Here's Harry!

The Joy Of Metro Movietone Revues

This was a first of four one-reel subjects included as bonus on The Broadway Melody DVD, Revues being MGM answer to Vitaphone shorts done by Warner Bros. Each was like a vaudeville turn, twelve-thirteen minutes, but with three or more numbers by assorted artists. Emcee is Harry Rose --- outlandishly prissy by modern measure --- watchers need reminding that many an effective stage man went all out w/fey gesturing ... just recall Eddie Cantor or Jack Benny in performance --- yet here was basis for much of humor they made. Would we prefer he-man monologists/vaude M.C.'s? For all their gifts, I doubt Richard Dix or Jack Holt could have played the Palace. Harry Rose worked a long, and at times successful, career, known as "Broadway's Jester," and immortalized here for sterling render of "Frankfurter Sandwiches," a number which must be seen/heard to be believed. As an excerpt and sampling of way-out vaudeville, it is second only to Gus Vinner and His Singing Duck. Rose would enter with "Here's Harry!," as if we already knew, and his telling would be superfluous. Acts he brackets, other than headlining Van and Schenck, could use footnotes --- who, for instance, was child singer Grace Rogers, and what became of her? Then there are The Capitolians, who did house music for Loews' Broadway site. Metro Movietone Revue I, and others of the group, are highly recommended, but you can see Harry exult over Frankfurters anytime at You Tube.