A. Dorian Otvos

Flirting with Fate

A troupe of traveling entertainers become stranded in Paraguay.

Goodbye Broadway

Pat and Molly Malloy, once famed vaudeville and Broadway performers, arrive to play the small town of Hamilton, Conn. with a troupe of dancers, singers, a trained dog and an educated seal. Harry Clark, the clerk at the rundown Swanzey Hotel, insults Pat and the latter uses the $4000, that he and Molly have been saving for years to buy a retirement farm, to buy the hotel so he can fire Harry. Local skinflint, J.A. Higgins wants the hotel as he knows the state has intentions to buy it for a museum, but Pat won't sell.

Merry Go Round of 1938

Two screwy characters travel to Hollywood and cause mischief.

Behind the Mike

Complications ensue after a radio producer insults a sponsor.

The Backyard Broadcast

In this short film, a boy holds a talent show in his backyard by and for his adolescent friends.

Maid for a Day

Real-life mother and son entertainers Grace and Peter Lind Hayes star as a mother and her son. She’s a fading Broadway star working as a maid to prep for a possible comeback role and he’s the offspring who wants to follow in mom’s footsteps.

Broadway Ballyhoo

In this musical short, three barkers for a New York City sightseeing bus drum up customers with songs and nightclub tours.

Dublin in Brass

In this musical short, a singing Irishman graduates from a police academy and heads to New York City to join the force.

Main Street Follies

A New york producer sends a spy to a nightclub to report back on the musical acts.

Good Morning, Eve!

Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden preparing their latest meal. After the meal, they take a stroll through time. They make a few stops along the way for some musical interludes. These stops include in the Gardens of Emperor Nero of Rome for a concert circa 100 A.D., in King Arthur's court, and at a beach resort in current times.

Syncopated City

Hal and a theater manager see people watching a building excavation for entertainment. They suggest that city employees entertain their customers, including a singing tax collector. Hal becomes the Mayor's assistant.

The Policy Girl

An insurance salesman persuades his sister to help him meet a radio star so he can sell the celebrity a policy.

Service with a Smile

Walter Webb, thinking his gas station has been destroyed, describes a "super-deluxe" gas station run by chorus girls to his insurance agent.

The Winnah!

State College is a coeducational school where the athletics are more important than academics. All there are preparing for a big multi-sport match with arch rival Dale College. Students Arthur and Florence are brother and sister, each with love troubles. Their romantic problems are resolved against a background of leggy singing, dancing coeds in this 2 reel musical.

King for a Day

A talented tap dancer who can't get an audition uses his prowess at playing craps to gain ownership of a musical show, making himself the star.

Story Conference

A movie producer announces that Lillian Roth has been signed to do a movie and he calls a story conference with a director and writers to come up with an idea for the film. As they work through some ideas, performers act out those possibilities via song and dance numbers.

Come to Dinner

MGM's all-star feature Dinner at Eight is parodied in this comic short, in which a cast of unidentified look-alike actors impersonate Lionel Barrymore, Marie Dressler, 'Jean Harlow' , et al.

Picture Palace

In this Vitaphone Broadway Brevity musical short, Hal and Dawn work at the same vaudeville theater, where he's an usher, she's a chorus girl. When they both get fired, they form an act and vow to get back to their old theater, as performers.

Kissing Time

An American woman visits a small South American town where she quickly falls for a charming lieutenant.

The Mild West

This musical short focuses on the trials and tribulations of a saloon singer.

Seasoned Greetings

The owner of an unsuccessful greeting cards store decides to sell 'talking' greeting cards in the form of records.

Rufus Jones for President

A fantasy satire on politics in which a little boy dreams that he becomes President of the U.S. and his 'mammy' is Vice President. The film spotlights two now legendary performers much earlier in their careers: Ethel Waters and Sammy Davis Jr. In his first screen appearance, around the age of seven, pint-sized Davis sings, dances and clowns. Nicknamed 'the beanpole' slim and slinky Waters looks far different from the heavier figure she displayed in Pinky (1949) and Member of the Wedding (1953). Statuesque in a long glamorous white gown, she sings her big hit "Am I Blue." Davis, in turn sings "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead You Rascal You." (Separate Cinema)

20,000 Cheers for the Chain Gang

Four convicts escape from a chain gang. Shortly thereafter, changes are made at the prison, because a blue ribbon commission will be investigating conditions there. The changes include steak every day for dinner and stage shows for entertainment. After reading about this, the four escapees plead with the warden to take them back in. Or was this all a dream?

Yours Sincerely

A resort owner tries to marry his daughter to a millionaire, but his scheme doesn't turn out exactly as planned.

Pleasure Island

A Warner Bros Vitaphone short that promoted "Girls...Songs....Laughs." No full print exists but the Library of Congress has acquired one musical sequence.

A Modern Cinderella

Anita Ragusa, the daughter of a costume company owner, delivers a dress for a costume ball at the last minute. The snobbish customer doesn't like the design at first, but agrees to let Anita model it for her to decide whether to keep it. Charlie, a drunk partygoer, sees Anita in the dress and invites her to attend the festivities. She reluctantly agrees and sings for the other guests.

Smash Your Baggage

A group of redcaps in a train station perform musical numbers to raise money for a sick member of their group.

Here, Prince

Joe Penner as a incompetent crown prince in the middle of a revolution.

Pie, Pie Blackbird

Short featuring musician Eubie Blake and his orchestra, singer Nina Mae McKinney, and young tap dancers Fayard and Harold Nicholas.

One Way Out

A man in the mythical Elyria tries to kill himself but a cop stops him from doing so. In Elyria, one needs a permit to commit suicide, so off the man goes to the Department of Suicides for a suicide permit, which he is granted.

Opening Night

This short film satirizes theatrical opening nights.

For Two Cents

DeWolf Hopper thinks he is on the verge of death and a couple of newspapers are bidding for the story rights. One of the newspapers is willing to pay a big sum if Hopper will kick off in time for its last edition of the day. Hopper plays the whole role in bed.