''Convention City'' is a 1933 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

sex comedy film directed by

Archie Mayo Archibald L. Mayo (January 29, 1891 – December 4, 1968) was a film director, screenwriter and actor. Early years The son of a tailor, Mayo was born in New York City. After attending the city's public schools, he studied at Columbia Unive ...

, and starring

Joan Blondell Joan Blondell (born Rose Joan Bluestein; August 30, 1906 – December 25, 1979) was an American actress who performed in film and television for 50 years. Blondell began her career in vaudeville. After winning a beauty pageant, she embarked on ...

Guy Kibbee Guy Bridges Kibbee (March 6, 1882 – May 24, 1956) was an American stage and film actor. Early years Kibbee was born in El Paso, Texas. His father was editor of the ''El Paso Herald-Post'' newspaper, and Kibbee learned how to set type at age ...

Dick Powell Richard Ewing Powell (November 14, 1904 – January 2, 1963) was an American actor, musician, producer, director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility, and successfully transformed into ...

Mary Astor Mary Astor (born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke; May 3, 1906 – September 25, 1987) was an American actress. Although her career spanned several decades, she may be best remembered for her performance as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in '' The Maltese ...

and

Adolphe Menjou Adolphe Jean Menjou (February 18, 1890 – October 29, 1963) was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies. He appeared in such films as Charlie Chaplin's ''A Woman of Paris'', where he played the lead role; Stanley K ...

. The film was produced by Henry Blanke and

First National Pictures First National Pictures was an American motion picture production and distribution company. It was founded in 1917 as First National Exhibitors' Circuit, Inc., an association of independent theatre owners in the United States, and became the count ...

and distributed by Warner Bros. Due to its racy content, ''Convention City'' was held from circulation after the

Motion Picture Production Code The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...

was enacted in 1934. Prints were subsequently ordered to be destroyed by studio head

Jack L. Warner Jack Leonard Warner (born Jacob Warner; August 2, 1892 – September 9, 1978) was a Canadian-American film executive, who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Warner's career spanned some ...

. The film is considered

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography * Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland *Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

and has become one of the more coveted lost films because of its reported racy content.

Plot

The plot revolves around the convention of the Honeywell Rubber Company in

Atlantic City Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497.

. Throughout the film, the employees of Honeywell Rubber are mainly concerned with drinking and sex. President J.B. Honeywell ( Grant Mitchell) is to choose a new company salesmanager. T.R. Kent (

) and George Ellerbe (

) are two salesmen who both want the job. However, they both get into trouble: T.R. is discredited when jealous saleswoman Arlene Dale (

) interferes with his attempted seduction of Honeywell's daughter Claire (

Patricia Ellis Patricia Ellis (born Patricia Gene O'Brien; died March 26, 1970) was an American film actress of the 1930s. Early years Born in Birmingham, Michigan, most likely in 1915 (although she gave her year of birth to the Social Security Administration ...

) and George attempts to seduce Nancy Lorraine (

). The position of sales manager is bestowed upon a drunken employee as a bribe after he catches J.B. about to visit "Daisy La Rue, Exterminator".

Cast

as Nancy Lorraine *

as T.R. (Ted) Kent *

as Jerry Ford *

as Arlene Dale *

as George Ellerbe *

Frank McHugh Francis Curry McHugh (May 23, 1898 – September 11, 1981) was an American stage, radio, film and television actor. Early years Born in Homestead, Pennsylvania, of Irish descent, McHugh came from a theatrical family. His parents, Edward A ...

as Will Goodwin *

as Claire Honeywell *

Ruth Donnelly Ruth Donnelly (May 17, 1896 – November 17, 1982) was an American film and stage actress. Early years and family Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Donnelly was the daughter of Harry Augustus and Bessie B. Donnelly. Her uncle, Freder ...

as Mrs. Ellerbe *

Hugh Herbert Hugh Herbert (August 10, 1885 – March 12, 1952) was an American motion picture comedian. He began his career in vaudeville and wrote more than 150 plays and sketches. Career Born in Binghamton, New York, Herbert attended Cornell Univers ...

as Hotstetter * Grant Mitchell as J.B. Honeywell * Egon Brecher as Zorb *

Hobart Cavanaugh Hobart Cavanaugh (September 22, 1886 – April 26, 1950 ) was an American character actor in films and on stage. Biography He was born in Virginia City, Nevada on September 22, 1886. Cavanaugh attended the University of California. He worked in ...

as Wendell Orchard * Sheila Terry as Mrs. Kent *

Gordon Westcott Gordon Westcott (born Myrthus Hickman, November 6, 1903 – October 30, 1935) was an American film actor. Biography Born in St. George, Utah, in 1903, Westcott studied architecture at the University of Chicago, where he was also lightweight ...

as Phil Lorraine / Frank Wilson * Harry C. Bradley as Graham *

Samuel S. Hinds Samuel Southey Hinds (April 4, 1875 – October 13, 1948) was an American actor and former lawyer. He was often cast as kindly authority figures and appeared in more than 200 films until his death. Early years Hinds was born in Brooklyn, New Y ...

as McAllister

Production

During production, the film faced censorship problems from

Motion Picture Association of America The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distrib ...

(MPPDA) due to its risque content and dialogue. Joan Blondell later said, "We were forever doing things among ourselves with double meanings. Finally, they would have people in the front office just watch for what we'd say off-color." Several lines were ordered to be removed by the MPPDA censors including:

No, but it won't be marriage. I'll guarantee you that. A traveling salesman needs a wife like a baby needs a box of matches. Now you take off that dress and I'll take off my toupee, huh! Girl's voice: 'Listen, sister, if they tire you, you better leave town before the Hercules Tool Company gets here.

In a studio memo,

warned producer

Hal Wallis Harold Brent Wallis (born Aaron Blum Wolowicz; October 19, 1898 – October 5, 1986) was an American film producer. He is best known for producing ''Casablanca'' (1942), ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938), and '' True Grit'' (1969), along wi ...

that he may be going too far in the costuming:

We must put brassieres on Joan Blondell and make her cover up her breasts because, otherwise, we are going to have these pictures stopped in a lot of places. I believe in showing their forms but, for Lord's sake, don't let those bulbs stick out.

Script changes, suggested by the chair of the Motion Picture Division of the State of New York Department of Education Dr. James Wingate and Jason S. Joy, director of the Studio Relations Committee, and production head Hal Wallis were nominally incorporated into the script.

Pre-Code era scenes

Reception

Critical reviews

Dr. James Wingate, chair of the Motion Picture Division of the State of New York Department of Education — which oversaw the state's censorship board — described it as "a pretty rowdy picture, dealing largely with drunkenness, blackmail, and lechery, and without any particularly sympathetic characters or elements." ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' magazine said that, "''Convention City'' is a glib, disorganized batch of footnotes on a familiar aspect of U.S. business." and that "Convention City is adumbrated with many a drinking scene, a company song ("Oh, Honeywell" to the tune of " My Maryland"), and some quips which may cause some cinemagoers to wonder what Will Hays is doing." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' said that, "Several of the jokes need a subterranean mind to be correctly understood. An accurate appraisal of ''Convention City'' should include the information that the

Strand Strand may refer to: Topography *The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a: ** Beach ** Shoreline * Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida Places Africa * Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa * Strand Street ...

's audiences laughed long and loud." The ''Times'' also praised

's performance while finding Joan Blondell's performances to be getting tiresome as she was playing the same irreverent character in her films.

Box office

''Convention Citys cost $239,000 to produce, and earned $384,000 in domestic revenue and $138,000 from foreign release, for an eventual profit of $53,000.

Preservation status

Due to the lewdness of the film and lack of influence of the Studio Relations Committee, which was supposed to control objectionable content, ''Convention City'' and films like it led to the enforcement of the

Production Code The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...

, overseen by Joseph Breen. The film's producer, Henry Blanke, later said, "...Single-handedly I brought on the whole Code. Yeah. Ask Joe Breen. He'll tell you. Ask him about Convention City." The Code had been created in 1930 at the beginning of the Depression, but was rarely enforced as financially strapped studios often overlooked its authority in the desire to make more risque pictures that were good box office. As a result of the Code, the film was taken out of circulation when its theatre run ended. The controversy surrounding the film prompted exhibitors and theatre convention organizers to request the film. In 1936, Warners attempted to re-release ''Convention City'' in a censored form, but Breen deemed it beyond redemption and would not grant it the seal of approval needed for it to be shown in theatres. Warners then reportedly ordered that the film be destroyed. However, Ron Hutchinson, the editor of the newsletter ''The Vitaphone Project'', discovered that a print of the film was screened in 1937, nearly three years after the ban had been enacted, indicating that at least one print had not been taken out of circulation. Further evidence that not all prints had been seized and destroyed was found in the August 29, 1942, edition of the Spanish newspaper '' ABC''. According to an advertisement, the film (known as '' ¡Que Semana!'' in Spanish) was being screened at the Muñoz Seca Theater in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. In the late 1940s and 1950s, Warner Bros. destroyed many of its negatives due to

nitrate film Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...

decomposition. Studio records indicate that the negative of ''Convention City'' and filmography pre-1931 was marked "Junked 12/27/48" (December 27, 1948). No prints of the film are known to currently exist, though rumors that private collectors own foreign prints have continued to surface as late as 1999. However, it was also re-copyrighted by

United Artists Associated Associated Artists Productions, Inc. (a.a.p.) later known as United Artists Associated was an American distributor of theatrical feature films and subjects for television. Associated Artists Productions was the copyright owner of the ''Popeye ...

in 1963. The original screenplay still survives in the Warner Bros. script archives. In March 1994, a pre-Code film festival was held in

South Village The South Village is a largely residential area that is part of the larger Greenwich Village in Lower Manhattan, New York City, directly below Washington Square Park. Known for its immigrant heritage and bohemian history, the architecture of the ...

. Along with the films screened, there was a dramatic reading of the screenplay for ''Convention City''.

References

External links

* * *
''Convention City'' research article
{{Archie Mayo 1933 films 1930s sex comedy films American sex comedy films American black-and-white films Films directed by Archie Mayo Films produced by Henry Blanke Films set in Atlantic City, New Jersey First National Pictures films Lost American films Warner Bros. films 1933 lost films Lost comedy films Films with screenplays by Robert Lord (screenwriter) 1933 comedy films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films