Glorifying The American Girl gives us a rare glimpse into Ziegfeld's world of the American showgirl. We see Gloria, a sheet music sales girl, yearn for the big time, and reach it, but at a cost. Gloria is played by genuine Ziegfeld star, Mary Eaton, an actress who didn't fare too well in real life, and died in 1948. She was sister to both Doris Eaton, another Ziegfeld star, and Pearl Eaton, who choreographed musicals at RKO back in the late '20s and early '30s. Gloria has a monstrous stage mother, played by Sarah Edwards. She says "dammit" several times during the proceedings. Other cast members are Edward Crandall and Dan Healy who I believe hail from the New York stage. The "guest stars" are Helen Morgan, Rudy Vallee, and Eddie Cantor, who perform in the revue section at the end of the film. There is a completely restored version moulding away at UCLA Film Archive, but unless you go there or to a film "event" that is featuring it, you'll never see it. The DVD print that is out there generally runs 94 out of 96 minutes and presents the revue section in black-and-white instead of two-color Technicolor. The early sections of the film are rather sharp in clarity and contrast, with the black-and-white versions of the color footage grainer and less sharp. It's still an enjoyable film for buffs even in it's public domain version. The upside is that it is not at all expensive like, say, On With The Show, a 1929 Warners Technicolor film which also exsists only in black-and-white, and coming from Warner Archive is considerably pricier. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it's fun for us buffs, and a bargain, at that.
Review of Glorifying the American Girl
