A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic | 1929 | Musical, Short

Title: A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic | 1929 | Musical, Short Director: Joseph Santley. Studio: Paramount Famous Lasky Corp. Starring: Eddie Cantor; Eddie Elkins; Richard Dix; Mary Eaton; Oscar Shaw. Release Date: May 4, 1929. Runtime: 15 minutes. Format: Black-and-white; Western Electric sound; 1.18:1. Country: United States. Language: English. Genres: Musical; Short; Performance. --- Chapters: 00:00:00 Opening titles and chorus line 00:02:00 Audience introductions 00:03:30 Eddie Cantor’s monologue 00:05:00 Song: I Faw Down An’ Go Boom 00:08:30 Song: If I Give Up the Saxophone 00:11:30 Automobile Horn Song and finale --- Summary: Filmed as a staged late-night revue, A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic presents Eddie Cantor performing comedy and three novelty songs, framed by an opening chorus number led by Eddie Elkins and his orchestra. Audience cutaways acknowledge contemporary stars Richard Dix, Mary Eaton, and Oscar Shaw, evoking the atmosphere of Florenz Ziegfeld’s famed rooftop entertainments. The short functions as an early-sound showcase for Cantor’s high-energy persona, blending topical jokes with vaudeville-style musical patter in a compact, performance-driven format. --- Background: Though associated with Ziegfeld’s New Amsterdam Theatre “Midnight Frolic,” the picture’s credits state it was produced at Paramount’s Long Island studios. Directed by Joseph Santley, it premiered in New York on March 7, 1929, and opened nationwide on May 4, 1929. The production uses Western Electric sound recording and features numbers including I Faw Down An’ Go Boom, If I Give Up the Saxophone , and Eddie Cantor’s Automobile Horn Song. --- Trivia: AFI notes that Cantor appears in blackface, a common but now-recognized offensive stage practice of the era; his songs and monologue in the film do not reference African American culture. Contemporary reviewers and trade sources used alternate titles, including Midnite Frolics and The Midnight Frolic. Audience cameos include Richard Dix and Ziegfeld performers Mary Eaton and Oscar Shaw, then co-starring in the Marx Brothers feature The Cocoanuts. Filmographies list the short as approximately two reels; most surviving releases run about 14–15 minutes. Some historical sources report a brief anaglyph 3D sequence using the Porter-Waddell stereoscopic process; the film is commonly listed among early partial-3D titles. --- Public Domain / Rights: Original Release: May 4, 1929. Original Studio / Distributor: Paramount Famous Lasky Corp. / Paramount Pictures. Copyright Status: Public Domain . Renewal: Unknown. --- Hashtags: AZiegfeldMidnightFrolic EddieCantor Paramount PublicDomain 1929 PreCode ShortFilm Musical Ziegfeld Source page: https: //commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Ziegfeld_Midnight_Frolic_(1929).webm Direct media URL: https: //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/A_Ziegfeld_Midnight_Frolic_%281929%29.webm