Scientist Lee DeForrest made several of these Phonofilms in the early to mid 20s to demo his synchronized sound system for film. Its main problems were that the camera had to be static and that there was not sufficient amplification to fill a theatre.
Here we get a look at Eddie Cantor in his prime, when he still worked for Ziegfeld on Broadway. Eddie sings a couple of songs and makes jokes about a homely girl he is dating. Later, once his daughters were grown, he made jokes about how homely they were. But Eddie was in fact a loving father, and it was grief from the untimely death of his daughter Marjorie that probably brought on his own demise in 1964.
Lots of people pan this short, but Eddie was an infrequent case of a vaudevillian who knew how to impress a static camera booth in a sound film. His early sound musicals were rare instances of such films being hits pre Busby Berkeley as his singing and acting absolutely sparkled.