Paul Tremaine & His Aristocrats | 1929 | Musical, Short

Title: Paul Tremaine & His Aristocrats | 1929 | Musical, Short Studio: Warner Bros. / The Vitaphone Corporation Starring: Paul Tremaine and His Aristocrats Release Date: March 1929 Runtime: 9 minutes Format: Black-and-white; Vitaphone sound-on-disc Country: United States Language: English Genres: Musical; Short --- Chapters: 00:00:00 Opening and Railroad Medley 00:01:30 On the Road to Mandalay 00:03:20 Chinese Dream 00:05:30 Fanfare 00:07:30 Here Comes the Showboat --- Summary: A Vitaphone Varieties short, Paul Tremaine and His Aristocrats presents the band in staged performance, opening with a railroad-themed sequence that segues into a lively arrangement of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” The program then moves through popular selections of the day, spotlighting the group’s dance-band instrumentation and Tremaine’s leadership. Selections include “On the Road to Mandalay,” alongside additional numbers such as “Chinese Dream,” “Fanfare,” and “Here Comes the Showboat,” offering a snapshot of late-1920s popular music interpreted for early sound cinema. --- Background: Produced in New York as part of Warner Bros.’ Vitaphone Varieties series, the short exemplifies the studio’s early sound-on-disc presentations and the era’s vaudeville-to-screen transition. Reviewed in Film Daily’s special shorts issue dated March 31, 1929, it later resurfaced in home-video anthologies accompanying The Jazz Singer, preserving an example of band acts filmed at Vitaphone’s East Coast facilities. --- Trivia: The film is cataloged in the Vitaphone series as number 742 and was noted in the March 31, 1929 Film Daily shorts issue. The program includes “On the Road to Mandalay,” the hit by composer Oley Speaks based on Rudyard Kipling’s poem, here performed by Tremaine’s band. A later home-video release of The Jazz Singer included this short among its Vitaphone selections, aiding its modern rediscovery. Contemporary descriptions note an opening train montage leading into an up-tempo rendition of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” Tremaine led a prominent New York dance band in the late 1920s; recordings such as “Four Four Rhythm” and “Aristocratic Stomp” date from the same period as this short. --- Public Domain / Rights: Original Release: March 1929 Original Studio / Distributor: Warner Bros. / The Vitaphone Corporation Copyright Status: Unknown Renewal: Unknown --- Hashtags: PaulTremaine Vitaphone VitaphoneVarieties 1929 JazzAge WarnerBros PreCode PublicDomainFilm Source page: https: //commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_Tremaine_%26_His_Aristocrats_(1929).webm Direct media URL: https: //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Paul_Tremaine_%26_His_Aristocrats_%281929%29.webm