The Mawby Triplets were famous triplets who were not really triplets. Claudette (1922-42) and Claudine (1922-2012) were twins, but their sister Angella (1921-2000) was born a year earlier. They were British child actors who were marketed as triplets by MGM and made brief appearances in The Broadway Melody and The Hollywood Revue of 1929.
The Biltmore Trio actually began as a quartet in The Broadway Melody and comprised Eddie Bush (1911-69), Paul Gibbons (1904-87), Ches Kirkpatrick (19??-19??) and Bill Seckler (1905-83). They performed ‘Truthful Parson Brown,’ the only song not written by Freed-Brown.
They appeared again, as the Biltmore Quartet, in The Hollywood Revue of 1929 and also in a musical by Fox, Words and Music (1929). After that, Kirkpatrick seems to have disappeared and they became the Biltmore Trio, featuring in Chasing Rainbows, Children of Pleasure and Love in the Rough. They were also the eponymous stars of a Metro musical short.
Ray Cooke (1905-63) was a go-to player in the 1930s if you needed a bellhop, or a messenger, or a cabbie. His career peaked when he starred in a series of comedy shorts from Poverty Row as a character named Torchy (not to be confused with the Glenda Farrell character of the same name).
Cooke was a bellhop in The Broadway Melody, a messenger in The Hollywood Revue of 1929,a student (like pretty much everyone else) in So This Is College, another bellhop in Love in the Rough and a cinema-goer in Hollywood Party.
James Burroughs (????-19??) had a brief career not appearing in MGM musicals.
In 1929 Burroughs sang ‘Wedding of the Painted Doll’ offscreen in The Broadway Melody and ‘Tableau of the Jewels’ in The Hollywood Revue of 1929. He followed these non-appearances the next year by singing ‘Blue Daughter of Heaven’ in Lord Byron of Broadway.
Rebekah Isabelle Laemmle (1909-2014) was minor Hollywood royalty, being the niece of Universal founder Carl Laemmle (one of the relatives who did not entirely rely on Uncle Carl for employment). In an extremely long life, she spent a few years as a dancer and actor. In this capacity she featured, uncredited, in The Broadway Melody, as a speciality dancer, and The Hollywood Revue of 1929, as the scantily-clad Pearl Dancer.
She was also, apparently, an uncredited swimmer in Bathing Beauty.
Synopsis
Three young, blonde triplets hold a sign introducing the first scene: Palace of Minstrel. A minstrel chorus sings and dances [Bones and Tambourines]. Jack Benny enters and introduces Conrad Nagel as the Interlocutor. Nagel starts to introduce Charles King, but is interrupted by King himself. To apologize, King asks the chorus to name the screen’s greatest lover. Before they can answer, Cliff Edwards enters and declares it is he. Edwards plays his ukulele and sings scat. Benny re-enters and takes away Nagel, leaving Edwards to discover he has no audience. He exits and the curtain closes.
Nagel introduces Joan Crawford, who sings and dances, supported by the Biltmore Quartet [Gotta Feelin’ for You].
Charles King and a dancing chorus performs [Minstrel Days]. June Pursell sings [Low Down Rhythm] and Joyce Murray performs a toe dance.
Conrad Nagel returns, with Charles King as Mr Bones and Cliff Edwards as Mr Tambo. After an exchange with Edwards, Nagel introduces King. [Your Mother and Mine]. King tells Nagel that, as a screen lover, he will now need to use words and music, and reminds him of the serenade to Anita Page in The Broadway Melody. He tells Nagel he is handicapped. Anita Page enters and Nagel serenades her [You Were Meant For Me]. King is astonished, shrinks to a tiny figure and storms off.
Jack Benny makes a risqué remark to Ann Dvorak, who slaps him. Benny introduces Cliff Edwards, who demands a bigger build up. [Nobody But You]. The chorus dances.
Benny returns and plays his violin. He is interrupted by Karl Dane and George K Arthur, dressed as sailors and laying a red carpet. Benny resumes [Your Mother and Mine], so Dane and Arthur roll up the carpet and carry it and Benny away. Benny returns with a cello, but the curtain closes.
Benny and William Haines exchange comic remarks while Haines destroys Benny’s tuxedo. Gwen Lee enters: Haines whispers to her and she slaps Benny. Haimes and Lee leave and a disheveled Benny takes a miniature Bessie Love from his pocket. She grows to her normal size. Bessie Love talks about the demands of talking pictures, then sings and dances with chorus boys. [I Never Knew I Could Do a Thing Like That].
Jack Benny enters wearing a suit of armour. The curtains open and Conrad Nagel introduces Queen Marie Dressler and Princess Polly Moran. Dressler slaps Benny but hurts her hand on the armour. Dressler sings. [For I’m the Queen].
Jack Benny enters in his normal clothes. While he is making an introduction, the curtains open to reveal Laurel and Hardy setting up a magic act. Benny leaves and Laurel and Hardy perform a skit which ends with Hardy and Benny covered in cake. Benny introduces Marion Davies, who enters in miniature through the legs of a line of soldiers. She is in military uniform, and sings and dances. [Tommy Atkins on Parade].
The Brox Sisters enter dressed as toy soldiers and sing while the chorus marches and dances. [Strike Up the Band]. The curtain closes for the end of the first half.
The orchestra tunes up and plays a medley. The triplets display another sign: Tableau of Jewels. James Burroughs sings offscreen [Tableau of Jewels], while a tableau displays costumes by Erté. scantily-clad Carla Laemmle dances. The scene changes to the undersea world of Neptune, leading to a skit called ‘Dance of the Sea,’ with Buster Keaton in drag.
Jack Benny introduces Gus Edwards, who sings [Lon Chaney Will Get You If You Don’t Watch Out] and is joined by dancing ghouls. Benny then introduces an acrobatic dance number with the Natova company, [Turkish Adagio] which he interrupts occasionally with commentary.
Benny introduces Norma Shearer and John Gilbert in the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. Director Lionel Barrymore receives a letter from the New York office saying Romeo and Juliet is old fashioned and they want it modernized. Shearer and Gilbert perform the scene again using modern slang.
The triplets hold a sign introducing ‘Singing [sic] in the Rain’. Cliff Edwards sings to his own ukulele accompaniment [Singin’ in the Rain] and the chorus dances in the rain. Then the Brox Sisters take up the song.
Jack Benny introduces Gus Edwards, Charles King and ‘Ukulele Ike’. [Charlie, Ike and Gus]. The triplets introduce ‘The Italian Trio’ and Charlie, Ike and Gus reappear as Italians (with Cliff Edwards in drag). [The Italian Trio].
Benny introduces five lovely girls: Bessie Love, Marie Dressler and Polly Moran. [Marie, Polly and Bess]. In the middle of this skit, Moran breaks away. [Sonny Boy]. Marie, Polly, Bess, Charlie, Ike and Gus sing. [The Fountain in the Park].
Charles King sings to Myrtle McLaughlin. [Orange Blossom Time]. The Albertin Rasch troupe dances.
Finally, most of the cast gathers for a reprise. [Singin’ in the Rain].
Little seems to be known about David Cox (1906-19??), who designed costumes at MGM before moving to work with Dolly Tree at Fox in 1932. He is, nonetheless, a featured artist at the Victoria & Albert Museum, where a costume designed for Bessie Love to wear in The Broadway Melody is among the exhibits.
Cox also designed for The Hollywood Revue of 1929, It’s a Great Life, Chasing Rainbows, Call of the Flesh, Good News and Love in the Rough.
Arthur Lange (1889-1956) was a prolific composer of songs, scores and incidental music for dozens of films at a variety of studios.
At MGM Lange began by composing and arranging music for the Buster Keaton ‘underwater’ sequence in The Hollywood Revue of 1929, where he also appeared onscreen conducting the orchestra. Lange also made an appearance as himself in Free and Easy. He was subsequently the musical arranger onSo This Is College, and composed and arranged forThe Great Ziegfeld and Let Freedom Ring.
Originally Alfred Breitenbach, German-born Fred Fisher (1875-1942) wrote the popular ‘Peg O’My Heart’ and many other Irish-themed ballads. He also co-wrote ‘Whispering Grass’ with his equally-successful daughter, Doris Fisher.
Songs by Fisher, usually written in collaboration with others, are featured in The Hollywood Revue of 1929, So This Is College, Chasing Rainbows, Children of Pleasure, For Me and My Gal and In the Good Old Summertime. He also contributed a number to The March of Time.
Martin Broones (1892-1971) was a prolific, if little-remembered, composer who worked in theatre, radio, television and moving pictures. He was also the creator and first director of MGM’s music department.
Broones only composed songs for two of Metro’s earliest musicals: The Hollywood Revue of 1929 and So This is College. For the latter, he collaborated on the number ‘Campus Capers’ with his wife, the actor and eccentric dancer Charlotte Greenwood.
