Rare film clips of Tess Gardella, who used the stage name Aunt Jemima, performing in blackface. In the 1936 film, there is a duet with Paul Robeson and Hattie McDaniels where a box of Aunt Jemima pancake mix is on the kitchen table, as an homage to Gardella.
"Showboat" is the very first musical based on a novel, and what turned Vaudeville shows into Broadway musicals. No longer was going to the theater though of as seedy & illicit. And, actually "Showboat" was originally billed as an opera. It is considered the longest running musical in Broadway history.
Show Boat was in no way the first Broadway musical based on a novel. See the link to IBDB's paged just on Dickens. www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/charles-dickens-10135. And the first Broadway musical version of The Wizard Of Oz was in 1903. It wasn't even the longest running musical at the time. A Trip To Chinatown ran from Nov 09, 1891 to Aug 07, 1893 for 657 performances. And considering that Phantom Of The Opera ran for 13,300 performances, it beat Show Boat by a mile.
Where did you ever get the idea that going to the theater was considered seedy and illicit before Showboat?!? absurd comment. Do you know anything at all about the long history of theater in the United States?
The audio soundtracks of the possible movie tone news of the stage version showed the boat was used as an overture of the 1928 film version. although there's a claim that the lost soundtracks of this version were found . I don't think those taking dialogs were remastered in the MGM - time warner issue of the 28 versions, just yet. They should be on DVD.
Here's the full version of the Old Man River number in this video. It was sung by Jules Bledsoe. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cOh_QFEnBYI.html
