Great selection of music hall entertainers including Rob Wilton, Stanelli and his Violin and Teddy Brown.
Edited by Monty Redknap. Camera: Ken Gordon, Monty Redknap, Jan Sikorski. Introduced by Jack Watson (Hubert) with Celia Tomlin.
Reel 1. Jack Watson is smartly dressed as an M.C. and introduces various music hall acts. He does impressions of each of the acts and places a card with their name on inside a frame before they are featured.
First up is the Harry Parry Sextet with a clarinet player (probably Harry himself) taking the lead in a swing version of 'You Are My Lucky Star'. Intercut with great footage of dancing jitterbug couples obviously not at the same event. C/Us of various orchestra members including a black pianist.
Stanelli and his Violin - he's a comedian as well as a violinist. He makes a joke about a honeymoon couple and a hot water bottle. Eventually he begins playing but the strings of his bow fall off. He manages to play "Deep in the Heart of Texas" by putting the violin between the strings and the wood of his bow.
Jack Watson (aided by a glamorous Celia Tomlin) introduces Carroll Gibbons at the piano who plays "It's Only You" and "The Way There" (or "The Way That"?).
CONTINUED - See reels 2, 3 and 4.
nednewitt says
This film is from 1943, not 1938.
Harry Parry did not have a sextet with the line up seen in this film until 1942. He recorded the tune in this film (You Are My Lucky Star) in 1943 and the arrangement in the film is very similar to the record. The likely personnel are:
Dave Wilkins (trumpet), - born in Barbados in 1914
Harry Parry (clarinet),
Derek Neville (alto sax)
Ken Oldham (tenor sax),
York De Souza (piano), - born Jamaica
Sam Molineaux (b),
Sid Raymond (d).