Paramount on Parade

Paramount on Parade is a 1930 all-star American pre-Code revue released by Paramount Pictures, directed by several directors including Edmund Goulding, Dorothy Arzner, Ernst Lubitsch, Rowland V. Lee, A. Edward Sutherland, Lothar Mendes, Otto Brower, Edwin H. Knopf, Frank Tuttle, and Victor Schertzinger—all supervised by the production supervisor, singer, actress, and songwriter Elsie Janis.

Paramount on Parade

Edmund Goulding and 10 other directors

Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Jesse L. Lasky
Adolph Zukor
Albert S. Kaufman
Elsie Janis
B. P. Schulberg

Victor Milner
Harry Fischbeck

Merrill G. White

Harold Jackson
Richard A. Whiting
Elsie Janis
Ballard MacDonald

Paramount Pictures

April 22, 1930 (1930-04-22)

102 minutes

United States

English

Featured stars included Jean Arthur, Richard Arlen, Clara Bow, Evelyn Brent, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Jack Oakie, Helen Kane, Maurice Chevalier, Nancy Carroll, George Bancroft, Kay Francis, Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, Gary Cooper, Fay Wray, Lillian Roth and other Paramount stars. The screenplay was written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, produced by Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky, with cinematography by Victor Milner and Harry Fischbeck.

"Title Sequence" during Credits with and George Bancroft (lost footage; only sound survives)^[4]

Kay Francis

"Showgirls on Parade" with (lost Technicolor footage; only sound survives)^[4]

Mitzi Mayfair

"We're the Masters of Ceremony" , Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, and Leon Errol introduce themselves as MC's of the film

Jack Oakie

"Love Time" and Lillian Roth

Charles "Buddy" Rogers

"Murder Will Out" , Clive Brook, Warner Oland, Eugene Pallette, and Oakie

William Powell

"Origin of the Apache" and Evelyn Brent do a parody of an Apache dance

Maurice Chevalier

"Song of the Gondolier" sings "Come Back to Sorrento" (Technicolor; survives complete)

Nino Martini

"In a Hospital" Leon Errol, , Phillips Holmes, and David Newell

Jean Arthur

"In a Girl's Gym" Jack Oakie, and

Zelma O'Neal

"The Toreador" and Harry Green (as Isadore the Toreador) parody Carmen (Technicolor; survives complete)

Kay Francis

"The Montmartre Girl" , Stu Erwin, Fredric March, Stanley Smith, Jack Pennick

Ruth Chatterton

"Park in Paris"

Maurice Chevalier

"Mitzi Herself"

Mitzi Green

"The Schoolroom" , Mitzi Green. Kane sings "What Did Cleopatra Say?" to her class

Helen Kane

"The Gallows Song" Skeets Gallagher and (Technicolor footage survives; sound missing, current prints use King's commercial vocal recording of the song.)^[4]

Dennis King

"Dance Mad" and Abe Lyman's Band

Nancy Carroll

"Dream Girl" , Jean Arthur, Mary Brian, James Hall, Gary Cooper, and Fay Wray sing "Let Us Drink To The Girl Of My Dreams" (Technicolor footage survives; sound missing)^[4]

Richard Arlen

"The Redhead" , and 42 Navy men sing "True to the Navy"

Clara Bow

"Impulses" , Kay Francis, and Cecil Cunningham

George Bancroft

"Rainbow Revels" finale Chevalier and girls' chorus (including and Virginia Bruce) sing "Sweeping the Clouds Away" (in Technicolor; survives only in black-and-white)^[4]

Iris Adrian

Galas de Paramount (Spanish) premiered in in early August, 1930, in Buenos Aires August 28, 1930 and in Los Angeles September 7, 1930; with Ramón Pereda, Barry Norton, Rosita Moreno as hosts to sequences from the original version and new sequences featuring Juan Pulido, Ernesto Vilches, Albertina Rasch as well as Nino Martini and Mitzi Green in both new and original-version segments.

New York

Paramount en parade (French) with , Nino Martini, Jeanette MacDonald, Saint-Granier, Marguerite Moreno, Louis-Jacques Boucot, Fanny Clair, and Charles de Rochefort (Rochefort also directed)

Maurice Chevalier

Parada Paramount (Romanian) with ; directed by Rochefort

Pola Illéry

Paramount op Parade (Dutch) with , Mien Duymaer van Twist, and Louis Davids; directed by Job Weening

Theo Frenkel Jr.

A large number of foreign-language versions were shot including:

At Paramount's Hollywood studio, Ernst Rolf and his Norwegian wife, Tutta Rolf, filmed introductions and sequences for the Scandinavian version. Japanese comedian Suisei Matsui introduced the film in Japan. Mira Zimińska and Mariusz Maszynski appeared in the Polish version, and Dina Gralla and Eugen Rex appeared in the German version. Paramount filmed most of the above versions, along with Czech, Hungarian, Serbian, and Italian versions, at their Joinville Studios in Paris.

Paramount on Parade