RIO RITA trailer with Bert Wheeler number cut from reissue

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Ed Watz
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RIO RITA trailer with Bert Wheeler number cut from reissue

Postby Ed Watz » Fri Mar 24, 2023 12:47 pm

Here's the original 4-minute trailer for RIO RITA (1929), which includes a glimpse of the Bert Wheeler-Dorothy Lee number "Are You There?" subsequently cut on Selznick's orders for the 1932 reissue:

https://youtu.be/u12tgFU6J04
"Of course he smiled -- just like you and me." -- Harold Goodwin, on Buster Keaton (1976)

Rob Farr
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Re: RIO RITA trailer with Bert Wheeler number cut from reissue

Postby Rob Farr » Sat Mar 25, 2023 1:17 pm

And it is interesting that Wheeler was billed as a single here.
Rob Farr
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Ed Watz
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Re: RIO RITA trailer with Bert Wheeler number cut from reissue

Postby Ed Watz » Thu Mar 30, 2023 1:06 am

Rob Farr wrote:And it is interesting that Wheeler was billed as a single here.


To add insult to injury, here's how some of the advertising for the film billed its main cast:
RR 1929 poster.jpeg
RR 1929 poster.jpeg (166.68 KiB) Viewed 7552 times


Apparently Bert's long association with Ziegfeld productions was considered a greater calling card than Bob's frequent appearances in a succession of Broadway plays since 1919, with Woolsey always appearing as comic relief. Bob Woolsey was a fixture in New York City but Wheeler was on the road between Ziegfeld engagements where he was a big draw in vaudeville. Bert was especially popular in Los Angeles where Harold Lloyd wanted to sign him up for his Hollywood Productions company, starring in silent two-reelers, probably similar to the shorts with Edward Everett Horton's. Ziegfeld enjoined Bert from participating in movies so nothing came of Lloyd's offer apart from a screen test (and who knows, it might exist somewhere).
"Of course he smiled -- just like you and me." -- Harold Goodwin, on Buster Keaton (1976)


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