Varieties on Parade

Bring on the Girls

March 1937 •English

Sitting in a theater box, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy make comments between the acts of a vaudeville show.

There's No Business Like Show Business

December 1954 •English

Molly and Terry Donahue, plus their three children, are The Five Donahues. Youngest son Tim meets hat-check girl Vicky and the family act begins to fall apart.

Zis Boom Bah

December 1941 •English

"Hey, kids, let's get together and put on a show!" That's the idea behind this raucous spoof about a vaudeville performer who's sent to college to spy on his bratty son.

The Parish Priest of Saint-Amour

November 1952 •French

The Marquise de Saint-Ange wants to marry her niece Nicole, but the young girl, put off by the chosen suitor, flees with her friend Jacques.

The Seven Little Foys

September 1955 •English

Vaudeville entertainer Eddie Foy, who has vowed to forever keep his act a solo, falls in love with and marries Italian ballerina Madeleine. While they continue to tour the circuit, they begin a family and before long have seven little Foys to clutter the wings. After tragedy threatens to stall Eddie's career, he comes to realize that his little terrors are worth their weight in gold. - Chris Stone

House-Rent Party

January 1946 •English

Summaries Shorty's wife throws him out of the house for lying around reading detective thrillers and letting his boss Pigmeat get away with not paying him for the work he does at Pigmeat's barber shop in Harlem. He runs into Pigmeat on the street and asks for the money he's owed, but Pigmeat winds up convincing him that not only does he not owe Shorty any salary, but he actually overpays Shorty $1.25 a week. Later, Shorty reads about a jewel thief on the loose in Harlem and that there's a reward of $1,000 for his capture. He convinces Pigmeat that the two of them can catch this guy, collect the reward and then become famous detectives. Complications ensue.

The Sunshine Boys

November 1975 •English

Lewis and Clark, aka The Sunshine Boys, were famous comedians during the vaudeville era, but off-stage they couldn't stand each other and haven't spoken in over 20 years of retirement. Willy Clark's nephew is the producer of a TV variety show that wants to feature a reunion of this classic duo. It is up to him to try to get the Sunshine Boys back together again.

Gypsy

December 1993 •English

Rose Hovick lives to see her daughter June succeed on Broadway by way of vaudeville. When June marries and leaves, Rose turns her hope and attention to her elder, less obviously talented, daughter Louise. However, having her headlining as a stripper at Minsky's Burlesque is not what she initially has in mind.

Road to Utopia

February 1946 •English

While on a ship to Skagway, Alaska, Duke and Chester find a map to a secret gold mine, which had been 'stolen' by thugs. In Alaska to recover her father's map, Sal Van Hoyden falls in with Ace Larson, who secretly wants to steal the gold mine for himself. Duke, Chester, the thugs, Ace and his henchman chase each other all over the countryside—for the map.

Show Folks

October 1928 •English

Eddie Kehoe is a young vaudeville hoofer who thinks his inability to hit the big time is the fault of stage managers, agents, musicians...everybody but himself. Eddie likes to tell others how good he is, but seldom shows them. Kitty Mayo, an old-time burlesque queen, who is with the McNary Vaudeville Company, advises Eddie to get himself a partner, as his solo abilities can only be stretched so far. He decides to follow her advice and, while in a theatrical supply shop, he sees Rita Carey rehearsing her dancing act that includes a trained duck. Eddie tells Rita he is a good friend of McNary's, and, with him as her partner, her future in show business will be secured. She agrees to join him and Eddie promptly names the act "Eddie Kehoe and Partner". Despite his conceit, Rita likes Eddie, as do others in the troupe, including Cleo a little gold-digger.

Babes in Arms

October 1939 •English

Mickey Moran, son of two vaudeville veterans, decides to put up his own vaudeville show with his girlfriend Patsy Barton. But child actress Rosalie wants to make a comeback and replace Patsy both professionally and as Mickey's girl.

Kentucky Jubilee

May 1951 •English

A film director travels to Kentucky to seek out local talent for a hillbilly musical film. There, he gets kidnapped.

Brain Donors

April 1992 •English

Three manic idiots—a lawyer, a cab driver and a handyman—team up to run a ballet company to fulfil the will of a millionaire. Stooge-like antics result as the trio try to outwit the rich widow and her scheming big-shot lawyer, who also wants to run the ballet.

Bob Hope on the Road to China

September 1979 •English

Bob Hope tours China, takes in the culture and meets up with Big Bird, Crystal Gayle, Peaches and Herb, and others.

Un chapeau de paille d'Italie

December 2012 •French

Fight That Ghost

January 1946 •English

Pigmeat and Shorty, who own "Pigmeat and Shorty's Bootery", are told by their landlord to either pay up or get out. They get caught trying to short-count him, and he threatens to have them arrested. After a series of disasters--they ruin a customer's suit, their store blows up--they get a telegram notifying them that a man they once did a kindness for has left them quite a bit of money and a house, but in order to get the inheritance, they have to spend a night in the bedroom of the man's house. When they arrive there, they notice two things--the place is kind of creepy and a series of spooky incidents leaves them to believe the house is haunted.

One Froggy Evening

December 1955 •English

A workman finds a singing frog in the cornerstone of an old building being demolished. But when he tries to cash in on his discovery, he finds the frog will sing only for him, and just croak for the talent agent and the audience in the theater he's spent his life savings on.

Paradise

November 1914 •French

Comedy. A father whose looking for a suitable candidate for his daughter ends up having a mistress and tigers prowling all around him.

Az and Fert

December 1977 •Russian

The landowner Mordashov, in order to please his future son-in-law Alexei Fursikov, marks his daughter’s entire dowry with the monogram “A.F.” But the groom gives compensation. So that the goods are not lost, the prudent father begins the search for a groom with the appropriate initials Az and Firth.

The Nifty Nineties

June 1941 •English

Mickey courts Minnie in the Gay Nineties: they take in a vaudeville show and go for a drive in his horseless carriage, to the strains of "While Strolling Through the Park" and "In the Good Old Summertime". Goofy rides by on a penny-farthing bicycle, and the whole Duck family rides by on a bicycle built for five.