This Day in History - 25 January 2014

Irene Bordoni sang, Harold Lloyd spoke - 25 January 1930

 

Movie Ad that appeared in The Vancouver Sun in January,
1930 promoting Irene Bordoni in Paris, featuring Cole
Porter tunes.

   The name Irene Bordoni prob­ably doesn't ring too many bells with the masses today. But in the 1920s and '30s, she was a big international star, a "lustrous, exotic" triple threat on the Broadway stage, the music world and in films.

   In 1928, Bordoni had the lead role in Cole Porter's first hit musi­cal on Broadway, Paris. One of the showstoppers was Bordoni singing one of Porter's signature tunes, Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love).

   First National turned Paris into a movie, which arrived at the Strand Theatre Jan. 25, 1930, amid a blitz of ads.

   "Better than a Follies Bergere Review," promised one ad. "Frenchier than a French Farce"

   "Sparkling Gowns and Sparkling Girls, read another.”A Rainbow of Melodies."

   "Let's go to Paris tonight," said a third. "This very night you can see the sights of the mad metropolis—'take in' a daring French revue — hear a famous Paris favourite — all in one glori­ous talking picture!"

   The gist of the movie was a young rich American (played by Jack Buchanan) who falls in love with an older Parisian actress (Bordoni), which horrifies his mom. Jack Robarts Sr. and Zasu Pitts co-starred in the film, which boasted "eight big songs" and "200 Fast Steppers."

   The "talking picture" used the Vitaphone process, where some-one would play phonograph records for the sound while somebody else played the film in a projector. Part of the movie was filmed in early Technicolor, but Paris is one of many lost films from the era — no print is known to exist.

   You can find a few Bordoni numbers on YouTube, though, including a rollicking version of another Porter song she made famous, Let's Misbehave. Bordoni had a marvellously fluid voice, and sang with a delightful French accent (she was born in 1885 in Corsica, which was part of France, and first came to the U.S. in 1907).

   The other big movie that week was comic legend Harold Lloyd's first talkie, Welcome Danger.

   "Now you HEAR the laugh that made the millions merry!" blared an ad. To drive home the point, the ad featured Lloyd's disem­bodied head surrounded by 17 different "ha-ha's"

VANCOUVER SUN