Summary

Footage Information

Archive Films by Getty Images
AN EVENING WITH MAJOR BOWES
AFP-5AL 16mm; VTM-5AL Beta SP; NET-58 DigiBeta (at 01:49:10:00); Beta SP
B W
Music
1940
New York City
B W 1940 Imitation of Charles Laughton Kitty Stark, blues singer John Jewell, banjoist Bobby Blakeman, boy singer Lawrence Eisler, imitator (impressionist?) 00:15:04:00 B W 1940 - WS - Night view of Broadway in 1931 with quick cuts of movie marquees - with piano sound "VO" playing "Manhattan Serenade." Clips reveal such names in quick successions as "Chin Lies." "The Public Defender....Richard Dix" sent the RKO Mayfair. ...Lyda Roberti, Wm. Gaxton on Marquee The News Reel Theater...$.25 I. Miller...Beautiful Shoes....Maxwell House Coffee - with neon figures in comic book stylization...and "Good To The Last Drop.....Try It." ...Budweiser Malt with Neon Clock. ...Max Gordon presents Fred and Adele Astaire...Frank Morgan and Helen Broderick, Tilly Losch in "The Bandwagon" - Kaufman and Dietz. ...Neon "Rialto"..."Chop Suey" ...Loews State - W. 53rd St. Broadway 00:15:25:00 B W 1940 - MS - Marquee reads "Chrysler Corp. Presents Major Bowes Original Amateur Hour." 00:15:33:00 B W 1940 - MS - Broadway strollers in early 1930s styles walking along Broadway. 00:15:40:00 B W 1940 - CU - The theater ticket taker emerges into the next scene of an empty stage with a large Steinway at its center in the packed "sound: theater - an overall at deco "full" to the staging. 00:16:03:00 B W 1940 - MS - Major Bowes off-center stage in a "docket-like" enclosure and to his left is the radio control room. 00:16:19:00 B W 1940 - CU - The radio announcer (Ralph Edwards) with hand raised, calls "stand by" one CBS floor microphone. 00:16:26:00 B W 1940 - CU - Major Bowes hits the opening bell and the announcer, Ralph Edwards, reads the commercial message for Chrysler Corp. 00:17:00:00 B W 1940 - CU - An accordionist, on the CBS airwaves, performs....a mustached baritone sings," "Without A Song".....a young soprano sings an aria (Lorraine Leff) and impersonator (Lawrence Eisler) renders a "Charles Laughton" to wide audience applause. 00:19:11:00 B W 1940 - MS - A view of the radio studio audience from behind the major as he gives the New York telephone number for the show (MuHill8-9933) and a quick-cut to the telephone operators taking calls at the familiar 30 angle shot. 00:19:27:00 B W 1940 - CU - Kitty Stark sings "Never In A Million Years" - a 1935 6 hit song - to piano accompaniment....after she breaks down in tears in the first start, the major asks her to sing again. 00:20:00:00 B W 1940 - CU - Kitty's is a rather benign rendition of the song with slight nuances in the stylization, popular in the mid 1930s - though she wears an elegant "choker." 00:21:13:00 B W 1940 - CU - Next, an uptempo ???? banjo strummer performs (John Jewell). 00:21:33:00 B W 1940 - CU - ...boy, (Bobby Blakeman) thirteen explains he has waited months to sing, "Did Your Mother Come From Ireland?" - and segue to telephone operators taking calls, followed by 00:22:04:00 B W 1940 - CU - A tap dancer to "Bye, Bye, Blues." 00:22:20:00 B W 1940 - CU - ...again telephone operators taking calls. 00:22:36:00 B W 1940 - CU - ...a yodeler on guitar...very popular in the early 1930s. 00:22:48:00 B W 1940 - CU - A multi instrumentalist in good form, to audience applause of another popular diversion of the 1930s. 00:23:37:00 B W 1940 - MS - Kitty Shark and her mother react to Major Bowes announcement of a job opportunity for the singer. 00:24:05:00 B W 1940 - WS - The Major closes the show to great continued applause....CBS....every Thursday night. 00:24:34:00 - Title - The End.
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