Veteran Broadway performer Adele Rowland sings four songs in this Vitaphone short.Veteran Broadway performer Adele Rowland sings four songs in this Vitaphone short.Veteran Broadway performer Adele Rowland sings four songs in this Vitaphone short.
Photos
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaVitaphone production reel #2348.
- SoundtracksWhite Wings, Carry Me Home
(uncredited)
Written by Abner Silver, Andrew B. Sterling and Howard Johnson
Sung by Adele Rowland with Mildred Brown on piano
Featured review
Lost Star
Adele Rowland was among the most popular singers of American vaudeville during the Roaring Twenties.
Her singing style was that of a "belter"--meaning she threw her whole body, especially hands, into belting out her tunes. In this delightful Vitaphone short, we see her at her peak, where she demonstrates her special singing gifts in four songs: "White Wings Carry Me Home," "Little Tiu Shy", "There Must Be Somebody Else" and her final tune, "Swanee Shore." She instantly catchers our attention as she dashes from the right of the camera onto an usually dreary looking set of just a piano, a chair, a swath of drapery. She wears a beautiful, eye-catching coat of gleaming material which instantly gives her an image of glamour. When she removes the coat, her party dress stuns--a shimmering creation of sequins and bangles which perfectly suits her appearance.
She sings strongly and emotionally, throwing her whole body into her performance. She's certainly a lot more arresting than many of the male and female crooners caught on Vitaphone who demurely sing their songs with barely a movement of body.
One reviewer attacks Adela for sounding bad. But that's the charm of these Vitaphone shorts is that the singers sang straight into the camera, with the orchestra performing behind the camera. There was no way to gloss over or fine tune the voices. Only after advances in movie sound did singers certainly sound more "carmelized"--or perfected into a glossy sound.
Another reviewer here was sooooo distressed that Adele had placed a negative connotation on Asian people while singing the satirical song, "Little Tui Shy" and oh, wow, another word used for Negroes popped up in "Swanee Shore." What rock is this critic living under? This is a l00 year old vaudeville act! These acts in those days were packed with ethnic jokes, bawdy routines, very irreverent joking and singing. How can one apply a 21st century filter of accepted social do's and don't to a totally different world back in 1928? I've seen this same twisted attitude being applied to old movies, especially by those reviewers who are "shocked" that people smoked and drank so much back then!
Ironically, by making this Vitaphone short, Adele and all her vaudeville cohorts destroyed their future in vaudeville. Theater patrons could now pay five cents to 25 cents to walk into a movie theater and catch these stage performers on the screen, watching them over and over, rather than paying one dollar to five or ten dollars to watch them perform on stage.
Adele vanished mostly from the scene after 1928 and performed in uncredited film roles in forgotten movies. I'd love to know what she was doing during the passage of all those years. We know from another intrepid reviewer that she was involved in a messy divorce case during the late 20s when the wife of celebrity Conway Tearle sued Adele for alienation of marital rights. Adele ended up marrying Conway until his death in the late 1930s.
Her singing style was that of a "belter"--meaning she threw her whole body, especially hands, into belting out her tunes. In this delightful Vitaphone short, we see her at her peak, where she demonstrates her special singing gifts in four songs: "White Wings Carry Me Home," "Little Tiu Shy", "There Must Be Somebody Else" and her final tune, "Swanee Shore." She instantly catchers our attention as she dashes from the right of the camera onto an usually dreary looking set of just a piano, a chair, a swath of drapery. She wears a beautiful, eye-catching coat of gleaming material which instantly gives her an image of glamour. When she removes the coat, her party dress stuns--a shimmering creation of sequins and bangles which perfectly suits her appearance.
She sings strongly and emotionally, throwing her whole body into her performance. She's certainly a lot more arresting than many of the male and female crooners caught on Vitaphone who demurely sing their songs with barely a movement of body.
One reviewer attacks Adela for sounding bad. But that's the charm of these Vitaphone shorts is that the singers sang straight into the camera, with the orchestra performing behind the camera. There was no way to gloss over or fine tune the voices. Only after advances in movie sound did singers certainly sound more "carmelized"--or perfected into a glossy sound.
Another reviewer here was sooooo distressed that Adele had placed a negative connotation on Asian people while singing the satirical song, "Little Tui Shy" and oh, wow, another word used for Negroes popped up in "Swanee Shore." What rock is this critic living under? This is a l00 year old vaudeville act! These acts in those days were packed with ethnic jokes, bawdy routines, very irreverent joking and singing. How can one apply a 21st century filter of accepted social do's and don't to a totally different world back in 1928? I've seen this same twisted attitude being applied to old movies, especially by those reviewers who are "shocked" that people smoked and drank so much back then!
Ironically, by making this Vitaphone short, Adele and all her vaudeville cohorts destroyed their future in vaudeville. Theater patrons could now pay five cents to 25 cents to walk into a movie theater and catch these stage performers on the screen, watching them over and over, rather than paying one dollar to five or ten dollars to watch them perform on stage.
Adele vanished mostly from the scene after 1928 and performed in uncredited film roles in forgotten movies. I'd love to know what she was doing during the passage of all those years. We know from another intrepid reviewer that she was involved in a messy divorce case during the late 20s when the wife of celebrity Conway Tearle sued Adele for alienation of marital rights. Adele ended up marrying Conway until his death in the late 1930s.
helpful•00
- jery-tillotson-1
- Feb 18, 2022
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Adele Rowland: Stories in Song
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime10 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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