@GypsyFairy85 Let's get this straight. I can sing better than Ruby could, she could dance circles around me and had more personality in her baby fingers than I have in my whole body. Two out of three ain't bad.
@GypsyFairy85 I was trying to be objective about her film roles. As far as Ruby's marriage to Al Jolson, you must know more than I do. My comment had nothing to do with her personal life.
I love these old WB Musicals This is the only busby berkley film Ive not seen
Pettin was just kissin and holding each other when a guy and a girl was getting ready to have sex or in a park or on a street corner just what 6th graders do these days
Who would have known that such an innocent sequence with little Billy Barty would have led to so much controversy. Thankfully, he didn't hurt himself with the can opener. He was such a smart kid.
Watched this fantastic film for the first time yesterday! I'm so excited to share it with my friends, we're all history buffs so I'm sure they'll enjoy the historical setting of the movie as much as I did. :)
Very saucy ~ what with the girls showin their suspendered legs ~ very risque ~ & the bit at the end when he wants her top off for some serious petting ! Ha !
It was called "The Roaring Twenties" for a reason... and it sure didn't tone down by the 1930's!! All they did was drink, party, dance, and drink some more! Yet they somehow managed to party with class unlike girls these days :( lol
@valaurwen That's not true at all. There are plenty of pre-code movies with full frontal nudity and blatant sexual situations. Of course, in real life people were doing exactly what they've always done.
aaaand girls were not baring their tits for beads and pissing and vomiting on the street the way they do today (and seem to think that it's acceptable today)..... Like I said....
@valaurwen None of that is true. You're attempting to whitewash the past. You seem to be making a reference to New Orleans. Surely you must be familiar with Storyville, where girls did a lot more than bare their tits for beads... for everyone from the chief of police to the mayor. And don't even get me started about the 30s. Girls turned tricks for cans of beans in the 30s. Your puritanical hoo-ha is a conceit of the Hayes Code, that didn't reflect reality in the slightest.
lmao "Puritanical"... right... because in referring to everyday girls of today and the 20's and 30's I was referring to prostitutes...? Yeah, you make alot of sense. If your NON-prostitute female of the 20's and/or 30's behaved as disgustingly as everyday working-class to upper class girls do today she'd've been shunned and branded a harlot. Eccentrics like Josephine Baker and Mae West were independent performers and socialites not to be idiotically compared with prostitutes of old New Orleans.
@valaurwen First of all, "alot" isn't a word. Secondly, lots of women were turning tricks in the 20s and 30s. Make no mistake about it, gold diggers, on broad way or otherwise, were straight up whores. I almost spit out my coffee when I read the way that you euphemistically referred to Mae West and Josephine Baker, two women who fucked their way to financial success, as "eccentrics." You live in a fantasy land. It's no wonder that you like these unrealistic old Busby Berkely type musicals.
Masterful! Each time, they push the action to a new level. Superb flights of imagination. AND great music--as infectious as swine flu (but much more enjoyable)! I love the "little girls" all dressed the same, all in the same sad predicament. Lots of fun. What's not to love?
What's an underage Billy Barty doing with a can opener? And how could he ever suggest a new use for it? Whoever imagined this stuff deserves a... hmm... "What was I Thinking" Award. Not that I'm upset, but when you're trying to get out of wet clothes the last thing you need is a short character getting the long shot. Seriously, I love this clip.
Quite right about her ungraceful dancing, combined with not being particularily pretty, she was ideal 'girl next door' material for the depression years, also Dick Powell's genius made his partners look good.
Although the self-censorship Production Code, also called the Hays Code, was written in 1930, the film industry didn't really start enforcing it until about halfway through 1934. Movies made in the early '30s could get away with all sorts of risqué dialog and situations that would be impermissible just a year or two later.
The "baby" is midget actor Billy Barty, who was actually nine years old at the time. Dressed like an infant but with the facial expressions of a much older child, his appearance was bizarre, to say the least
@chomsky88 Look at Billy in this film clip. At nine years old, he was the size of an average three-year-old. Even without the kinds of genetic testing we have today, doctors must have known Billy was a hypopituitary dwarf and would always be small.
damn! is there no escape from racism!? even in this otherwise innocuous snippet, it rears its ugly head! the only fraction of a moment that they deign to show a black man, he's gotta be the target of white aggression!
Exactly!! I agree completely! And the kid who cleverly missed the black woman (whom you fail to notice in your comment) then directs his formerly racist aggression towards the police, who then retaliate against the child, demonstrating a clear case in police brutality in this otherwise innocuous clip. And let's not forget the lyric, "Struggle just a little," which obviously indicates male rapist hostility towards women. Wow, this clip is just brimming with racism, sexism, violence and brutality!
All you need is a good can opener! lol
mojohelmet 1 month ago
That "baby" always gives me the creeps.
eric5906 1 month ago
This is the funniest thing I've ever seen. Every part of it is amazing.
sweeteljay 3 months ago
It's all surprisingly in your face isn't it - tracking shot of people petting in the park, ending up with a shot of a baby
alijanlondon 5 months ago
Thank You!! These pre-Code Warners' are fantastic. Now if we could just find 'Convention City'... ; )
1axalove 8 months ago
@1axalove Windsor,Ontario would be a good choice. We're a God-fearing population that are prepared to look the other way when opportunities arise...
errolfan 8 months ago
Ruby Keeler is so cute! Can't take my off her smile!. And she sure can 'shuffle off to buffalo"!
rockyspace 8 months ago
Wondering if the Greatest Depression of 2011 will be this much fun?
eric5906 8 months ago 3
@eric5906 More fun than a party rally at Nuremburg. I see brown shirts making a comeback.
oldgringo2001 1 month ago
Dick Powell was famous for his tenor voice. Ruby Keeler was no singer, really not much of a dancer either.
GypsyFairy85 10 months ago
@GypsyFairy85 Let's get this straight. I can sing better than Ruby could, she could dance circles around me and had more personality in her baby fingers than I have in my whole body. Two out of three ain't bad.
errolfan 10 months ago
@errolfan
Sez you! One positive she musta been a living saint to put up with Jolson's temper.
GypsyFairy85 10 months ago
@GypsyFairy85 I was trying to be objective about her film roles. As far as Ruby's marriage to Al Jolson, you must know more than I do. My comment had nothing to do with her personal life.
errolfan 9 months ago
He has a much better singing voice than she does...in my humble opinion.
Midnighttree 10 months ago
Billy Barty's expression at 6.08 is exactly what he'd be doing 55 years later in the Masters of the Universe movie, hehe.
anthem47 1 year ago
Just remember kids, public groping and sexual molestation always leads to choreographed tap dancing!
AserHapi 1 year ago
Perverse. Delightful, just delightful.
Christina5Archer 1 year ago 3
@Christina5Archer You've got that right. One of the oddest , great, musical film sequences.
errolfan 10 months ago
i love precode. so naughty
muxu89 1 year ago
Billy Barty is so cute
He use to play in the Micky Mcquire Shorts with Micky Rooney back in the late 20s early 30s
Dick Powel and Ruby Keeler are very good too
MrRob1954 1 year ago
I love these old WB Musicals This is the only busby berkley film Ive not seen
Pettin was just kissin and holding each other when a guy and a girl was getting ready to have sex or in a park or on a street corner just what 6th graders do these days
MrRob1954 1 year ago
@MrRob1954 In what context of getting ready to have sex? Foreplay or do you mean younger couples delaying loss of virginity?
(I have Asperger's autism so I'm afraid I take things a bit literally and cannot always work out specific meaning :/).
Kamboja924 1 year ago
This was the highlight of the movie for me.
princess7strawberry 1 year ago
Keeler tapping in heels none the less! I love all these old RKO / Busby Berkeley films.
pm0501 1 year ago
Thanks for posting this song. We watched this film in my history of motion pictures class and I loved it! This song always gets stuck in my head!
xScarletxRosex 1 year ago
What did petting mean back then?
HotBroodish 1 year ago
@HotBroodish I think it basically meant making out or necking.
scotpens 1 year ago
@HotBroodish I bet it just meant feeling up, same as today.
soreadytoshittalk 1 year ago
That was great.
I enjoyed your video.
Thank you for posting.
Nothin' but thumbs!
TunesNorth 1 year ago
All those girls rollerskating home must have been Frigid or something.
madcapromanian 1 year ago
Who would have known that such an innocent sequence with little Billy Barty would have led to so much controversy. Thankfully, he didn't hurt himself with the can opener. He was such a smart kid.
errolfan 1 year ago
I love the sweetness of its "naughtiness."
partac 1 year ago
The "baby" is a very young Billy Barty. It was one of his very first film roles.
SoothingStringsCA 1 year ago
that baby creeps me out...
brandi1250 1 year ago 3
love dick powell, his early musicals are charming
katandbaby 1 year ago
Would be nicer w/o the "baby"
SeattleLA 1 year ago 8
My favorite early 30s movie.
SeattleLA 1 year ago 5
This film is a gem.
jdsant 1 year ago 5
this is hilarious! oh busby berkeley, what a genius
titaniarox 1 year ago 4
Watched this fantastic film for the first time yesterday! I'm so excited to share it with my friends, we're all history buffs so I'm sure they'll enjoy the historical setting of the movie as much as I did. :)
TheVrotresjolie 1 year ago
Another Busby Berkeley Blockbuster and you just have to love Ruby Keeler's "clunky" dancing, great stuff.
swingbands1 1 year ago
"struggle just a little"!
Date rape alert!
lycurgusandnuma 2 years ago
Ick!
Tootsy39 2 years ago
Note that the statues in the park are actual women!
BusbyRocks1 2 years ago
Petting through the different seasons !
Great stuff. Always luvved this movie.
Very saucy ~ what with the girls showin their suspendered legs ~ very risque ~ & the bit at the end when he wants her top off for some serious petting ! Ha !
bootsamou 2 years ago
This is such fun! And quite kinky. It looks as if Mom, or Grandma or Great Grandmother had more fun during the Great Depression than we've been rold.
Christina5Archer 2 years ago 18
It was called "The Roaring Twenties" for a reason... and it sure didn't tone down by the 1930's!! All they did was drink, party, dance, and drink some more! Yet they somehow managed to party with class unlike girls these days :( lol
valaurwen 1 year ago
@valaurwen That's not true at all. There are plenty of pre-code movies with full frontal nudity and blatant sexual situations. Of course, in real life people were doing exactly what they've always done.
Hoopermazing 1 year ago
@Hoopermazing
aaaand girls were not baring their tits for beads and pissing and vomiting on the street the way they do today (and seem to think that it's acceptable today)..... Like I said....
valaurwen 1 year ago
@valaurwen None of that is true. You're attempting to whitewash the past. You seem to be making a reference to New Orleans. Surely you must be familiar with Storyville, where girls did a lot more than bare their tits for beads... for everyone from the chief of police to the mayor. And don't even get me started about the 30s. Girls turned tricks for cans of beans in the 30s. Your puritanical hoo-ha is a conceit of the Hayes Code, that didn't reflect reality in the slightest.
Hoopermazing 1 year ago
lmao "Puritanical"... right... because in referring to everyday girls of today and the 20's and 30's I was referring to prostitutes...? Yeah, you make alot of sense. If your NON-prostitute female of the 20's and/or 30's behaved as disgustingly as everyday working-class to upper class girls do today she'd've been shunned and branded a harlot. Eccentrics like Josephine Baker and Mae West were independent performers and socialites not to be idiotically compared with prostitutes of old New Orleans.
valaurwen 1 year ago
@valaurwen First of all, "alot" isn't a word. Secondly, lots of women were turning tricks in the 20s and 30s. Make no mistake about it, gold diggers, on broad way or otherwise, were straight up whores. I almost spit out my coffee when I read the way that you euphemistically referred to Mae West and Josephine Baker, two women who fucked their way to financial success, as "eccentrics." You live in a fantasy land. It's no wonder that you like these unrealistic old Busby Berkely type musicals.
Hoopermazing 1 year ago
@Hoopermazing
Anyhow my point has been made. Go wave your e-peen at someone else... I'm all out of beads and beans.
valaurwen 1 year ago
@Christina5Archer Hey, We're HERE, aren't we? ;-D
theshadow1932 8 months ago
Masterful! Each time, they push the action to a new level. Superb flights of imagination. AND great music--as infectious as swine flu (but much more enjoyable)! I love the "little girls" all dressed the same, all in the same sad predicament. Lots of fun. What's not to love?
MDBellamy 2 years ago
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LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!
Sassycat61 2 years ago
What's an underage Billy Barty doing with a can opener? And how could he ever suggest a new use for it? Whoever imagined this stuff deserves a... hmm... "What was I Thinking" Award. Not that I'm upset, but when you're trying to get out of wet clothes the last thing you need is a short character getting the long shot. Seriously, I love this clip.
errolfan 2 years ago 2
Gleefully obscene, though I think that Ruby Keeler is the least graceful dancer I've ever seen.
jackal59 2 years ago
Quite right about her ungraceful dancing, combined with not being particularily pretty, she was ideal 'girl next door' material for the depression years, also Dick Powell's genius made his partners look good.
cosycleaner 1 year ago
i was vry surprised by what I saw in this movie considering it was only in 1933
SwanofHollywood 2 years ago
Although the self-censorship Production Code, also called the Hays Code, was written in 1930, the film industry didn't really start enforcing it until about halfway through 1934. Movies made in the early '30s could get away with all sorts of risqué dialog and situations that would be impermissible just a year or two later.
scotpens 2 years ago 4
Comment removed
SeattleLA 2 years ago
The "baby" is midget actor Billy Barty, who was actually nine years old at the time. Dressed like an infant but with the facial expressions of a much older child, his appearance was bizarre, to say the least
scotpens 2 years ago 5
@scotpens yes it was bizarre.
SeattleLA 1 year ago
@scotpens Sorry, but if he was only nine, how could he be a midget? I don't get it.
chomsky88 1 year ago
@chomsky88 Look at Billy in this film clip. At nine years old, he was the size of an average three-year-old. Even without the kinds of genetic testing we have today, doctors must have known Billy was a hypopituitary dwarf and would always be small.
scotpens 1 year ago
That baby is crazy--insane!!! Love Busby Berkely!
Sassycat61 2 years ago 4
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this is dik hed movies listen 2 ya pre code u fux lol u pervs lol
hoi2000d 2 years ago
lol ending (:
bethrules11 2 years ago
Comment removed
futuristfood 2 years ago
Um... I was joking...
TandavaShakti 2 years ago
lol I Tvoed this :D
Xeiphuss 2 years ago
ah love the pre-hays code films!
chackwor 2 years ago 5
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damn! is there no escape from racism!? even in this otherwise innocuous snippet, it rears its ugly head! the only fraction of a moment that they deign to show a black man, he's gotta be the target of white aggression!
stiZZy69 2 years ago
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Exactly!! I agree completely! And the kid who cleverly missed the black woman (whom you fail to notice in your comment) then directs his formerly racist aggression towards the police, who then retaliate against the child, demonstrating a clear case in police brutality in this otherwise innocuous clip. And let's not forget the lyric, "Struggle just a little," which obviously indicates male rapist hostility towards women. Wow, this clip is just brimming with racism, sexism, violence and brutality!
TandavaShakti 2 years ago
it's from 1933, what do you expect
dropdeaddreamer 2 years ago 2
pre-code rules...
MerleOberon 2 years ago 4
I love this song and performance! Now I have to find a way to get the tune out of my head :P
bigwigs88 2 years ago 3
agree.. pre-code is special stuff, better reflection of the depression and times.
"Dames" and "I Only Have Eyes For You" are two
other classic Berkeley numbers from "Dames".
carolerory 2 years ago 5
ah the pre-code days... dirtiness in the media is not a modern concept haha. it's such a catchy song though
themadmarchhare24 2 years ago 3
"Pettin' in the park, bad boy! Pettin' in the dark, bad girl!" Love these pre-code films! ;-)~
LEELEEA 3 years ago 31
@LEELEEA The pre-code films - and it's great that TCM exists to show a good number of them- are such fun, and very inventive.
What a wild imagination Busby Berkley had!
written12 9 months ago
It's pettin' in park
kenaco2009 3 years ago
in the**
kenaco2009 3 years ago
sorry
omarov 3 years ago
Thanks for posting this! :0)
kenaco2009 3 years ago
My Favorite Routine from all of the Busby Berkely Musicals...Thanks so much for posting!
ASACurator 3 years ago 3