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Happy Days is a 1929 American Pre-Code musical film, notable for being the first feature film shown entirely in widescreen anywhere in the world, filmed in the Fox Grandeur 70 mm process. French director Abel Gance's Napoléon (1927) had a final widescreen segment in what Gance called Polyvision. In 1927, Paramount released Old Ironsides with two sequences in a widescreen process called "Magnascope". In 1928, MGM released Trail of '98 in a widescreen process called "Fanthom Screen".
The film features an array of stars who were contracted to William Fox's Fox Film Corporation at that time, including Marjorie White, Will Rogers, Charles Farrell, Janet Gaynor, George Jessel, El Brendel, Ann Pennington, Victor McLaglen, Dixie Lee, Edmund Lowe, and Frank Richardson. It also featured the first appearance of Betty Grable on film, aged 12, as a chorus girl, and Sir Harry Lauder's nephew, Harry Lauder II, a conductor for Fox, who was drafted into the chorus.
Original Release
09/17/1929
US Release
09/17/1929
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Charles E. Evans | Colonel Billy Batcher |
Marjorie White | Margie |
Richard Keene | Dick |
Stuart Erwin | Jig |
Martha Lee Sparks | Nancy Lee |
Clifford Dempsey | Sheriff Benton |
James J. Corbett | Interlocutor - Minstrel Show |
George MacFarlane | Interlocutor - Minstrel Show |
Janet Gaynor | Janet Gaynor / Herself |
Charles Farrell | Charles Farrell / Himself |
Directors
Writers
Sidney Lanfield, Edwin J. Burke
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Charles E. Evans | Colonel Billy Batcher |
Marjorie White | Margie |
Richard Keene | Dick |
Stuart Erwin | Jig |
Martha Lee Sparks | Nancy Lee |
Clifford Dempsey | Sheriff Benton |
James J. Corbett | Interlocutor - Minstrel Show |
George MacFarlane | Interlocutor - Minstrel Show |
Janet Gaynor | Janet Gaynor / Herself |
Charles Farrell | Charles Farrell / Himself |
Victor McLaglen | Minstrel Show Performer |
El Brendel | Minstrel Show Performer |
William Collier Sr. | End Man - Minstrel Show |
Tom Patricola | Minstrel Show Performer |
George Jessel | Minstrel Show Performer |
Dixie Lee | Lead Dancer in 'Crazy Feet' number |
Nick Stuart | Nick Stuart |
Rex Bell | Rex Bell |
Frank Albertson | Frankie Albertson |
Sharon Lynn | Dancer - 'Snake Hips' Number |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
William Fox | Producer |