Vitaphone Varieties is a series title (represented by a pennant logo on screen) used for all of Warner Bros.' earliest short film "talkies" of the 1920s, initially made using the Vitaphone sound on disc process before a switch to the sound-on-film format early in the 1930s. These were the first major film studio-backed sound films, initially showcased with the 1926 synchronized scored features Don Juan and The Better 'Ole. Although independent producers like Lee de Forest's Phonofilm were successfully making sound film shorts as early as 1922, they were very limited in their distribution and their audio was generally not as loud and clear in theaters as Vitaphone's. The success of the early Vitaphone shorts, initially filmed only in New York, helped launch the sound revolution in Hollywood.
Overview The series featured many great vaudeville and musical performers of the 1920s. Classical musicians who dominated the early days of recorded sound made their film debuts, along with the many future stars of radio's "golden age": Fred Allen, Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Edgar Bergen, Jack Haley just to name a few. Several top stars at Warner Bros. and other studios like Joe E. Brown, Joan Blondell, William Demarest, Claire Trevor, Sylvia Sidney, Humphrey Bogart and Spencer Tracy first appeared on screen in ten-minute dramatic and comedy sketches, as did a few silent stars making the transition like Blanche Sweet.
Al Jolson filmed A Plantation Act in August 1926, a full year before The Jazz Singer. When Warner Brothers decided to promote the feature as Jolson's talkie debut, the earlier short was removed from circulation. Initially thought lost, it was restored, in part by the Vitaphone Project's efforts, for a laser disc set in the 1990s and later released on DVD with the feature.Liebman, Roy. Vitaphone Films – A Catalogue of the Features and Shorts. 2003. McFarland & Company, p. 13
At the time, there was much fear that these little films (and the sound features that followed) would kill vaudeville, a fear that was justified for many individual performers. While there was always a chance that a stage performer could become a household name by appearing in these, his or her act could no longer be repeated on stage, town after town, once one filmed performance appeared in theaters across the country. A few comedy acts for Vitaphone even made light of this fact, particularly Georgie Price’s 1929 title, Don't Get Nervous.
Although the term "Vitaphone Variety" was still used with some Warner film shorts running under one reel (or 10 minutes) well into the 1950s, the trade periodicals marketed them under different logos after the 1931–32 season: Pepper Pots and Vitaphone Novelties (after 1936), while lengthier productions (running two reels or 20 minutes) morphed into the Broadway Brevities. By this time, the primary producer in charge was Samuel Sax,Maltin, Leonard. The Great Movie Shorts. 1972. Bonanza Books, p. 22Koszarski, Richard. Hollywood On the Hudson: Film and Television in New York from Griffith to Sarnoff. 2008. Rutgers University Press, p. 157 who oversaw the majority of the New York filmed productions. Later titles completed in California in the forties and fifties sometimes recycled the "Vitaphone Variety" logo, but were usually marketed in the trade periodicals as either "Hollywood Novelties" or "Warner Novelties" and were mostly documentary rather than musical or comedy acts. Among this later group, two 1945-46 titles, Story of a Dog and Smart as a Fox, were nominees for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in the one-reel category.
Recent rediscovery The impact that the earliest Vitaphone Varieties had on world cinema has been a frequent footnote in many film history books, but it was only in recent decades that books have bothered to analyze them in depth (among them, Roy Liebman's Vitaphone Films and Edwin M. Bradley's The First Hollywood Sound Shorts, 1926–1931).
The Vitaphone Project only started in 1991 rounding up missing discs and matching them with films made before the studio switched to optical film soundtracks. Three years later, MGM/UA issued the first group of them to laser disc, with Warner releasing the first significant number on DVD as part of a multi-disc edition of The Jazz Singer. Since then, the Warner Archive Collection has made more available in a series of sets, as well as re-releasing Don Juan with its accompanying shorts.
List of Vitaphone Varieties The following list is not complete but fairly close. The 1926–1932 titles (the official "Vitaphone Varieties") are arranged by the Vitaphone title card numbers. They are then grouped by the year in which they were filmed, but not necessarily the same year they were released to theaters. If known, that date is listed right after the major credits (just the key director, if known, and the performers). Sometimes the date Film Daily reviewed it or the copyright date (©) is listed. DVD availability is also listed at the end of each line.Liebman, Roy. Vitaphone Films – A Catalogue of the Features and Shorts. 2003. McFarland & CompanyMotion Pictures 1912–1939 Catalog of Copyright Entries. 1951. Library of Congress
1926 Listed by Vitaphone number. Filmed in 1926 in New York City. #TitleDirectorRelease, copyright or review datePerformersFilmDistributorNotes116Pagliacci February 1926Pagliacci & Vitaphone Symphony First Warner Bros. short film131Bob Witt and Cy Berg April 1926Bob Witt & Cy Berg with Vitaphone Symphony165Rin Tin Tin April 1926 Rin Tin Tin and Corporal Lee Duncan test film178The Volga Boatman May 1926 Vitaphone Symphony183An Evening on the Don August 6, 1926Shown at the premiere of Don Juan (1926 film). 192Introduction of Vitaphone Sound Pictures August 6, 1926Will H. Hays Don Juan (1926 film) DVD198Giovanni Martinelli August 6, 1926Giovanni Martinelli Don Juan (1926 film) DVD263Overture to Mignon August 6, 1926Henry Kimball Hadley & the New York Philharmonic274 & 275Mischa Elman August 6, 1926Mischa Elman (released as two separate film shorts) Don Juan (1926 film) DVD278Polonaise in A Flat © April 7, 1927Harold Bauer 281Efrem Zimbalist & Harold Bauer Duet August 6, 1926Efrem Zimbalist & Harold Bauer Don Juan (1926 film) DVD294La Fiesta August 6, 1926Anna Case, The Cansinos, Metropolitan Opera Chorus Don Juan (1926 film) DVD296Swanee River © April 8, 1927Anna Case, Roy Smeck & the Dixie Jubilee Singers301The Recording Doris Becker302His Pastimes August 6, 1926Roy Smeck Don Juan (1926 film) DVD308Marion Talley August 6, 1926Marion Talley Don Juan (1926 film) DVD314Overture Tannhäuser August 6, 1926 Henry Kimball Hadley & the New York Philharmonic Don Juan (1926 film) DVD316Overture William Tell August 6, 1926The New York Philharmonic339Behind the Lines October 7, 1926Elsie Janis Shown at the premiere of The Better 'Ole (1926 film); The Jazz Singer DVD349Between the Acts at the Opera October 7, 1926Willie and Eugene Howard Shown at the premiere of The Better 'Ole (1926 film); Vitaphone Cavalcade of Musical Comedy Shorts (Warner Archive) DVD355George Jessel A Theatrical Booking Office October 7, 1926George Jessel Shown at the premiere of The Better 'Ole (1926 film)359A Plantation Act October 7, 1926 Al Jolson Shown at the premiere of The Better 'Ole (1926 film); The Jazz Singer DVD361 & 365 Reinald Werrenrath © March 12, 1927Reinald Werrenrath (released as two separate film shorts); Shown at the premiere of The Better 'Ole (1926 film)366Modern Song and Syncopation © April 2, 1927The Four Aristocrats - Eddie Lewis, Fred Weber, Bert Bennet & Tom Miller379Mme Schumann-Heink © April 2, 1927 Ernestine Schumann-Heink380Madame Schumann-Heink © April 4, 1927 Ernestine Schumann-Heink381The Spirit of 1918 Overture October 7, 1926Herman Heller & Vitaphone Orchestra Shown at the premiere of The Better 'Ole (1926 film)383Way Down South October 7, 1926Mary Lewis390 & 391Vincent Lopez and His Orchestra October 7, 1926 Vincent Lopez (released as two separate film shorts)392Charles Hackett © March 12, 1927Charles Hackett393A Studio Scene October 7, 1926Bruce Bairnsfather394Jack Smith the Whispering Baritone © March 12, 1927Whispering Jack Smith416 & 417 English Singers © April 2, 1927Flora Mann, Lillian Berger, Norman Stone, Nellie Carson, Norman Motley and Cuthbert Kelly (released as two separate film shorts)418What Price Piano © March 12, 1927Pauline Alpert419Pauline Alpert © March 12, 1927Pauline Alpert?Casey at the Bat 1926DeWolf Hopper
1927 Listed by Vitaphone number. Filmed in 1927 both in Brooklyn (NYC) and Hollywood (LA)