Cavalcade of Comedy

Description by OLDIES.com:

16 Complete Classic Films!

Hollywood Boulevard intersects Broadway in this lively collection of classic shorts from the Paramount Studios. In the late 1920s and early '30s - when the movie industry was just learning to talk - Paramount wisely turned to the New York stage for a new crop of entertainers who had already mastered the nuances of verbal comedy. This anthology serves as a laugh-filled time capsule of the brightest lights of vaudeville, showcasing the early works of such American legends as Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Burns & Allen, Eddie Cantor, and George Jessel (who originated the lead role of The Jazz Singer on stage). It also provides a fascinating historical record of some of the stage legends who have begun to fade from memory, including Lulu McConnell, Tom Howard and Smith & Dale (the inspiration for Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys).

Also included are Lighthouse Love and Cleaning Up, a pair of Mack Sennett comedies that disprove the myth that sound technology destroyed the slapstick tradition. This DVD reveals three incarnations of a popular subgenre of slapstick, the home-builder's nightmare: The Plasterers, Plastered and A Put Up Job. Watching the three films together (made in 1929, 1930 and 1931), one can follow the evolution of vaudeville slapstick to its own truly cinematic form.

Titles included:

• Fit To Be Tied (1930, with George Burns & Gracie Allen)
• Getting A Ticket (1929, with Eddie Cantor)
• A Broadway Romeo (1931, with Jack Benny
• What Price, Pants? (1931, with Smith & Dale)
• It Might Be Worse (1931, with George Jessel)
• Sing, Bing, Sing (1933, with Bing Crosby)
• The Introduction Of Mrs. Gibbs (1930, with LuLu McConnell)
• The African Dodger (1930, with Tom Howard)
• Cleaning Up (1930, with Chester Conklin, Mack Swain & Gibson Gowland)
• The Plasterers (1929, with Charles O'Donnell & Jack Blair)
• Plastered (1930, with Willie West & McGinty)
• A Put Up Job (1931, with Karl Dane & George K. Arthur)
• Lighthouse Love (1932, with Franklin Pangborn, Mack Swain & Ben Turpin)
• Breaking Even (1932, with Tom Howard)
• 100% Service (1931, with George Burns & Gracie Allen)
• Poppin' The Cork (1933, with Milton Berle)

Cast and Crew: