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During the great Vaudeville
era of the 1910s and 1920s there were few acts bigger than the Duncan
Sisters. Vivian (1897-1986) and Rosetta (1894-1959) topped the bill
in an act that included singing, dancing, and broad comedy. They
were a triple threat times two. The sisters hit the big time, playing
the major Vaudeville circuits and of course Broadway. They started
on the stage in 1911 in a ?kiddie review? and by 1920
they were headliners. In an era when stage stars were among the
biggest names in show business, the Duncan Sisters ranked right
up there with Eddie Cantor, Burns and Allen, Al Jolson, Sophie Tucker,
Jack Benny, W.C. Fields, Marie Dressler, Fanny Brice, Marilyn Miller,
Ed Wynn, Frances Williams, and the Seven Little Foys. The sisters
even worked for legendary producer Florenz Ziegfeld, appearing in
his 1928 edition of Midnight Frolics.
Their
biggest stage success, however, was in a rollicking musical version
of Uncle Tom?s Cabin entitled Topsy and Eva,
with Vivian playing Little Eva and Rosetta (in blackface) playing
Topsy. The play was very popular. After long engagements in Los
Angeles and San Francisco, it ran for almost a year in Chicago,
played on Broadway for about four months and then went on the road
for a national tour through 1926. They revived the show twice in
the 30s, with new songs, again in 1942, and kept performing as Topsy
and Eva well into the 1950s! Rosetta once claimed that by 1927,
they had already played the roles 1872 times.
This show was such a success
that in 1927 Hollywood beckoned and the sisters made a feature-length
film based on the play. But after The Jazz Singer electrified
audiences in October 1927 with songs and talking sequences, the
studios all rushed musicals into production. The sisters missed
their chance of mounting Topsy and Eva as a talkie. An
archival print exists in the Library of Congress, but the film will
probably never again see the light of day.
Topsy and Eva (1927) - The film was a notorious flop (a silent film based on a stage
musical). It might have been a hit if the timing had been a little
better, but the film was notable for being an ill-conceived mess
from the very beginning. A director named Del Lord started the film
but clashed with Rosetta, who apparently was the driving force in
the sister act and who had very definite ideas about how the material
should be presented, even though it was her first feature film.
The production was instantly over budget and behind schedule. But
because the Duncan Sisters had starred and toured in the play for
years they were adamant about how it should be done. Lois Weber
was approached to replace Lord but refused because of the racial
material. Finally, and of ALL people, the great D.W. Griffith was
brought in to clean up the mess. It has been said that Griffith?s
reputation as a racist is actually based on this film and
not The Birth of a Nation. But all Griffith did was yeoman
work: he finished it off and edited the material. Even with all
these attempts to save it, the film was a flop anyway. Without the
songs to sing the sisters lost a lot of their appeal, and a filmed
musical without the music didn?t leave much.
Plus in 1927 Universal released
its silent version of Uncle Tom?s Cabin. So oddly,
60 years after the Civil War, Hollywood was awash in dueling Topsies.
This film exists and is surprisingly faithful to Harriet Beecher
Stowe's beloved novel, which was the biggest selling book, behind
the Bible, of the 19th century.
Rosetta
Duncan relished playing Topsy and modeled her character on the then
popular conception of Topsy, which was based on decades of productions
of Stowe's book in the form of melodramatic plays. Mona Ray in turn
patterned her version of Topsy in the Universal version
of Uncle Tom?s Cabin on Rosetta Duncan's stage characterization.
By the 1920s and 30s Uncle Tom?s Cabin was as well
known as any other story of Americana. Even the Little Rascals (Our
Gang) did a version of it in one of their Hal Roach shorts.
It is interesting that Topsy
and Eva, infamous for being a huge flop?its intake barely
covering its production costs (it cost $340,000 and earned $353,000)?could
have involved so many big names and be so influential. And it?s
interesting to surmise what could have been if Topsy and Eva had been made as a talkie.
But after the success of The
Jazz Singer, Hollywood was anxious to sign the big names of
Broadway and vaudeville for musicals. When The Broadway Melody was being planned as MGM?s first all-talking musical, the
Duncan Sisters were at the top of the list despite the debacle of Topsy and Eva. The story of two sisters trying to make
the big-time on Broadway was a perfect vehicle for Vaudeville?s
reigning sister act. But the sister act was booked solid and they
couldn?t make the film. MGM went ahead with the film and hired
Bessie Love and Anita Page to star along with Charles King. They
basically played a version of the Duncan Sisters, and in a funny
moment even mention the sisters when Page expresses concern about
making it on Broadway. Love responds, ?What did the Duncans
have when they hit Times Square?? Love goes on to brag that
they had outplayed the Duncans on the vaudeville circuit anyway!
The film was released in February 1929 and was an instant smash,
ultimately earning an amazing $2.8M in the US and another $1.5M
overseas. It cost only $380,000.
Later that year the sisters
were available for another MGM project, It?s a Great Life,
in which they would play, well, a sister act trying to make the
big-time. They got Lawrence Gray as their male co-star. But the
project was an ill-advised copy of The Broadway Melody.
From the get-go, this production didn?t have the unified and
compelling story that The Broadway Melody had. On top of that, Rosetta?s
character is not terribly likable, and the maudlin ending (with
Vivian seemingly doing another version of Little Eva) is a bit hard
to take. Still, when the sisters are doing their act, they are superb.
It?s
A Great Life (1929) - The film was released in December
1929 while The Broadway Melody was still playing across
the country. The Duncan Sisters sang, danced, and did comedy. They
play sisters who work in a department store along with handsome
Jimmy (Lawrence Gray). When smart-aleck Casey (Rosetta Duncan) gets
fired, they all quit and launch a career in ?the show business.?
Jimmy is sweet on Babe (Vivian Duncan), which of course infuriates
Casey. They form an act built around Jimmy's songs. He plays piano
while the girls sing and dance. They are a hit, but there is constant
friction between Casey and Jimmy. The couple gets married and Casey
goes berserk, breaking up the act. Casey goes solo, while the couple
tries to make it alone. They all flop. Some time after, Babe gets
really sick and Jimmy is forced to track down Casey and bring her
back home. While the plot is creaky (even more creaky than that
in The Broadway Melody) and the acting is not always very
good, the musical numbers are vintage gold. ?I'm Following
You,? which was a big hit, is sung several times. There is
also a great comic version of ?An Old Spanish Custom?
and ?Tell Me Pretty Maiden,? which was the theme song
of MGM?s Florodora Girl, the terrific Marion Davies
film that also starred Lawrence Gray. The song was the smash hit
of the early 1900s stage show, Florodora Girl. In the scene
where the sisters sing this song, they are made up in broad ?burlesque?
attire. They also sing ?I?m Sailing on a Moonbeam?
and the ?The Hoosier Hop,? an entertaining dream-like
production number done in 2-strip Technicolor. Another color sequence
is a fashion parade that goes comically wrong. MGM obviously had
a lot of faith in this production, sparing no expense and using
all the latest technologies and gimmicks. However, audience reaction
to It?s a Great Life was very mixed, as were the
reviews. While the Duncans were major stage and recording stars,
they were not established in movies. Box-office returns were surprisingly
small in big cities where the sisters had played to capacity houses
in their stage shows, but the film drew big audiences across rural
America, enough so that the film made a small profit. Small profits
were not what MGM was after.
Conclusion - One of the stage?s most popular acts, the Duncan Sisters
flirted with film stardom but it never happened. It?s
a Great Life is stagy but a treat to see these once-famous
sisters in a film. Looking beyond the faults of the film, it?s
easy to see why the Duncan Sisters were so popular for so long.
And with a little better timing, they might have been major movie
stars. The Broadway Melody was one of the biggest hits
of its era, winning an Oscar for best film and nominations for Harry
Beaumont (director) and Bessie Love (lead actress). It?s
a Great Life and its stars are barely remembered.
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