BUCK AND BUBBLES | VARSITY SHOW (1937) Photo

[Los Angeles]: Warner Brothers, 1937. Vintage original 8 x 10″ ( 20 x 25 cm.) black-and-white glossy silver gelatin photo. Tiny crease to lower right corner, fine.

Warner Brothers put much of their music and comedy talents to work in this college based musical. When Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians became a big rage, the studio cut the film for re-release in 1942, deleting 40 minutes from the camera negative which have never been found.

Besides the Busby Berkeley-inspired finale, the true reason to watch the film is for the musical segment featuring Buck and Bubbles, which fortunately did survive. Fred Astaire studied the dance master John Bubbles, who revolutionized the art of tap dancing. Prior to Bubbles, tap dancers tapped on their toes with wood in the toe of their shoe in a technique called “buck and wing”. Bubbles was the first to drop the heel and tap on the heel.

The Warner Brothers Vitaphone information is on the front of the photo, and an attached typed blurb on the verso gives all the production credits and dates this as coming to the New York Strand theatre on Sept. 1, 1937.