Broadway Brevities are two-reel (17–21 minutes long) musical and dramatic

film short A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

s produced by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

between 1931 and 1943. The series continued as Warner Specials in later years.

Overview

Other titles used for these black and white two-reel films included “Vitaphone Musicals”, “Broadway Headliners”, “Presentation Revue” (for a couple 1938 releases) and “Blue Ribbon Comedy” for a trio featuring

Elsa Maxwell Elsa Maxwell (May 24, 1883 – November 1, 1963) was an American gossip columnist and author, songwriter, screenwriter, radio personality and professional hostess renowned for her parties for royalty and high society figures of her day. Max ...

. Usually the trade periodicals grouped them as “Broadway Brevities” for easier marketing purposes. Many of these glossy productions, a few winning

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...

, featured dance spectaculars and mini-dramas with top

Broadway theatre Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of ...

or Warner studio stars; famous names included

Russ Columbo Ruggiero Eugenio di Rodolfo Colombo (January 14, 1908 – September 2, 1934), known as Russ Columbo, was an American baritone, songwriter, violinist, and actor. He is famous for romantic ballads such as his signature tune "You Call It Madne ...

Ruth Etting Ruth Etting (November 23, 1896 – September 24, 1978) was an American singer and actress during the 1920s and 1930s, who had over 60 hit recordings and worked in stage, radio, and film. Known as "America's sweetheart of song", her signature tu ...

Hal Le Roy Hal Le Roy (born John LeRoy Schotte, December 10, 1913 – May 2, 1985) was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer appearing on stage, in film, and on television. Life and career Hal Le Roy was born John LeRoy Schotte in Cincinnati, Ohio, o ...

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was an American comedian, actor, entertainer and producer with a career that spanned nearly 80 years and achievements in vaudeville, network radio, television, and USO Tours. He appeared ...

and

Red Skelton Richard Bernard Skelton (July 18, 1913September 17, 1997) was an American entertainer best known for his national old-time radio, radio and television shows between 1937 and 1971, especially as host of the television program ''The Red Skelto ...

. They were filmed at the

Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National Pictures, First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone is the last major analog sound-on-disc sys ...

studio in Brooklyn, New York until 1939, with

Samuel Sax Samuel Sax (September 5, 1880 –January 2, 1962) was an American film producer. He produced 80 films between 1925 and 1946, including the last films of Roscoe Arbuckle. From 1938 to 1941, Sax headed Warner Brothers's British subsidiary at T ...

as a key producer. Production then moved to Burbank, California. By the forties, an increasing number were of the

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

genre and the title “Broadway Brevity” was officially dropped in mid-1943 in favor of “Warner Special”. In 1948-1956, many were re-released to theaters under the heading “Classics of the Screen”.

List of titles

A full list is provided below by year of release (but not necessarily the same year filmed). Title is listed first, followed by the major credits and a release date. Sometimes a date reviewed by

Film Daily ''The Film Daily'' was a daily publication that existed from 1918 to 1970 in the United States. It was the first daily newspaper published solely for the film industry. It covered the latest trade news, film reviews, financial updates, informati ...

or a copyright date Motion Pictures 1912-1939 Catalog of Copyright Entries 1951 Library of Congress is listed instead.

1931

1932

1933

1934

1935

1936

1937

1938

1939

1940

1941

1942

1943

Warner Specials (1943-1951)

References

* * * ''Motion Pictures 1912-1939 Catalog of Copyright Entries'' 1951 Library of Congres

* ''Motion Pictures 1940-1949 Catalog of Copyright Entries'' 1953 Library of Congres

* ''Motion Pictures 1950-1959 Catalog of Copyright Entries'' 1960 Library of Congres
BoxOffice back issue scans available
(release date information in multiple issue “Shorts Charts”)

Notes

{{reflist

External links

Film Daily links
Vitaphone short films