Jean Goldkette - Painting The Clouds With Sunshine, 1929

From Wikipedia:
GOLD DIGGERS OF BROADWAY 1929 is a lost Warner Bros. comedy/musical film which is historically important as the second talkie, photographed entirely in Technicolor. It became a box office sensation, making Winnie Lightner a worldwide star and boosting guitarist crooner Nick Lucas to further fame as he sang two songs that became 20th century standards; 'Tiptoe Through the Tulips' and 'Painting the Clouds with Sunshine' (Al Dubin / Joe Burke).
It earned a domestic gross of $3.5 Million, extending to over $5 Million worldwide (adjusted for inflation in 2007 this would be a gross of around $60 Million). The original production cost was approximately $500,000. This film was so popular that it quickly became the top grossing film of all time in 1929 and held this record until 1939. It was chosen as one of the ten best films of 1929 by Film Daily. As with many early Technicolor films, no complete print survives, although the last twenty minutes do, but are missing a bridging sequence and the last minute of the film. Contemporary reviews, the soundtrack and the surviving footage suggest that the film was a fast-moving comedy which was enhanced by Technicolor and a set of lively and popular songs. It encapsulates the spirit of the flapper era, giving us a glimpse of a world about to be changed by the Great Depression.
Because the film is lost, the partial remake, Gold Diggers of 1933, is the most frequently seen version of the story. The film has become so completely forgotten that it is seldom featured in any 'most wanted' lost film lists and is missing from many modern reviews of the early talkie.

The song "Painnting The Clouds With Sunshine" was extremely popular also in Poland. The Polish lyrics "Czy ty naprawdę masz tak przecudowną twarz..." did not quite exactly match the English text's idea (the English translation of it would be more less, like : Do you really have/ such beautiful face/ or it only seemed so to me?). It was recorded by Chór Dana for Polish "Odeon" and their interpretation was one of the few cases when the original Polish recording was bought for the commercial German label pressing.
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JOHN JEAN GOLDKETTE (1893--1962) was a jazz pianist and bandleader born in Patras, Greece. Goldkette spent his childhood in Greece and Russia, and emigrated to the United States in 1911. He led many jazz and dance bands, of which the best known was his Victor Recording Orchestra of 1924 -- 1929, which included, at various times, Bix Beiderbecke, Hoagy Carmichael,Chauncey Morehouse, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Bill Rank, Eddie Lang, Frankie Trumbauer, Pee Wee Russell, Steve Brown, Doc Ryker and Joe Venuti, among others. Vocalists included the Keller Sisters and Lynch. In his Jazz Masters of the Thirties, Rex Stewart, a member of Fletcher Henderson's band at the time, writes that the Goldkette band's innovative arrangements and strong rhythm made it the best dance band of its day and "the first original white swing band in jazz history." Jean was also the Music Director for the Detroit Athletic Club for over 20 years, and was also co-owner of the legendary Graystone Ballroom with Charles Horvath, who also performed with the Goldkette Victor Band in its early years. Jean owned his own entertainment company called "Jean Goldkette's Orchestras and Attractions," and worked out of the still-standing Book-Cadillac Hotel in Detroit.
In 1927, Paul Whiteman, the controversially self-proclaimed "King of Jazz," hired away most of Goldkette's better players due to Goldkette not being able to meet the payroll for his top-notch musicians. Goldkette later helped organize McKinney's Cotton Pickers and Glen Gray's Orange Blossoms, which became famous as the Casa Loma Orchestra. In the 1930s he left jazz to work as a booking agent and classical pianist. In 1939, he organized the American Symphony Orchestra which debuted at Carnegie Hall, and also married for the first time, to a lady named Lee McQuillen from New York City. He moved to California in 1961, and the following year died in Santa Barbara, California, of a heart attack.

Recording: Jean Goldkette & His Orch., v. Frank Munn - Painting The Clouds With Sunshine (Al Dubin/ Joe Burke), Victor 1929

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Roaring
• Twenties
• 1920s
• American
• hot
• dance
• band
• Broadway
• revues

[nedsparks]

Now I fully understand why some users disable comments on their videos. Noel Coward's use of "gay" in his song meant something entirely different than Al Dubin's use of gay in "Painting The Clouds With Sunshine." (I dread thinking what people are saying about two other 1929 songs, "A Gay Caballero" and "Gay Love.") Just enjoy the song without attaching any sociological importance to the use of a simple word.

[pax41]

I agree with you nedsparks on this. The use of the word is symbolic but not for homosexual gay but carefree gay. Clouds are symbolic of sadness and he is painting them with sunshine. Just like the line "when I pretend I'm gay I never feel that way" meaning he is pretending to be happy when he is sad.

[sweetpeatcphotograph]

Do you have any information about the Graystone Ballroom? I have a food and drink menu from the Ballrom from the 20's

[UncleCharlieOakley]

Wonderful recording. 

[pudomop]

es la mejor musica!!!

[George821000]

Good song. I remember listening to this on my grandmother's 78 rpms growing up.

[michmcqueen]

wonderful music

[MiguelKertsman]

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[ikevyoiPhone3G1996]

I saw this part from the surviving fragments of the movie, my favorite song from the movie.

[talmadge1926]

Maude darling.. do be a dear and look after my champagne while Charles and I take a turn on the floor!

[jd03150]

Goldkette was never as big a name as some other bands of that era. However, I find that disappointing because in my opinion Goldkette had a very distinctive and enjoyable sound. He may be less well-known but he is in my opinion top rank for his time.

[fromthesidelines]

The verse before the chorus [:51-1:09] is as follows:

This life's a play from the start,

It's hard to play through a part,

When there's an ache in your heart all day.

I have my dreams 'til the dawn,

I wake to find they are gone,

But still the play "must go on", they say....