King of Jazz: Paul Whiteman's Technicolor Revue

by James Layton, David Pierce, Michael Feinstein (Foreword)

King of Jazz: Paul Whiteman’s Technicolor Revue tells the untold story of the making, release and restoration of Universal’s 1930 Technicolor musical extravaganza King of Jazz.

Authors James Layton and David Pierce have uncovered original artwork, studio production files, behind-the-scenes photographs, personal papers, unpublished interviews, and a host of other previously unseen documentation. The book offers a richly illustrated narrative of the film's production, with broader context on its diverse musical and theatrical influences. The story concludes with an in-depth look at the challenges Universal overcame in restoring the film in 2016. Additionally, the book's appendix provides a comprehensive guide to all of the film's performers, music, alternate versions, and deleted scenes. "King of Jazz" was one of the most ambitious films ever to emerge from Hollywood. Just as movie musicals were being invented in 1929, Universal Pictures brought together Paul Whiteman, leader of the country s top dance orchestra; John Murray Anderson, director of spectacular Broadway revues; a top ensemble of dancers and singers; early Technicolor; and a near unlimited budget.

The film's highlights include a dazzling interpretation of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, which Whiteman had introduced to the public in 1924; Walter Lantz's A Fable in Jazz, the first cartoon in Technicolor; and Anderson's grand finale The Melting Pot of Music, a visualization of popular music's many influences and styles.

The film is not only a unique document of Anderson's theatrical vision and Whiteman's band at its peak, but also of several of America s leading performers of the late 1920s, including Bing Crosby in his first screen appearance, and the Russell Markert Dancers, who would soon become Radio City Music Hall's famous Rockettes

304 pages, Hardcover

First published November 21, 2016

About the author

James Layton is Manager of the Museum of Modern Art’s Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Center. Prior to this he worked at George Eastman House in Rochester, NY, where he curated two gallery exhibitions and the website Technicolor 100, and co-wrote the book The Dawn of Technicolor (2015) with David Pierce. Layton has also acted as Cataloguer and Workflow Coordinator at the East Anglian Film Archive in Norwich, UK, and is co-author of the Image Permanence Institute’s informational poster Knowing and Protecting Motion Picture Film (2009).

Reviews

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the gold standard of film history books. Archivists James Layton and David Pierce have exhaustively researched the history of this film and lavishly illustrated it with many gorgeous photographs. The book traces the history of Paul Whiteman's jazz career, the story of Universal Studios, an aborted version that would have been directed by Paul Fejos, and the spectacular musical shows of eventual director John Murray Anderson. We are treated to the details of the filming of each musical number, and a scene-by-scene breakdown of the eventual film. The book covers the box-office results and critical response in America and the rest of the world. (Interestingly, the mega-hit and Oscar-winning ALL QUIT ON THE WESTERN FRONT film is intertwined with the production of this film.) Some of the most interesting aspects of this film's history are the multiple foreign-language versions that were prepared for Europe, South America and Japan. Finally, we learn about the difficult task of restoring the film to a version that is very close to the original release.

If you are a fan of early sound films, Pre-Code films, jazz music or Paul Whiteman you simply must read this book!

[Raquel · Rating 5 out of 5]

What started as a Kickstarter campaign turned into a fabulous book! I loved reading The Dawn of Technicolor and I had high expectations for Layton and Pierce's new book. Needless to say these expectations were met and then some. This book is gorgeous. It's full of black-and-white photographs, drawings, sketches, music, portraits and color stills from the film. It's smaller in trim size than The Dawn of Technicolor which makes for much more comfortable reading. A lot of love and attention was put in this book and it shows from the self cover down to the appendix.

Read my full review here: http://www.outofthepastblog.com/2017/...