I love Ruby Keeler. And her style of tap dancing was buck n wing, a type of tap which was mostly focused on the feet and not so much on the upper body. Some people call it clunky, but that's how it was supposed to be. If you listen to the tap rhythm sounds which Ruby was making, you can hear how talented she was. Ruby was also beautiful, charming, and the sweetest woman, on screen and in real life. She was known as "the girl next door type"
Thank you for pointing this out. I've read too many comments on Ruby Keelers videos saying that she 'couldn't sing, couldn't dance, couldn't act well, but she was pretty!' and 'She dances like a man!'-she actually looks like she's working hard when she dances which I think is a refreshing contrast compared to the smoother, traditional dancing for women.
Yes this was a style of dancing popular at the time, but which seems odd to us now. If you look at Joan Crawford dancing in the 1920's it's also slightly masculine. When these time periods are replicated for movies or TV there is a tendency to modernize certain things to make them more palatable for today's audience.
All the Busby Berkeley musicals are great, but I'd say 42ND STREET is overall my favorite in terms of story. The musical numbers are stronger in GOLDIGGERS OF 1933 and FOOTLIGHT PARADE. Warner Bros. had the best orchestra during the pre-Code Hollywood era.
what people tend to overlook is that this film was by and large directed by Lloyd bacon not busby berkley who just choreographed the dance numbers . all this is not to take anything away from Berkley who's contributions to the film are both significant and brilliant . but let's give bacon his due as well as he too did a great job . From Michael from Yorkshire and proud of it .
For sheer spectacular, entertainment, foot tapping, humming, smiling entertainment..this gem wins hands down!! When they say.."They don't make it like they used to", they aren't kidding!! It is a must see!!
There was some dark stuff in those pre-code films. How many other musical numbers include fall-down drunks, attempted rape, attempted suicide, and murder all in the same number?
Little nifties, from the fifties, Innocent and sweet Sexy ladies, from the eighties, Who are indiscreet They're side by side, they're glorified, Where the underworld can meet the elite Naughty, gaudy, bawdy, sporty, 42nd Street! The big parade goes on for years, its a rhapsody of laughter and tears, Naughty, gaudy, bawdy, sporty, 42nd Street! Come and meet those dancing feet On the avenue, I'm taking you to, 42nd Street! Hear the beat of dancing feet, It's the song I love the melody of, 42nd Street! Little nifties, from the fifties, Innocent and sweet Sexy ladies, from the eighties, Who are indiscreet The big parade goes on for years, its a rhapsody of laughter and tears, Naughty, gaudy, bawdy, sporty, 42nd Street!
Movies and shows nowadays are not like what they were back then! I love black and white movies because it makes you wonder~ wonder the color of the outfits, the hair, background! I absolutely love it
It's clear to me that the wonder, magic and might wrought by American songwriters and composers of the early-to-mid 20th Century gave us the pinnacle of entertainment. In the last 70 years, with just a handful of exceptions we are only given pap. How did the dynamic American talents ranks swell so wonderfully, then vanish?
Ruby began as an Irish clog dancer where the entire bottom of the foot hits the floor. That's why she wasnt as light on her feet as other dancers of the period.
John Province thanks! I’m no dancer but it does look like she might be wearing Irish jig type shoes/clogs here, not normal taps like the others- the soles are really thick at the front, and the lacing reminds me of Scottish dancing shoes. Anyway I like it, very musical sound to it and she gets that flapper look dowwwn😎
I am always amazed and have enjoyed all of Buzby Berkley and Ziegfeld Follies production and the visual effects with such limited equipment compared with today and just love all the talent on screen
Imagine some relative today sees there grand mother performing this wonderful act looking back to see her . Magical always remind me of boardwalk empire
For all of his “faults”, Busby Berkeley transformed dancing production numbers. Just a few years prior to this film movie musicals were painfully static - Busby knew how to move the bulky cameras and performers, providing spectaculars, which no one ever since has surpassed. …Rowby.
Frankly, the audio isn't as good as it was at other studios such as at Paramount. I wonder what recording equipment WB was using in '33, having ditched the sound-on-disc system 2 years earlier.
Wow how things have changed. I mean yes we have made progress in areas like gender and race issues but overall it looks like those days were the peak of society. I thought life was supposed to always get better than the previous generation but like I said overall it looks like we are steadily going down hill.
I'm not sure, she wasn't an actress in the main part of the film while they were rehearsing and everything, she just had that one role during the "42nd street" number. It's the same with "Footlight parade", "Golddiggers 33", etc., there are people in those musical numbers who didn't play any parts during the rest of those films
The production and dancing were incredible, and it may have been the most exciting time in human history. I'm especially amazed at the way the female dancers behave. Humans tend to think that they are the most advanced now, but that is not the case. It is said that this period was the most advanced in human history.
Depends what you mean by "advanced." No penicillin or decent prenatal care, male life expectancy in the US was 61. Racism and sexism were everywhere and dictators could and did hide a lot more.
She was "Anytime Annie" - the only time she said no was when she didn't hear the question. She played Abner Dillon's new girlfriend who convinced Julian Marsh to use Peggy Sawyer/Keeler as the injured star's replacement.
Idc what anybody says When I listen to this rendition of the song, all I hear is jazz and gospel It's the blackest main stream picture musical in the pre Hayes code era
Love it. That's what made these films so damm enjoyable!! They were preposterous but, hey..people were tougher then. They had thicker skin. The movie going audience could seperate reality from make believe then. People knew these films exaggerated to make a point or paint a picture. One of the best musicles ever made on all fronts!!
Yes, they are all fantastic performers, but so many things "aged like milk" /m. Let's start with the fact that it's New York but almost everyone is yt, it's a jazz and tap number but the only Black performers are street kids who only make a brief appearance, there is a coin-operated "wooden Indian" who is most likely a yt actor in redface, and there is an elaborate (likely uncredited) dance/stunt solo glamorizing rape, suicide, and murder while neighbors and police do nothing. Yes I get that they're trying to show a disinvested neighborhood with high crime, but why not show the woman defending herself and humiliating the assailant? Why not show neighbors helping each other? Why not show people of the many ethnicities who lived there? Why not have Josephine Baker perform the song in a glamorous costume? Oh, right /s. When Ziegfeld cast superstar Baker in the Follies in 1936, critics panned her, restaurants refused to serve her, the show failed, and she went back to France where people treated her as the star she was.
I'm a black American and I say please get over the woke white liberal guilt and enjoy the film! For Gods sake it was made in 1932-33 and we all times were very different back then. My grandmother was 30 when she saw this film during its original release in Los Angeles and always loved it along with her also black friends and relatives. As a matter of fact, past sociaI issues aside, I don't know anybody who doesn't enjoy the great movie classics from the 1930s and 40s. Society and the movie industry have supposedly "progressed" (have relatives who've held excellent positions at W. B. studios) so lets just sometimes forget the toxic modern political correctness and sit back, relax, & enjoy the magnificent stagecraft, fashion, dancing, and acting in these excellent examples of classic American filmmaking.
