There were no prints of The Gold Diggers located in any archive and for decades was presumed to be a lost film. However
In 2021, a collector found a near-complete nitrate 35mm Belgian print in England, which has been uploaded to YouTube.
In 2021, a collector found a near-complete nitrate 35mm Belgian print in England, which has been uploaded to YouTube.
This film is believed lost. February 1956, Jack L. Warner sold the rights to all of his pre-December 1949 films to Associated Artists Productions (which merged with United Artists Television in 1958, and later was subsequently acquired by Turner Broadcasting System in early 1986 as part of a failed takeover of MGM/UA by Ted Turner). Later UA in 1969 also donated 16mm prints of some Warner Bros. films from outside the US. No prints of this film or of the remake, Gold Diggers of Broadway, were included in the transfer.
Later remade as an early all-talking, all-Technicolor film, Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), of which the visuals (as at 2021) are mostly lost.
An incomplete copy of this film surfaced in England in 2021. It is in remarkably good condition. It will be scanned and made available, but in the meantime a preliminary, flickering copy has been posted on YouTube.
Adapted from a Broadway play, "The Gold Diggers". The original stage production opened on Sept. 30, 1919, at the Lyceum Theatre in New York and ran for 282 performances.