Lawrence Weingarten (1897-1975) was working as assistant to Irving Thalberg, his brother-in-law, when he was assigned to work on the supervision of what became Metro’s first musical, The Broadway Melody. Weingarten’s description of working on the picture is included in Samuel Marx’s Mayer and Thalberg: The Make-Believe Saints (1975).
Weingarten had a lengthy career as a producer at MGM, but little subsequent involvement with its musicals. He was an uncredited supervisor on A Day at the Races, but his only producer credit on a musical was Balalaika.
Harry Beaumont (1888-1966) is not a well-known name, despite having directed the first feature-length musical and a winner of the best picture Academy Award. Originally an actor, he turned to film directing in 1916.
In 1923 Beaumont directed The Gold Diggers, a play which was also the source of Warners’ Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933). Perhaps his most notable achievement outside musicals was Metro’s Our Dancing Daughters (1928), which had a synchronized score.
Irving Thalberg must have considered Beaumont a safe pair of hands when assigning him to The Broadway Melody, an ambitious and not inexpensive project. His reputation today is as a journeyman director grinding out assignments, but Richard Barrios points out, in A Song in the Dark (1995), that Beaumont was present at every script conference. Studio records indicate that his contribution to the picture’s dialogue was greater than that of the credited James Gleason.
In 1930 Beaumont directed three further musicals for MGM, Lord Byron of Broadway (with William Nigh), Children of Pleasure and The Florodora Girl, before moving on to other things. Never more than a journeyman director, Beaumont carved himself a small, if often overlooked, niche in cinema history with The Broadway Melody,
Jed Prouty (1879-1956) began his film career in the silent period, but established himself as a comic supporting player with the coming of sound. In The Broadway Melodyhe plays Uncle Jed, Hank and Queenie’s vaudeville booker.
Hank and Queenie are a fictionalized version of The Duncan Sisters, and a few months later Prouty supported the Duncans themselves in It’s a Great Life.
He played Marion Davies’s father in The Florodora Girl and rounded off his Metro musical career as the theatre owner who critiques the Schnarzan pictures in Hollywood Party.
James Gleason (1882-1959) became an easily-recognized supporting player specializing in hard-nosed, fast-talking types. But early in his career Gleason was a moderately-successful playwright, which explains his dual contribution to The Broadway Melodyas both co-scenarist (dialogue) and bit player. (In what has been called a meta-touch, he plays a music publisher named James Gleason.)
Gleason’s only other Metro musical was Babes on Broadway, as the actor-hating producer whose bacon is saved by Mickey Rooney and his troupe.
Anita Page (1910-2008) was only 18 when she was cast in The Broadway Melody, having come to notice alongside Joan Crawford in Our Dancing Daughters (1928). She announced her retirement in 1934, having apparently secured Mussolini as her number one fan, and only returned to film-making occasionally during a very long life. When she died, Page was discussed as the last of the silent Hollywood stars.
Page made only one further musical for Metro, playing Buster Keaton’s love interest in Free and Easy.
Bessie Love (1898-1986) was given her start in films by D W Griffith in 1915 and enjoyed a successful dramatic career in silent cinema. By the late twenties her film career was in decline and she spent time touring on the musical stage. This led to a part in Warners’ musical short The Swell Head (1928), which in turn secured her a contract with Metro.
Her role as Hank in The Broadway Melody won her a nomination for Best Actress and is the film’s standout performance. As well as appearing in The Hollywood Revue of 1929, Love went on to star in three more Metro musicals: Chasing Rainbows (which reteamed her with Broadway Melody’s Charles King); They Learned About Women; and the 1930 version of Good News.
The 1931-32 moratorium on musicals brought this stage of Love’s career to a halt and she went into semi-retirement before relocating to the UK in 1935, where she lived out a long life as a notable supporting player in television and films.
Charles King was a 42-year-old successful vaudeville and Broadway actor when Metro starred him in The Broadway Melody. His film career was short-lived, though he did play the lead in one other feature, Chasing Rainbows, in which he was again teamed with Bessie Love. King was featured in the all-star Hollywood Revue of 1929.
King also contributed to The Five O’ Clock Girl (1928), a Marion Davies vehicle based on a Broadway hit, the production of which was abandoned after William Randolph Hearst fell out with MGM.
At the Gleason Music Publishing Company, Eddie Keans performs his latest song [The Broadway Melody]. The number has been written for the Mahoney sisters, one of whom Eddie plans to marry.
Queenie and Hank Mahoney arrive at their New York hotel. Queenie is nervous about their move to the big time, but Hank tells her that, with Queenie’s looks and Hank’s talent, they will be fine. Uncle Jed, their agent, arrives and warns them that it is difficult for a new sister act to be a success in New York. Jed leaves and Eddie arrives. He plans to marry Hank, but he is struck by the beauty of Queenie, whom he has not seen since she was a little girl. Hank says she will marry Eddie once their act is successful. Eddie tells them his new song has been acquired for a new Zanfield show and he is arranging for them to perform it [The Broadway Melody].
Hank (Bessie Love) and Queenie (Anita Page)
Zanfield agrees to look at the Mahoneys’ act. Flo, one of the chorus girls, jokes about the Mahoneys and sabotages their performance [Harmony Babies]. Zanfield is unimpressed. He says he can use Queenie in the chorus, but not Hank. A fight breaks out between Hank and Flo. Queenie asks Zanfield to hire her sister as well, at a two-for-one price. Zanfield agrees and also agrees not to tell Hank about the arrangement. Eddie is impressed by Queenie’s protection of her sister, and kisses her. Queenie tells Eddie he should not kiss her and that she would never do anything to hurt Hank.
On the day of the dress rehearsal, Queenie is very nervous. [The Broadway Melody]. Zanfield decides the number is too slow and cuts the Mahoneys. Queenie is forced to stand in for a scantily-clad chorine who has fallen from an onstage pedestal [Love Boat]. Queenie is a big hit, but Hank is upset because they have always got by on talent rather than showing their legs.
Jaques Warriner, one of the show’s wealthy backers, pursues Queenie and she finally agrees to go out with him, against the wishes of both Hank and Eddie. When Hank gets back to their hotel, she finds that Queenie did not go to the party.
Two weeks later, Warriner is still chasing Queenie, to Eddie’s annoyance. Uncle Jed tries to persuade Hank to go on tour with another girl, because her role in the show is so small, but she wants to keep an eye on Queenie. Then he suggests she give Eddie a break and marry him. Eddie tells Queenie he cannot sleep for thinking about her [You Were Meant for Me]. Hank walks in as Eddie is trying to kiss Queenie, but Queenie pretends they are arguing about Warriner. Later that day, Hank arranges a surprise birthday party for Queenie, but she goes to another party arranged for her by Warriner.
At the party, Queenie is still doing her best to resist Warriner’s advances [Truthful Parson Brown]. They dance, and Warriner gives her a diamond bracelet. He suggests setting her up in a Park Avenue apartment, but Queenie says she will have to think about it. Queenie arrives home drunk in the middle of the night. She shows Hank the bracelet and tells her about all the other things Warriner has promised her.
[The Wedding of the Painted Doll; The Boy Friend].
Hank quarrels with Queenie about presents she is receiving from Warriner, and Queenie almost reveals that she is only seeing Warriner to avoid Eddie. Eddie tells Queenie that he loves her. She replies that she loves him too, and that is why she must go with Warriner.
Hank and Eddie try unsuccessfully to stop Queenie leaving with Warriner. Eddie is so angry that Hank suddenly realises the truth. Hank tells Eddie he must go after Queenie because he loves her. She says that she never loved him and was only using him to help her career. After Hank has chased Eddie from the room, she collapses in tears, and then calls Uncle Jed, agreeing to go on tour with another blonde.
There is a party at Queenie’s new apartment. She is grateful to Warriner, but clearly still unhappy. Eddie arrives as she is trying to break away from Warriner’s embrace. Warriner knocks Eddie to the ground and Queenie turns on him, throwing all his gifts back in his face.
Later, Hank and Uncle Jed welcome Queenie and Eddie back from their honeymoon. Queenie is giving up the stage, but Hank declines an invitation to live with her and Eddie. Hank’s new partner arrives: it is Flo [Harmony Babies]. Hank and Flo leave to catch their train and Eddie tells a weeping Queenie that Hank could never have given up the stage because she is a born trouper. In the taxi, Hank promises Flo she will have them back on Broadway in six months.
