The Florodora Girl

Some Thoughts

My grandpa saw the girly shows

And told me of one special pearl,

He said the hottest show in town

Was called the Florodora Girl

So sings Chip in On the Town, reading from his forty-year-old New York guidebook. He has to miss out, unfortunately, but a glimpse of the show can be caught in The Florodora Girl, a fictional tale about one of the original six chorus girls in the Broadway production of Owen Hall and Leslie Stuart’s Florodora.

The show opened on Broadway in 1900 the film, as its subtitle ‘A Story of the Gay Nineties’ makes clear, is set in the late-Victorian period. This is certainly the period of most of The Florodora Girl’s songs. The then-ubiquitous Stothart-Grey partnership only wrote two numbers for the picture, with the assistance of Andy Rice. The rest are popular songs from the period. But the new songs blend in comfortably as pseudo-Victorian, especially ‘Pass the Beer and Pretzels’, which is part of a three-minute medley performed by Marion Davies and chorus. 

Robert Barrios suggests that the film’s music is “present less for its own sake than to provide atmospheric upholstery”. There is a degree of truth in this, but it is not the whole story. For example, ‘Don’t Wake Me Up, I’m Dreaming’ (which may have a third set of lyrics by Clifford Grey or Andy Rice), is sung over, and mirrors, Daisy’s yearning looks at Jack after she refuses his flowers. And ‘Tell Me Pretty Maiden’ not only involves Jack’s intrusion into the on-stage performance, but the lyrics and movements of the singers are utilized to become Daisy’s half of their conversation.

This reflects Harry Beaumont’s growing comfort with the musical. His staging and framing is much more inventive than in his earlier efforts, especially in the sequence at the Bowery slumming ball.

Marion Davies is clearly more comfortable as Daisy than she had been as Marianne, and her lively performance won deserved praise from critics. And as the film’s producer, she benefited from having a star who happened to own a private beach suitable for shooting a lengthy portion of the first half. Davies’s staff were able to provide catering that was a cut above what the cast and crew were used to in Culver City.