Jack Oakie

Bing Crosby was, without a doubt, the most popular and influential multi-media star of the first half of the twentieth century, pulling audiences in with his intimate, laid-back voice and innate charm. Narrated by Stanley Tucci and directed by Robert Trachtenberg, this film explores the life and legend of this iconic performer, revealing a personality far more complex than the image the public had only thought they'd known.

In this visual essay, Charles Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance, author of "Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema", draws upon a wealth of photography as well as a wide range of interviews (Paulette Goddard, Sydney Chaplin, Chuck Jones, Leni Riefenstahl, Mel Brooks, Joan Collins et al.) to examine the production history of "The Great Dictator", the film's importance as a satire, and legacy.

Ken Murray narrates his 16mm home movies shot over 35 years in Hollywood.

Jerry Webster and Carol Templeton are rival Madison Avenue advertising executives who each dislike each other’s methods. After he steals a client out from under her cute little nose, revenge prompts her to infiltrate his secret "VIP" campaign in order to persuade the mystery product’s scientist to switch to her firm.

An aspiring musician arrives in New York in search of fame and fortune. He soon meets a taxi dancer, moves in with her, and before too long a romance develops.

Having fled to Mexico from the U.S. many years ago for killing his father's murderer, Martin Brady travels to Texas to broker an arms deal for his Mexican boss, strongman Governor Cipriano Castro. Brady breaks a leg and while recuperating in Texas the gun shipment is stolen. Complicating matters further the wife of local army major Colton has designs on him, and the local Texas Ranger captain makes him a generous offer to come back to the states and join his outfit. After killing a man in self defense, Brady slips back over the border and confronts Castro who is not only unhappy that Brady has lost his gun shipment but is about to join forces with Colton to battle the local raiding Apache Indians.

Based on the famous book by Jules Verne the movie follows Phileas Fogg on his journey around the world. Which has to be completed within 80 days, a very short period for those days.

In 1866, a new gold discovery and an inconclusive conference force the U.S. Army to build a road and fort in territory ceded by previous treaty to the Sioux...to the disgust of frontier scout Jim Bridger, whose Cheyenne wife led him to see the conflict from both sides. The powder-keg situation needs only a spark to bring war, and violent bigots like Lieut. Rob Dancy are all too likely to provide this. Meanwhile, Bridger's chance of preventing catastrophe is dimmed by equally wrenching personal conflicts. Unusually accurate historically.

Swashbuckler about the adventures of pirate Jean Lafitte after he helped save New Orleans from a British invasion during the War of 1812.

Nick Garcos comes back from his tour of duty in World War II planning to settle down with his girlfriend, Polly Faber. He learns, however, that his father was recently beaten and burglarized by mob-connected trucker Mike Figlia, and Nick resolves to get even. He partners with prostitute Rica, and together they go after Mike, all the while getting pulled further into the local crime underworld.

Bonny Kane and 'Skid' Johnson are vaudeville performers in the 1920s. The two of them suffer marital difficulties when Skid gets an offer to appear on Broadway while Bonny gets left behind on the road. Things get worse with Skid's increasing drinking problem and the fact that the press has reported him to be spending a lot of time with his pretty co-star.

In this romantic western, the real stars are a mustang and a police dog. The human aspect of the story centers on a rodeo rider whose late father bequeathed him a ranch in Calgary, Canada. The rider really tries to settle down to ranching, but finds himself pining for the rodeo. His forewoman, also a former rodeo performer, thinks her employer is shirking his duties and needs to forget about broncos, and bull-riding and settle down. Meanwhile, the fellow also longs to catch the white stallion running wild. The dog helps out.

A plain-Jane math professor (Joan Davis) at a small midwestern college is talked into journeying to New York on behalf of a colleague who has written a steamy bestseller under an assumed name. When she arrives she gets a bump on the head which brings on a form of amnesia and she begins to believe she is the author of the book. Hijinks and adventures follow.

Radio's miracle show is on the screen.

A vaudeville performer returns from the dead to help his wife and daughter, who are being dominated by a greedy banker.

Two Bowery vaudevillians find success in producing shows on Broadway, but when one of them suddenly departs to work for a beautiful woman, a feud erupts.

After their annual free concert at Chicago's Dearborn Settlement, Benny Goodman and his band are packing up to go to their next engagement when a kid steals Goodman's clarinet. Goodman and Popsie pursue him to a tenement flat where he has led them to hear his brother play the trombone. Shenanigans ensue following Goodman's offering the brother a job with the band.

The film concerns a family vaudeville troupe headed by patriarch Pete Monahan. Because of his love affair with the bottle, Pete manages to get himself and his family blacklisted from every major vaude house in the country. Though Pete's kids Jimmy and Patsy love their dad, they're forced to break away from the act and go off on their own to survive. Eventually, the whole gang is reunited in a shamelessly lachrymose musical finale.

A young husband becomes a game-show participant in the hopes of winning the cash to pay his pregnant wife's doctor.

A young turn-of-the-century newspaper man finds he can get hold of the next day's paper. This brings more problems than fortune, especially as his new girlfriend is part of a phony clairvoyant act.

Nora and her uncle get railroaded into spending the night at a broken-down hotel in Canada. After Nora falls for the handsome owner, she convinces her uncle to invest in the inn and modernize it. After the hotel opens, Nora's uncle faces financial ruin and her romance hit a snag in the form of pretty reporter.

In turn-of-the-century San Francisco, an ambitious vaudevillian takes his quartet from a honky tonk to the big time, while spurning the love of his troupe's star singer for a selfish heiress.

A press agent, a composer and a landlord of a theatrical boardinghouse revive vaudeville on Broadway.

Marine James Murfin, is unaware of Icelandic customs. When he flirts with Katina her Icelandic family take his actions as a proposal of marriage to Katina. Desperately wanting out, James gets his buddy to help him.

With his sidekick Rusty, Jeff Harper sails to paradisiacal tropical isle Ahmi-Oni to bargain on behalf of his cattle baron father for land owned by transplanted Irishman Dennis O'Brien. But Jeff falls in love with O'Brien's daughter, Eileen, and even his father can't break them up after he arrives and himself falls under the spell of island splendor.

This is a collection of bloopers and film manipulation by The Warner Studio Club for an annual dinner for the staff at Warner Brothers.

The college president, the head cheerleader and a gambling gangster try to keep a flunking football star in the game

A short in the WB Hollywood Novelty series (production number 7301) about the training of polo ponies. Buddy Rogers buys one of the ponies in training, and later uses him in a match where Jack Holt and Joe E. Brown are among the players. Edward G. Robinson and Jack Oakie are among the spectators who see Joe. E. Brown knock in the winning score.

On a layover in Hawaii two conniving Navy seamen borrow money to lay down bets that their ship will win the upcoming gunnery practice trophy, having found out that the current gunnery champ has just transferred aboard their ship. What they haven't learned, however, is that the marksman's enlistment is up before the contest is supposed to take place.

After WWI two men go into radio. Failure leads the wife of one to borrow money from another; she goes on, after separation, to stardom. A coast-to-coast radio program is set up to bring everyone back together.

Songwriters Calhoun and Harrigan get Katie and Lily Blane to introduce a new one. Lily goes to England, and Katy joins her after the boys give a new song to Nora Bayes. All are reunited when the boys, now in the army, show up in England.

Jo March and her husband Professor Bhaer operate the Plumfield School for poor boys. When Dan, a tough street kid, comes to the school, he wins Jo's heart despite his hard edge, and she defends him when he is falsely accused. Dan's foster father, Major Burdle, is a swindler in cahoots with another crook called Willie the Fox. When the Plumfield School becomes in danger of foreclosure, the two con men cook up a scheme to save the home.

Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.

Wendy Ballantine's parents decide to retire from show biz so she can have a normal life. They are unwelcome in the small town until a storm lets the family show their stuff.

Promoters set up a radio contest to find the average American and use him to sell food, apparel and notions. All goes well until he falls in love with a girl who upsets things.

Annabel Allison, star of Wonder Pictures, is irked at her poor publicity, especially when a rival gets engaged to a Marquis; so she makes studio head Webb re-hire disgraced publicity agent Morgan for her personal appearance tour. The trip proceeds with a flurry of Morgan's crazy, slapstick publicity stunts. Then Annabel has her chance to "bag" a real Viscount.

Wonder Pictures has been striking out at the box office lately, causing the seedy PR man to involve main star Annabel in ever outrageous stunts for publicity.

A down-on-his-luck songwriter attempts to peddle musical compositions of a naive Arkansas hillbilly under his own name. Comedy.

A Paris cabaret singer dreams of becoming a Metropolitan Opera singer. A press agent arranges her Manhattan debut by way of Africa.

Wrestling trainer puts himself in charge of a singer's love life when the singer is jilted by a rich girl.

After the American Civil War, Jim Fisk, a former peddler and cotton smuggler, arrives in New York, along with his partners Nick and Luke, where he struggles to make his way through the treacherous world of Wall Street's financial markets.

A movie actor playing a detective gets carried away with his role and starts trying to solve real-life crimes.

n Vienna, a new jazz club featuring American trumpeter Buzzy Bellew threatens the existence of its neighbor, the Waltz Palace, run by Franz Strauss and featuring his granddaughter, singer Elsa. Smitten by Elsa, Buzzy hides his identity and association with the club -- whose owner intends to buy out the Palace property. When Elsa accidentally learns who Buzzy really is, it appears he may have to return to America alone.

Nikki Martin (Lily Pons), a beautiful French opera star, stows away on an ocean liner in hopes of escaping her jealous fiancee. Once aboard, she joins an American swing band and falls in love with its leader, who, after hearing her sing, eventually comes to reciprocate her feelings.

Two down-on-their-luck former outlaws volunteer to be Texas Rangers and find themselves assigned to bring in an old friend, now a notorious outlaw.

A Florida-bound train is filled with romance and intrigue in this comedy. Among the passengers is a millionaire bon vivant carrying $1 million in diamonds.

Musical about dingaling millionaire businessman Cedric Ames and his various employees

A Broadway playboy inherits an almost bankrupt girls' school and tries to save it by a big show.

Warner Baxter plays the ambitious producer of a burlesque show who rises to the big time on Broadway. Alice Faye is the loyal burleycue singer who helps make Baxter a success. His head turned by sudden fame, Baxter falls under the spell of a society woman (Mona Barrie) who has theatrical aspirations of her own. She marries Baxter, then convinces him to produce a string of "artistic" plays rather than his extravagant musical revues. The plays are flops, and the woman haughtily divorces Baxter. Faithful Alice Faye, who'd gone to London when her ex-beau was married, returns to the penniless Baxter. She and her burlesque buddies team up to pull Baxter out of his rut and put him on top again.

The wisp of a storyline involves two-bit radio station owner Spud Miller, who doubles as the station's sole announcer while his comic partner Smiley serves as the house crooner. On the verge of bankruptcy, Spud is receptive to the wacky notions of George and Gracie, who've just invented a television device which can pick up and transmit any signal, any time, anywhere.

Jack Thornton has trouble winning enough at cards for the stake he needs to get to the Alaska gold fields. His luck changes when he pays $250 for Buck, a sled dog that is part wolf to keep him from being shot by an arrogant Englishman also headed for the Yukon. En route to the Yukon with Shorty Houlihan -- who spent time in jail for opening someone else's letter with a map of where gold is to be found -- Jack rescues a woman whose husband was the addressee of that letter. Buck helps Jack win a $1,000 bet to get the supplies he needs. And when Jack and Claire Blake pet Buck one night, fingers touch.

Several members of MGM's 'galaxy of stars' attend an evening of music and a fashion show.

The story deals with the college rivalry of a piccolo player and an All-American halfback on the football team who both love the same co-ed. After graduation they carry their their feud and collegiate ideas over into the department store business.

This short plugs the new tunes written by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel for the movie "College Rhythm" and shows the audience how they were written and rehearsed. Naturally it also advertises the movie.

Jack Oakie stars as seedy sideshow barker Nicky, who uses everyone he meets to get ahead. Nicky isn't even above exploiting his singing sweetheart Lily (Dorothy Dell) to suit his purposes, but this time it is he who ends up the loser -- at least until he gets wise to himself.

Shortly before the curtain goes up the first time at the latest performance of Earl Carroll's Vanities, someone is attempting to injure the leading lady Ann Ware, who wants to marry leading man Eric Lander. Stage manager Jack Ellery calls in his friend, policeman Bill Murdock, to help him investigate. Bill thinks Jack is offering to let him see the show from an unusual viewpoint after he forgot to get him tickets for the performance, but then they find the corpse of a murdered woman and Bill immediately suspects Eric of the crime.

Joe and Casey trouble-shoot for the phone company. They try to prove that Joes's girl Ethel's boss Dan is a crook but are trapped by criminals and left in a burning building.

In Victorian England, a bored young girl dreams that she has entered a fantasy world called Wonderland populated by even more fantastic characters.

Comedian Lloyd Hamilton escorts a group of beauty contest winners to various Hollywood night spots.

Jack Oakie and Jack Haley are songwriters are enroute from New York to Hollywood to make their fame and fortune; Ginger Rogers, a lunchwagon proprieter, joins them.

A singer is involved with two women in his life, one a "good" girl and one a "bad" one."

A college professor and the school's star football player are both rivals for the same beautiful coed.

The pilots of a Royal Air Force squadron in World War I face not only physical but mental dangers in their struggle to survive while fighting the enemy.

A Navy boxer (Jack Oakie) meets a dance-hall hostess (Vivienne Osborne) who tries to sober him up for a fight.

The various residents and occupants of a resort hotel await the outcome of a horse race at a nearby track, as it will affect each of their lives in different ways.

Jack Oakie plays Eddie Doyle, a gumball machine salesman who marries Pat Smith (Shirley Grey) knowing full well that the girl is on the rebound from a failed romance with aspiring Jewish doctor Max Silver (Leon Ames). But when Pat is nearly killed in an effort to protect her husband's gumball machines from hoodlums and is in need of a lifesaving operation, Eddie calls on Dr. Max

An elderly business tycoon, believed to be dying, decides to give a million dollars each to eight strangers chosen at random from the phone directory.

Eddie Burke ( Jack Oakie) is a wise-guy pugilist whose talent is unevenly matched by his ego. Despite his character flaws, Eddie knows the meaning of loyalty. When his manager Doc Williams (William Collier Sr.) is offered the opportunity to stage a match at Madison Square Garden, but only if he gets rid of his stable of fighters, Eddie fabricates an alibi and stages a walkout on Doc.

Story of a Hollywood studio during the transition from silents to talkies.

In the first entry of this series, the show open with a troupe of dancing chorus girls getting a salute from crossed-eyed Ben Turpin. Then the master of ceremonies, Fredric March, brings on the various acts, starting with a pre-teen Mitzi Green), dressed as an adult and singing "Was That the Human Thing to Do?" , followed by Ginger Rogers and Jack Oakie singing-and-dancing to "The Girl Who Used to be You." Then the Three Brox Sisters do a triple imitation of Marlene Dietrich singing 'Falling in Love Again." 'Jack Duffy' does a drunken hillbilly bit involving a lamp post, the the finale has Eddie Peabody, playing a banjo for some chorus girls on a pedestal.

A small country on the verge of bankruptcy is persuaded to enter the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics as a means of raising money.

A grocery clerk, longing to become a cowboy actor, goes to Hollywood in search of fame and fortune. Unfortunately, his acting ability is non-existent.

Barnstorming pilots Speed Condon, Bill Adams, and Eddie Smith travel the country with their manager, Alec Dugan, performing at fairs and air shows and hawking rides for the locals. But when Speed's rambunctious flying results in tragedy, he gives up flying in despair and guilt. Alec tracks him down and hopes to get him back on his feet and back in the air.

A bandleader tries to romance a dancer by sending her boyfriend, a musician, out of town. However, things get complicated when he finds out that a gangster has designs on her too.

Football coach Dan Curtis is eager for his small college team to win at all costs.

Chester Carr, owner of a dude ranch in the Rockies, caters to guests seeking the thrill of the Wild West. Among his guests are the wealthy Spruce Meadows and his daughter Susan. But the West isn't wild anymore and most of Carr's guests are bored and about to leave. He is in despair when a caravan carrying a broke-down-and-out troupe of actors---Jennifer, Judd, Mrs. Merridew and her daughter, Alice---crashes down the hill and wrecks the hotel sign.

Famous actress Norma Shearer's jewels are stolen… (Star-packed promotional short film intended to raise funds for the National Variety Artists Tuberculosis Sanatorium.)

An ordinary Joe has ambitions to become a Tin Pan Alley writer.

Naïve insurance agent 'Cyclone' Case falls in love with Sylvia Martine, whose father has a dispute with gangster Mike Slade. When Sylvia is kidnapped by Slade and his gang, 'Cyclone' decides to save her and wanders straight into a gang war without even realizing it.

Dutch-language version of Paramount on Parade (1930) produced and released by Paramount Pictures.

Searchlight Doyle, lightweight boxing champion of the United States Navy, is shanghaied into the fleet of Sainte Cassette, an island republic, as a replacement for a wealthy slacker who must serve his country to receive a $2 million inheritance, a scheme concocted by attorney Gabriel Grabowski. All his shipmates, except Hyacinth Nitouche, assume that he is indeed the wastrel he purports to be. Doyle falls in love with Adrienne, the most beautiful of the captain's daughters, and wins her affections by treating his comrades in her teashop. Admiral O'Brien, grandfather of the man Doyle is impersonating, comes to visit, and mistaking him for a civilian, Doyle throws him overboard and to everybody's surprise is complimented on his vigilance. But his real identity is exposed by some American sailors, and he is suspected of killing young O'Brien; he is cleared of suspicion, however, and is reinstated by the admiral, thereby gaining Adrienne's love.

The company of a musical comedy gets shipwrecked on a tropical island inhabited by a "king" from Brooklyn and his coterie of wild native girls.

Spanish-language version of PARAMOUNT ON PARADE (q.v.), with new sequences of interest to Spanish-speaking audiences mixed with original- version sequences.

Ellen Saunders is an heiress on a cruise to Europe being pursued by a day laborer mistaken for a prominent mining engineer. During the cruise, he foils two crooks trying to get their hands on her lucrative nickel mine.

Marco Perkins is a garage mechanic and a would-be-prizefighter who gets a place on the ritzy country club's polo team because he is the town's most proficient mallet-wielder, having learned to play polo while serving in the U.S. army. His hobnobbing with the town-elite and social upper-crust at the polo-matches gives him an inflated idea of his social position, and he decides he is is moving on up. He breaks off with his girl-friend, true-blue Cynthia Brown, and hits on débutante Gloria Staunton, who appears to have an interest in being hit upon. Gloria's interest lies mostly in showing Marco that hired-hands who can play polo still aren't to the manor born.

This 1930 film, a collection of songs and sketches showcasing Paramount Studios' contract stars, credits 11 directors

A sailor finds himself the object of a cafe owner's affections.

Chorus girl Barbara Pell (Nancy Carroll) inherits a school for boys, and uses her position to sabotage the football career of the boy who jilted her.

Egomaniacal baseball slugger Elmer Kane is not only good, he enjoys telling everybody how good he is. A professional scout, Bert Wade, takes an interest in Elmer, who in turn takes an interest in Evelyn Corey, an attractive actress.

A homeless and destitute violinist joins a combo to bring it success, but has problems with her love life.

Wellman’s first all-talkie, scripted by Herman Mankiewicz, with arrogant boxer Richard Arlen romancing Mary Brian, then falling for temptress Olga Baclanova (Freaks) on the eve of the big fight.

Marjorie, a song-and-dance girl in the stage show of a palatial movie theater, becomes interested in Al West, a warehouse clerk who has put together an unusual jazz band, and uses her influence to get him a place on one of the programs. Max Mindel, the house manager, has a yen for Marjorie and, discovering that she is in love with Al, gives the band notice and hires harmony singers Barney & Bey as a replacement. Marjorie makes up to both men and soon breaks up the team. Al learns of her scheme, however, and makes her confess to the singers. Barney and Bey make up, and Max gives Al and his band one more chance. Al is a sensation, and Max offers him a contract for $1,000 a week.

Wild girls at a college pay more attention to parties than their classes. But when one party girl, Stella Ames, goes too far at a local bar and gets in trouble, her professor has to rescue her. Gossip linking the two escalates until Stella proves she is decent by shielding an innocent girl and winning the professor's respect.

Joan Fry, a society woman, falls in love with Chuck Riley, the white-leader of a powerful gang in Chinatown, and he quickly drags her down into the depths with him. But seeing her so much in love with him causes him to realize he isl in love with her, and he determines to lift her up again. "Boston" Charley, the rival gang-leader, has other plans.

The title character is office-boy Barney. Pretending to be a deaf-mute, Barney tries to trump his detective boss Walter Babbing by tracking down the person who kidnapped Peggy Meredith, the daughter of wealthy Agnes and Trumbull Meredith.

A girl who works in a dance hall falls in love with a sailor, but he has the wrong idea of what it is she does and doesn't want anything to do with her.

Larry Grayson, jazz age son of permissive parents, drifts from wild parties with his classmates to more heady, roadhouse entertainment. There he becomes involved with an underworld gang and falls in love with Spanish Marla, one of their vamps. Larry leaves home after an argument with his father, throws in with the gang (who are using him for their own purposes), and is blamed for a murder. Tried and convicted, Larry is given a light sentence when the judge places most of the blame on his overindulgent parents.

Silent military comedy whose only print exists in the Library of Congress.

When gangster Jimmy Donovan is made guardian of Midge, the 7-year-old brother of his friend Big Ben Murray, he decides to reform and rear Midge properly. The court takes custody of Midge, but Donovan proves himself by recovering a payroll stolen by some of his ex-colleagues, thereby winning Midge and Kitty, his girl.

Follows three generations of the Mayne family through the year 1921-22. The 81-year-old patriarch reminisces about his rough beginnings in post-Civil War railroading, son Rufus rides rough waters as a wealthy financier, and his wife and three daughters muddle through their New York high society life.