BABY ROSEMARIE - THE CHILD WONDER
From a website devoted to the Vitaphone
Project which is working to preserve soundtracks
from early talkies and Musical Shorts and pair them with their films.
One
of the most thrilling and gratifying developments in our Project has
been talking to the talented Rose Marie who, in 1929, made a one-reel
short as "Baby Rose Marie". Long thought to be lost, the
separate film and disc elements have been located. Project member
John Newton has been a long time Rose Marie fan, and held the disc
for this short. He has since sent her a cassette of the rousing
soundtrack. Rose Marie tells us she's been looking for this short for
over 60 years, and had really given up hopes of ever seeing it again.
The Project is actively pursuing options to get the film and disc
synched up again. The still shown here is from Rose Marie's own
scrapbook. She was too young to recall making this short, or two 1932
Vitaphone "Rambling 'Round Radio Row" one reelers. Her film
recollections really begin with the frequently broadcast
"International House" (Paramount, 1933), which features her
atop a piano singing "My Bluebird's Singing The Blues"
Editor's Note: Since the above posting, The film and soundtrack of the Musical Short "The Child Wonder" have been restored. It's 9 minutes in length. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented "The Child Wonder" along with 13 other restored Warner Bros. musical shorts, many of which were shot in Technicolor using the early Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. Musical shorts were produced to play as part of a theatrical package before the feature attraction, accoding to Academy officials. And the mini-movies, with an average running time of 10 or 20 minutes each, also served as a means for studios to test new talent in front of the cameras.
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