Hollywood Varieties

Hollywood Varieties is a 1949 American film from Lippert Pictures, starring Robert Alda and a cast of vaudeville performers. The feature was directed by former film editor Paul Landres, who also edited this picture.

Premise

Veteran burlesque, vaudeville, and movie star Robert Alda is the master of ceremonies for this filmed presentation of an actual vaudeville show. There is no plot; some 20 variety acts take the stage over the course of an hour.

Cast

Robert Alda, master of ceremonies
Hoosier Hot Shots, musical comedians
Shaw and Lee, comedy team
3 Rio Brothers, comedy team
Glen Vernon and Eddie Ryan, comedy team
Britt Wood, monologist
Peggy Stewart, specialty
Twirl, Whirl and a Girl, acrobats
De Pina Troupe, specialty
The Four Dandies, barbershop quartet
Lois Ray, specialty

Production

Robert L. Lippert was a former exhibitor, owning a chain of movie theaters. In 1945, disappointed with the major studios' failure to make inexpensive features for smaller markets, Lippert began making his own pictures. These quickly found a market among small neighborhood theaters, especially in rural areas.
Hollywood Varieties was produced in five days by former vaudevillian June Ormond. The film was one of a series of low-budget, hourlong musical revues financed by Robert L. Lippert. According to June Ormond:

I wrote this little beginning about vaudeville dying, and Bob Lippert loved it. The picture cost $10,000. 1 got all the acts I knew from my years on the road. We shot with three cameras in a downtown L.A. theater. I worked day and night on the picture, even slept on the set. Only problem was, I hadn't come up with the ending yet. I had 20 minutes — the crew was gonna quit at five and we couldn't afford to keep 'em around. I made one of my choreography maps with the dots, an' I said, 'Gimme a few minutes.' There was almost 100 people on the set, but I got 'em all where they had to go."

Reception

Showmen's Trade Review predicted that Hollywood Varieties "should do well in the small towns and rural sections where there is little chance to see a vaudeville show. It is a film that should attract because it is a good show. There is no storyline to tie the acts together. Just a group of vaudevillians doing their stuff to entertain the customers." Trade reviewer Pete Harrison was more critical but still passed the picture: "Worth booking on a double bill in secondary theaters. It is a series of vaudeville acts, with well known new and old entertainers... has about everything one expects to see in a vaudeville show — dancing, singing, roller skating, trained seals, comedians, acrobats, trained dogs, and a master of ceremonies. Some are interesting, some fair, and some just so-so. But on the whole the picture should get by with those who are not too fussy." Motion Picture Daily described the picture as a matter of taste but noted the novel idea: "The picture is a straightaway presentation of a wide variety of vaudeville turns, with Robert Alda, the only picture name in the cast, functioning as MC. It is therefore as good or as bad as a given picture audience may happen to consider the current supply of vaudeville talent good or bad. That makes the film a fair and proper implement for giving the vaudeville idea a test run." The film was successful and was followed by Holiday Rhythm.