Tammany Young

Short documentary about the Great Depression's impact on film, specifically Berkeley musicals.

Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.

Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.

When all Broadway shows are shut down during the Depression, a trio of desperate showgirls scheme to bilk a repugnant high society man of his money to keep their show going.

After he inherits some money, Harold Bissonette ("pronounced bis-on-ay") decides to give up the grocery business, move to California and run an orange grove. Despite his family's objections and the news that the land he bought is worthless, Bissonette packs up and drives out to California with his nagging wife Amelia and children.

New York singer and nightclub owner Lady Lou has more male friends than can be imagined. One is a vicious escaped criminal on the way to see 'his' girl, unaware she hasn't exactly been faithful in his absence. Help is at hand in the form of young Captain Cummings, a local temperance league leader.

Kitty Lorraine has one purpose in life: turning her daughter Shirley into a star. Kitty controls every aspect of the girl's nascent career -- even blackmailing a stage manager so that Shirley can take a more prestigious gig. But Kitty goes too far when she breaks up her daughter's budding relationship with sweet artist Warren Foster. Heartbroken, Shirley sets off on a series of disastrous but profitable relationships.

An ex-gang member tries to resist his old cohorts' criminal influence after he suddenly becomes a Hollywood movie star.

Mary stands by Jack after the Depression of 1929 but considers divorce when he again becomes successful by 1935. Bill, who loves Mary, works at keeping them together.

Generational saga tracing the events in the lives of the midwest pioneering Nordholm family, as seen through the eyes of businessman Orin Nordholm Jr., who ages from a youth to an elderly grandfather.

Adam Larey becomes a fugitive from justice when he escapes after being blamed for a crime he did not commit. He wanders into the desert wastelands and joins an outlaw gang who prey on gold prospectors. Years later, he meets his wife and her gold-prospecting father as they have come there seeking their fortune, and not knowing the danger of the treacherous desert wastes, the poisoned-water holes and the outlaw bands of marauders who roam the desert in search of the gold found by others. He comes to their aid and, eventually, manges to clear his name of the false charge against him.

Sam Bisbee is an inventor whose works (e.g., a keyhole finder for drunks) have brought him only poverty. His daughter is in love with the son of the town snob. Events conspire to ruin his bullet-proof tire just as success seems near. Another of his inventions prohibits him from committing suicide, so Sam decides to go on living.

Hard-working, henpecked Ambrose Ambrose Wolfinger takes off from work to go to a wrestling match with catastrophic consequences.

"In the Gay Nineties New York had grown up into bustles and balloon Sleeves ... but The Bowery had grown younger, louder and more rowdy until it was known as the 'Livest Mile on the face of the globe' ... the cradle of men who were later to be famous.

A New York tramp falls in love with the mayor's amnesiac girlfriend after rescuing her from a suicide attempt.

A con man and his partner inherit a dead gangster's precocious daughter.

Owen, a small time bookie, decides to open an insurance business as it involves lesser risk. His first client is Colonel Youngblood who insures his daughter, Marilyn, against marriage.

The Great McGonigle and his troupe of third-rate vaudevillians manage to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors and the sheriff.

G-Man Jeff Crane poses as a crook to infiltrate the notorious Purple Gang, a band of hoodlums which preys upon other hoodlums. Orchestrating the jailbreak of the gang's leader, Crane joins him in a Dillinger-like flight across the country.

Edna's grandfather is a conductor of a small orchestra that gives concerts in the park every Sunday. Because of lack of audience the city officials want to cancel these concerts. To stop this from happening, Judy and Edna gather a crowd the following Sunday; and to keep its attention, they themselves perform with the orchestra. Edna sings an aria and Judy sings 'Americana'.

Tugboat, the Narcissus, is owned and captained by Annie Brennan, and among her crew are her alcoholic but good-natured husband, Terry, and her conscientious son, Alec. Annie continually loses business because of Terry's drunken mistakes. Alec wants to quit school to work on the tug full time, but Annie will not sacrifice her son's education. A grown Alec has followed in his mother's footsteps and becomes a mariner, but a more upscale one as the captain of a luxury liner. Alec returns home with his fiancée, Pat - the boss' daughter - with a grand plan to save Annie from the life that drunkard Terry has provided her. But ultimately, it's Annie and Terry that need to be Alec's savior, and by their move show him the meaning of true commitment.

Big Steve Halloway, gambler and proprietor of New York's Horseshoe Cabaret, is in desperate need of money. He arranges for his fellow bookies, especially Sorrowful Jones, to each pay him $1,000 for his racehorse, Dream Prince, to lose. With all bets being placed at the window, Sorrowful encounters a gambler, having lost $500, wanting to place his bet but unable to come up with $20. Instead, he places his little girl, Marthy Jane, as security, or in bookie's terms a "marker". "Marky", as she comes to be known, winds up under the care of Sorrowful Jones and his lady friend, singer Bangles Carson.

An aspiring writer and her boyfriend, a professional agitator head off to the Big Apple in search of good fortune. Unfortunately, the agitator soon finds himself in trouble with the cops. Meanwhile the writer attempts to become a Greenwich Village Bohemian type. She and her new friends are all starving for their art until a kindly gent offers them financial assistant. They refuse on principle. Tragedy pays a call when the writer learns that her boyfriend has been untrue.

A kooky waiter and sometimes vaudevillian promises to get his employer's daughter into a Broadway show. When he kidnaps the show's star, she gets her opportunity, as the understudy, to play the role and become a star herself.

One woman faces many trials on the road to romance after unwittingly marrying a bigamist, then a carnival barker, and then falling for a young engineer.

20th Century Fox's highly fabricated film biography of circus showman P. T. Barnum stars Wallace Beery (as Barnum), Virginia Bruce (as Jenny Lind), Janet Beecher and Adolphe Menjou. Released in 1934.

An insight into the gossip among window mannequins as they come to life when no one's watching.

Always-broke racetrack tout shows his true colors when setting up an apartment for his girl friend.

When Paul Madvig, a successful politician who fights his rivals to seize the city, becomes implicated in a murder, Ed Beaumont, his friend and right-hand man, must decide which side he is on.

Jack Benny, his finances at a low ebb, watches a newsstand for a friend and picks up a young lady customer, equally broke.

An unemployed loafer who spends his time playing pool decides he's ready to look for a job so he can secure his girlfriend's parents' approval for their marriage.

Judge Henry L. Foster throws his daughter out as she's married a circus man. She leaves her baby girl with Professor Eustance McGargle before she dies. Years later, Sally is a dancer with whom Peyton, a son of Judge Foster's friend, falls in love.

When he loses both his wife and child, Montgomery Rogers adopts his servants' little girl and raises her as his own. Completely unaware of her origins, Emerie grows up to be a first class snob. Her socially ambitious aunt takes her to Europe to become engaged to Brooks Fitzroy, an impoverished lord (Cyril Chadwick). On the voyage back she encounters a young man, Dick Clarke who is working for his passage.

This silent drama's story is based on the Broadway play Hail and Farewell by William Hurlbut.

Wealthy young Herbert Alden, a would-be detective, is practicing housebreaking with his valet, an ex-convict, when he meets George and Polly, two real thieves; they are discovered and, following a chase, they go to Herbert's city apartment. George arranges with one of them, Tony-the-Lizard, to rob the guests at a ball given by Herbert's father at his country home. Herbert discovers that Tony is Tracy Sutton, a social lion engaged to Herbert's sister Roberta; and believing Herbert to be a famous criminal, Tony seeks his advice.

For the sake of a woman, Robert Morton serves a prison sentence and is disowned by his father, Henry. He is freed after several years and arrives in San Francisco, California, where he meets Camille Balishaw in a Barbary Coast saloon. She offers Robert shelter and aids in his rehabilitation, but his prison record prevents him from holding a job. After Camille and Robert are married, he finds another job and gradually regains his self-respect. Henry has a change of heart and seeks out Robert, asking him to return home, but without Camille. Robert remains loyal to his wife, forcing Henry to relent as he realizes the depth of their love.

Bedford Mills, wounded in France, meets aristocratic Helen Jessop at a party given by her father for returning war heroes in his Fifth Avenue home. Bedford falls violently in love with Helen, but discovering that he is only a poor bank clerk she insists that he must first become a man of importance. He decides that, in view of the soaring prices of shoes, he will refuse to wear shoes on the street. Causing a sensation, he is arrested and then released, but all New York reads of his exploits.

British bank cashier Eldred Caldwell lives with his wife on the edge of the Arabian desert. One day a man named Richard Manners appears at their doorstep. He has some incriminating information about Eldred, who is so devastated he disappears, an apparent suicide. His wife flees into the desert, with Manners in hot pursuit. She is taken in by an unlikely rescuer and years later, after she becomes a nurse when World War I ends, she makes a startling discovery.

Swindler Arthur Montrose has tricked Marion Bates into getting committed to an insane asylum, after cheating her and her friends out of all of their money. She escapes and winds up with a criminal gang headed by Jim Brennan. Complications ensue.

A group of New York society folk on a yachting excursion are forced to put into a New England fishing village for repairs. The engaged couple Reggie and Patricia are taken with the quaint town and its quainter ways, but also with two locals, Betty Alden and her brother John. Patricia begins to fall for John while her fiancé takes a seemingly unworthy liking to Betty. The new infatuations lead to disharmony.

Bill Dana, a New York City playboy, can't resist the flaming flappers and red-hot mamas along the Great White Way, so he decides to head out west to his uncle's ranch in Wind River, Texas. But the gold-diggers and their relatives follow him.

Bryce Gilbert convinces his daughter, Virginia, that she should not elope with a casual boyfriend and sends her to Italy to stay with his fiancée, Duchess Bianca.

Talented boxer Benny Leonard suffers a series of personal and professional setbacks and must find the inner strength and physical discipline to return to the ring to reclaim his title and prove his worth to his skeptics and his love interest, Helen.

Lenora, caught in Spanish-Dutch conflict, becomes a spy, initially against the Dutch for her Spanish lover Ramón, but after his death, switches allegiance, helps the Dutch capture a fortress, and is reunited with her beloved Mark, a Dutch commander, realizing the justness of their cause and finding love.

Philanthropical druggist Daniel Abbott, occasionally robs the rich to take care of the poor, goes to court with his young ward, Jimmy Nolan. In the courtroom Daniel meets Mrs. Warren, who, despondent over her inability to care for a newborn baby, has been charged with attempted suicide. Daniel takes mother and daughter under his wing, watching with pride as the girl, Helen, and his ward, Jimmy, grow to a tender adolescence. Sylvester Doane, a tenement owner, falls in love with Helen, and Daniel makes plans to rob him. Jimmy learns with shock of the plans and goes to Doane's apartment to prevent the robbery. Jimmy takes the gems to forestall his father, but he is found with them in his possession and put in jail.

The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.

A swindler scams a newspaper reporter-photographer and then, not realizing where the man is employed, applies for a job at his newspaper.

Edward Campbell, known as Checkers, is a racetrack tout. Determined to reform himself, he foreswears gambling, but must take it up once more in order to save someone he loves from disaster.

Molly O, a young girl abandoned by her wealthy painter father, David King, after her mother's death; she endures an orphanage and a cruel boardinghouse before her father, remorseful and famous, unknowingly adopts the impostor niece of the orphanage matron instead, leading to Molly's return as a maid in his home, ultimately revealing her true identity and reuniting them. Version destroyed by fire.

Bill, an initially unkempt office boy, world is changed when he becomes infatuated with Genevieve Reilly, a girl working in a different office. Driven by his desire to attract her attention, Bill begins to clean up his act and appearance, eventually turning into what a jealous coworker terms a "regular dude". The film culminates in Bill taking Genevieve out to lunch to impress her with his new, sophisticated persona.

Suffering from aphasia after being conked on the head, a man is coerced into robbing his fiancée's home.

A wealthy young woman, unfulfilled in life, volunteers to work in the overseas war effort. But when she returns from the war, she finds her old life still holds little meaning for her. She rounds up all young soldiers she knew in the war and with them sets out to make a better world for them and for others less fortunate.

Office worker Ethel decides to host a luncheon party on the office roof while her boss is away. Two male co-workers, Bill and his pal, decide they should be invited as well and join the party uninvited. Ethel, displeased by their intrusion, enlists her other male guests to remove the pair from the roof, conflict of a comic nature ensues.

Rich artist David King sends his infant daughter Molly to an orphanage, then years later regrets it and tries to find her. She's sent to slave at a boarding house,and the mistress of the orphanage passes her niece off as Molly.

Office boy Bill encounters a group of anarchists and inadvertently involves one of them in a scheme to open a safe. The "W.W.W.'s" stands for "We Won't Work", a comedic take on the real-life labor movement, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, or "Wobblies").

World War I, October 1918. The more than 500 men of the 77th Infantry Division of the United States Army, who have been recruited in New York City and trained in Yaphank, are sent to France, to help break down the German defenses located in the Argonne forest…

Silent comedy short film about Mr. Hadley's fiancée, Ethel, and her new "steady" relationship with a lunch counter employee named Bill.

A daughter of the slums has a little brother and makes a brave attempt to earn enough for both herself and Jimmy after her father is sent to jail on a fake charge trumped-up by "Nifty" Mendez, who is very anxious to get her in his toils. Betty escapes from the city and Nifty. On the road Jimmy is struck by Rodney Channing's motor. The injury is not serious but Jimmy must remain in Channing's home for some time. During the visit, love grows up between Channing and Betty, who is now of course very happy. But a newspaper announcement and the author send Nifty again into her life and simultaneously with his entrance comes the exit of happiness.

Mr. Hadley shows Bill a photograph of his fiancée, Alice Mordaunt, and instructs Bill to admit her immediately should she arrive at the office. Bill leaves for lunch. Upon his return, he discovers his boss kissing Ethel, who is Mr. Hadley's sister, not his fiancée. Bill, unaware of their family relationship, is horrified, believing his boss is being unfaithful to Alice Mordaunt. Feeling a strong sense of loyalty to the absent fiancée, Bill decides to get even with his boss. He informs Mr. Hadley's real fiancée, Alice, about his boss's perceived "duplicity". The outcome is a comical situation as Bill's interference leads to misunderstandings and fallout, which is how Bill "squares it" with his boss.

A wealthy young athlete comes to the aid of a beautiful heiress, whose fortune is being threatened by two arch villains, The Great Master and Doctor Zulph.