User Reviews

This is a short from Vitaphone from 1935. Although the country had a hard time acknowledging the full humanity of its black citizens at that time, somehow Warner Brothers was willing to make quite a few shorts in which they featured famous black acts of the day. Apart from having a group play their music in front of a giant watermelon backdrop(!), the film was a very positive portrayal.

Of all the acts in the film, THE act to see are the Three Whippets and they perform at the beginning. Although the famed Nicholas Brothers appear later and there is some nice singing, clearly the Whippets are the ones to watch. This is because they are insanely athletic and are among the best dancers you'll ever see anywhere! Seriously...they were amazing. Now the Nicholas Brothers were also very enjoyable--so I am not at all saying that they were disappointing in any way. But, oddly, they never appeared in another film--whereas the Nicholas lads were quite popular. Why would one super-talented group make it and the other wouldn't? Also included are some musical acts which are pleasant but undistinguished. Clearly the dancing is the reason not to miss this film.

This is a great short film, you can catch it on Turner Classic Movies, if you can catch it. The lovely Adelaide Hall sings a great song and do some foot-stomping tap dancing, The Nicholas Brothers, the greatest tap dance team dances great. Eunice Wilson sings a big song of the time, does some great dances, back with the Five Racketeers. Some black acrobats. Great way to spend 11 minutes. Most black entertainers couldn't be in movies, so short films were the only way they could show their talents, and short films were big in the 30s and 40s.

This musical short from Warner Bros.-Vitaphone was what the title says in the following order: 1) The 3 Whippets-Three dancers that do somersaults, back-flips, and one of them stands at the top of two chairs with each foot on each chair without falling, 2) Adelaide Hall-a female singer who does a little dance, 3) The Nicholas Brothers-siblings Harold and Fayard, both under 20, tap-dance up a storm, and 4)Eunice Wilson and The Five Racketeers-another fine female singer with a song who then gives the stage to the backup group that then sings "Tiger Rag" (a.k.a "Hold That Tiger"), which is the unofficial theme song for the LSU Tigers, with Eunice then appearing at the end dancing as this very entertaining music short ends. If there was one negative thing I saw here it was the giant watermelon backdrop that was the background of the last act. I saw this on The Green Pastures DVD as an extra.

Vitaphone/WB used footage from this short and Cab Calloway's 1937 "Hi De Ho" short to "create" another entry in their "Melody Master Band" series in 1946 when they released "Dixie Jamboree" utilizing in archive footage the performers, Eunice Wilson, the Nicholas Brothers, Adelaide Hall, the 3 Whippets, the Five Racketeers and Cab Calloway from two shorts made in 1935 and 1937. Warner Bros. led the world in recycling long before most of the world had heard of the word.

All-Colored Vaudeville Show, An (1935)

*** (out of 4)

Highly entertaining Vitaphone short from Warner delivers exactly what the title says as we get a look at some black musical acts and other performers. First up is The 3 Whippets who are a trio of dancers who do an act dealing with back flips, somersaults and various other tricks including the highlight of the film where one keeps each foot on a different chair and what he does will have your eyes budging out. Adelaide Hall does a number called 'To Love You Again', which was a fairly catchy number. Up third are The Nicholas Brothers, a tap-dancing team. Finally we get The Five Racketeers who perform 'I Don't Know Why' and 'Tiger Rag'. If you're interested in these early race films then this here is certainly a must have simply because there aren't too many of them still available today. All four acts were entertaining as the nine-minute running time goes by extremely fast but the first group would be my favorite.