. revival of wartime spirit and collectivism.
From 1930 to 1933, it is fairly easy to trace the subject
matter and preoccupations of American film and chalk it all up to Both ideas converged in an ugly event of the early
depression, despair, and anomie. Gangsters, prostitutes, con men, Depression: the Bonus March of Summer, 1932. An “army” of
sleazy back-room politicos, lawless lawyers: a dreary parade of 15,000 disillusioned, unemployed veterans—complete with
characters peoples the movies, bred by a cynical , burnt-out culture. uniforms, military discipline, and parades—squatted in Washington,
And there is that side to it: filmgoers were undeniably attracted to D.C., to demand money and/or jobs. They and their families were
outlaws, observed a paralyzed law slumbering and bumbling, saw a finally routed by police, cavalry, and tear gas—one of the most
dynamism in dishonest lawyers, and rejoiced at the Marx Brothers controversial actions of the Hoover administration.
war against sanity. But there is another side of this attraction to the The “Remember My Forgotten Man” number is
lawless and freakish. (Literally freakish. Tod Browning’s 1932 remarkable both for its explicit reference to the still-warm Bonus
MGM film, Freaks, had a cast made up of pin-heads, human torsos, Marchers issue and for its wholehearted sympathy for their cause,
midgets, and dwarfs, like nothing ever in the movies. And what as attested by the unforgettable withering gaze that saucer-eyed
more stunted a year than 1932 for such a film.) Joan Blondell fixes on a surly cop as he collars a sleeping bum who
And that other side seems more compelling and helpful for is wearing a medal beneath his ragged coat. But what is most
an understanding of how the decade progressed. In the gang films remarkable (and most Berkeleyesque) about the number is it
and musicals, Hollywood coaxed an old success model back to life, expansion of the political message to a sexual level….
creating special worlds in which it could function. The gangster The number is based on an equation between economics
worlds and the backstage world of Warner’s big three musicals of and sex, a confluence of social and psychological factors. For
1933 were, in effect, success preserves. From triggerman to Boss of working men in the Depression, the loss of their jobs or the
the North Side, from back row of the chorus to the opening night decrease in their earning power represents a form of impotence. …
lead, from office boy to chairman of the board: it was the same “Remember My Forgotten Man” is the simplest and most
dynamic at work. The avalanche of gangster films in 1931 and 1932 straight-forward of Berkeley’s big numbers in the classic Warner
 LeRoy—GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933—8

Bros. musicals. Its directness is a consequence of its political even a direct cut might do. “Remember My Forgotten Man” is one
commitment. Its points are punched across for maximum impact, of Hollywood’s most hard-hitting political statements of the
most forcefully by the jarring blackouts that drive home the 1930s—much more so than the treatment of similar material in
number’s thematic connection more viscerally and vigorously than Warner Bros.’s Heroes for Sale (also 1933).

COMING UP IN THE FALL 2011 BUFFALO FILM SEMINARS XXIII:

September 6 Pygmalion, Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard (1938)
September 13 Beauty and the Beast/La Belle et La Bête, Jean Cocteau (1946)
September 20 The Red Shoes, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (1948)
September 27 Diary of a Country Priest/Journal d’un curé de campagne, Robert Bresson (1951)
October 4 Black Orpheus/Orfeu Negro, Marcel Camus (1959)
October 11 Bonnie and Clyde, Arthur Penn (1967)
October 18 Marketa Lazarová, František Vláčil (1967)
October 25 The Last Wave, Peter Weir (1977)
November 1 True Confessions, Ulu Grosbard (1981)
November 8 Chunking Express/Chung Hing sam lam, Wong Kar-Wei (1994)
November 15 Richard III, Richard Loncraine (1995)
November 22 Frida, Julie Taymor (2002)
November 29 Revanche, Götz Spielmann (2008)
December 6 My Fair Lady, George Cukor (1964)

CONTACTS:
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....for cast and crew info on any film: http://imdb.com/

The Buffalo Film Seminars are presented by the Market Arcade Film & Arts Center
and State University of New York at Buffalo
with support from the Robert and Patricia Colby Foundation and the Buffalo News