Footlight Parade (Warner Bros.) (1933)

Publ ity Section Publicity Section Contains Enough Special Features For A Driving 6-Week Campaign We are giving you sufficient material for a strong, well rounded publicity campaign. We anticipated that ex hibitors will want a three week advance campaign and a similar period of current publicity. You will find stories that sell every element in the picture, so grouped that you can alternate your cam paign with publicity that sells the stars, the girls, the spectacles, the music and the vastness of the production. In addition to the stories, you have at your command the following added features with which to drive home to every newspaper reader the fact that you are playing “Foot light Parade.” 7; nr FOOTLIG Musical Comedy Film at Strand Presents Back Stage Love. By BLAND JOHANESON. Better musical numbers, more handsomely staged, than those in “Gold Diggers” and “42d Street,” distinguish this third production of ; the all-star musical cycle which | | comes from the Warner Brothers Studio; . Once more Dick ‘Powell and -Ruby. Keeler represent the | Young love interest in a story of backstage, while stars play the character roles surrounding them. “And the most spectacular star.this ‘time is James Cagney, javntily , making his debut as a movie song ‘and dance man, and scampering “away with the picture. ‘LAVISH ENTERTAINMENT. That “no* theatre possibly could “put them on, with their waterfalls, ‘swimming pools, U..S.:Navy drills ‘and massive settings, matters not ‘at all to “Footlight Parade.” You sare not asked te believe.in it. You are expected to be entertained by | it, and you will be, mightily. “_ The numbers ate “Sitting on the . Backyard. Fenee,” which ‘is cuté; “Honeymoon Hotel,” which is impertinent; ‘Shanghai’ Lil,” which is-hot; “By a Waterfall,” which is atupendons.. ce N. Y. Sun ‘‘Elaborate and stunningly staged musical numbers. Drew spirited applause from crowded house. It will draw from you too. Mr. Cagney remains one of the most interesting of talkie stars . -. Drop in and see the enormous when an imaginative camera is photographing them. Drop in and see the principals. N. Y. World Telegram ‘* ¢Footlight Parade’ is a handsome narrative of a stage show director’s ups and downs. Sumptuous it is and tuneful too. I enjoyed it for its songs, its agile and decorative chorus and the neat mixture of sedateness and abandon with which it is played by its principals. James Cagney, Ruby Keeler, Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Frank McHugh and Claire Dodd head an impressive cast. The settings are unusually good.’? HT PARA possibilities of musical numbers N.Y. MIRROR N.Y. AMERICAN | Footlight Parade’ Best Yet Of Warner Screen Musicals, With Beauty, Song, Stury -By REGINA CREWE, “FOOTLIGHT PAKADE,”’ a Warner Brothers picture, directed by Lloyd Bacon, numbers created and staged by Busby Berkeley, screen play by Manny Seff and James Seymour, songs by. Harry Warten, Al Dubin, ‘Sam: Fain: and Irving Kahak Pre ‘sentedat the Strand Theatre. THE CAST:: Chester . Covevece eeeccece . dimes Cagney AM oe wovcccccccsecse COGN Blondell Bea . ceewsesesceececcce UDY Keeler Scotty seeeeneesesesaeees ~Dick Powell Vivian 6 cc.cs.60c0v.ce eosesClaire Dodd Not only Broadway, but the Battery, the Bronx and Brooklyn, too, turned out in force for the tremendous world premiere ” accorded the biggest and bright est of the Warner musicals at the Strand ‘Theatre last night. : There was, quite literally, dancing in the streets before the Strand, both by -marionettes representing the principals in the show, and by'real, Hve, flesh and blood beauties, replicas of whom were visible upon the screen. inside, . More and even fairer femininity. disported itself in the lobbies, ankle deep in confetti, and through the aisles of the theatre. The half-dozen tune hits echoed to the heavens over Broadway. in some ingenious manner. And S, Charles Einfeld of the Warner organization, who seemed somehow'to know what occasioned all the fun, frolic and furore, smiled like a benign Buddha upon the opening night merrymakers. But the show outside was a mere forerunner of the entertainment offered on the screen in this motion picture novelty called “Footlight Parade,” with all its beauty, its songs, its dances and its witty sayings. It has a swell idea, well conceived, elaborately executed, and the result is an entertainment ‘such as used to bring $27.50-on first nights from Broadway’s cheerful givers, Even more, for not all the chaftsmanship in the theatre could evolve the effects conjured by the talent of Busby Berkeley as mirrored by the cameras of Director Bacon, Gasps of astonishment were followed by thunderous applause as one after another of the picture’s spectacular sequences filled the screen. It was a big night in the movies, of the movies and for the movies. ~ Not only are there any num‘her of.stunning scenic arrange _*% ments, but there is a back-stage story that has the merit of originality among its many. For the. plot that holds the picture together tells the story of @ musical comedy producer who turns. to the creation of prologues for chains of motion picture theatres when he finds that the talkies have usurped. the sceptre from. all other entertainments. To trace the tale too closely would deprive you of the pleasant surprises awaiting at the Strand; so suffice it to say that the Jad; one James Cagney, has his own troubles both in business and romance before he finally ¢vens with chisellers, crossers and the various villains, male and female, who make his life far from a sweet song. Yes, of course he wins the girl, and she is Joan Blondell. Besides the inside stuff of the rehearsal hall, the song-writing, the idea department of a mon . ster prologue factory, there are ‘ the: prologues themselves — the ones that finally rout the com petition—and they are shown in alt their splendors right upon the screen. Maybe you'll like best the aquatic number, in which scores of Hollywood damsels so mingle with the spray and spume of 4 waterfall that the routines, water ballets, all the unusual and intricate figures executed seem as fluid and graceful as fhe water itself. Or perhaps you'll like the one in which Mr. Cagney, himself, is forced to jump into the breach at the last minute and turns out to be as clever a song-and-dance man as he is a champion tough guy of the cinema. Or perhaps you'll prefer—but there’s no point in telling you all. Go and select /your own favorite numbers. The same goes for the songs, for whether “Shanghai Lil,” “Honeymoon Hotel,” “By a Waterfall,” or one of the others pleases you most, you'll enjoy them all to the fullest extent. And ds for actors—look over the list! Beside those noted there are Guy Kibbee, Ruth Donnelly, Hugh Herbert, Frank McHugh, Arthur Hohl, Paul Porcasi and twenty more—not counting the girls that have figures that speak for themselves. "Surely, “Footlight Parade” stands right in the-cerlter of the ’ entertainment spotlight. It’s a tough one to top. USE N.Y. RAVES FOR LOBBY BLOW -UP 1—A ten chapter newspaper serialization. 2—Two pages of roto art, suitable for use as a unit or layouts for successive days. 3—Striking publicity art that embraces the spec tacles, the stars and the gorgeous girls. 4—An unusually interesting full newspaper page Sunday Feature. 5—A 30 Minute Radio Sketch. 6—A five column newspaper strip showing the ‘James Cagney Hop.” N.Y. NEWS DE” IS GREAT “FOOTLIGHT PARADE” ANOTHER MUSICAL HIT Bee By KATE CAMERON. A new James Cagney emerged from the Strand Theatre screen last night in “Footlight Parade.” This Cagney is a song and dance man. I seem to remember hearing that Cagney hoofed his way around several vaudeville circuits before the movies got him and kited him to fame. He’s a clever hoofer, and¢ ———————-——-_ — what's more, the boy can sing, He’s. inart: jn. the athew <2 <t--) Slms. @ givay assce vy wrainer Brothers’ {are in this one, too, and Joan ate new musical picture.” _ dell of “Gold Diggers” is also pres-; Third Musical Hit. ns ent, but it is really Mr. Caguey’s “Footlight Parade”-is the third picture. That is, Cagney plus the in the series of entertaining musiBerkeley chorus ensembles. The eal films which Warner Brothers latter come at-the end of the pichave'made in the last eight months, ture and are shown in three stun‘and it is a worthy successor to “42d Ning sequences, and are accompaStreet” and “Gold Diggers of nied each by ahit tune. They are, Broadway,” which turned out to be in the order of their appearance, such smash hits at the box office. |i “Honeymoon Hotel,” “By A WaterRuby Keeler, Dick Powell and jifall” and “Shanghai Lil.’ Guy. Kibbee, who had important! N.Y. JOURNAL ‘Footlight Parade’ At eight o’clock last evening, the Strand Theatre opened its doors for the first showing of ‘*Footlight Parade.’’ It was more like @ subway rush than a theatre premiere, with police | Cag ney Dances on hand to take care of the;|} And the third number ‘4s crowds that jammed the sideBe aati and danced walk. All of which proves||?¥ none other than James Cagney, something or other about. the| [tat Ruby Mecer and stil Inger popularity of screen musicals, sounds almost exactly like “Cryin’, for this is Warner’s third a) For The Carolines.” And the finale succession following the hugely oo ee pace 66 2? 1 @ TOUSIN Got Dine ence and! march that concludes with a pic igger : ture of President Roosevelt and ‘*Footlight Parade,’’ like the {the Blue Eagle. smaller than any good size lake you might mention. The audience applauded loud and vigorously as the chorines formed figure eights, pin-wheels and other designs as part of the elaborate routines devised by dance director Busby Berkeley, other two, features several a ed “yes out bs ene eh a oofer and an even better ; , spectacular dance numbers. and remains a grand actor. Joan One is ‘‘Honeymoon Hotel,’’ sung and danced in and out of hotel rooms by Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell and a large chorus. The second is “By A‘ Waterfall,” sung by Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell and a large chorus that disports itself in a pool only slightly. Blondell does her usual expert work as his devoted secretary who saves him from a gold-digger: played by Claire Dodd, and seen’ every now and then’ in between musical numbers are Frank McHugh, Guy Kibbee and Hugh | Herbert. NOTE TO EXHIBITOR: These reviews were caught as we went to press. Lack of time pre vented us from waiting until the rest of the reviews were published. Page Three