The Earl Carroll VANITIES had been a moderately successful series of revues through the late 20's and early 30's, running over 200 performances at a time when a show could see a profit after a hundred or so. The most recent VANITIES however, at the Broadway Theatre (Carroll had lost his handsome new Earl Carroll Theatre in the crash - it would soon be converted to a Woolworth's) could only manage 87 from September 27, 1932. It may have been footage from this edition which is included in this little short, since Carroll's next venture, MURDER AT THE VANITIES at the New Amsterdam (207 performances - a film was released May 16, 1934) didn't get up until September 8, 1933, and the database doesn't say how late in the year this short was released.
In any case, it is fascinating to see Carroll and major stage and film designer and later director (not to mention father of Liza Minnelli) Vincente Minnelli at this point in their careers, in addition to examples of the massed choreographic exercises of the era.
For a more complete picture of how good or bad the VANITIES numbers (and subject costumes) were in the context of their time (and the suspicion is that the clips were from the failed 1932 VANITIES), have a look at the Marx Brothers first film, COCOANUTS, filmed just a few years earlier in Astoria, Queens, at the end of its Broadway run and tour of "The Subway Circuit" in 1929.
In any case, it is fascinating to see Carroll and major stage and film designer and later director (not to mention father of Liza Minnelli) Vincente Minnelli at this point in their careers, in addition to examples of the massed choreographic exercises of the era.
For a more complete picture of how good or bad the VANITIES numbers (and subject costumes) were in the context of their time (and the suspicion is that the clips were from the failed 1932 VANITIES), have a look at the Marx Brothers first film, COCOANUTS, filmed just a few years earlier in Astoria, Queens, at the end of its Broadway run and tour of "The Subway Circuit" in 1929.
