Viola Dana

A 1980 documentary series exploring the establishment and development of the Hollywood studios and its impact on 1920s culture.

Young bride Patricia Morley's flirtatious ways at a summer resort keep her husband Henry in a state of continual anxiety. At an old-fashioned barn dance, Patricia enacts the role of a chicken breaking out of an egg, and Henry's wrath explodes. After accusing her of being in love with another man, Henry returns to New York and files for divorce. Heartbroken, Patricia sends her friend Victoria French to tell Henry that she is dying.

After young Ruth Bowman's mother dies, the child is raised by Agatha Pixley, and in time, the girl falls in love with Agatha's son, Eric. While Eric is at sea with Captain Scudder on a boat owned by Jim and Hiram Hawley, a jealous villager spreads the tale that Ruth is illegitimate, and the townspeople inevitably snub her. Jim Hiram sets his boat on fire after its arrival in port so that he can collect insurance money, and Ruth, believing that Eric is on board, tries to rescue him. When Ruth and Eric escape safely, Captain Scudder reveals that he, Ruth's long-lost father, was legally married to her mother, which re-establishes Ruth's good name and enables her to marry Eric.

Stranded in the small town of Buckeye Junction young actress Madge Joy crawls upon a load of hay and falls asleep. Knocked unconscious when young farmer Robert Deep hitches up the wagon not realizing she’s inside she awakes in the Deep living room. "Ma" Deep takes to her at once, but old “Pa” Deep looks at her sternly. Claiming to be a runaway orphan rather than an actress she becomes a member of the family. Falling for Madge Robert confesses he dreams of being a playwright, that night his sister Susan, who has run away to be an actress, reappears. Pa Deep is furious when he finds out his daughter has been on the stage, but Madge reveals that she is herself an actress threatening to go away with Robert unless he makes up with his daughter. Eventually Madge finds fame in New York with Robert following with a play he knows is right.

Tangletop, is the daughter of the town drunk with her tattered clothes and unkempt hair has been made a social outcast. As a result, she seems to be the perfect actress for the role that Emmett Dwight has developed in order to deceive his wealthy ward, Lowell Van Orden, who, during his blindness, fell in love with Mollie Dean. Since Emmett wants his daughter Madeline to marry Lowell, he tells his ward, after his eyesight has been restored, that Tangletop, who gladly goes along with the plan, is Mollie. As Emmett hoped, his ward's ardor starts to cool, but then, after Tangletop comes under the influence of the Reverend Clyde Harmon, she confesses everything to Lowell. As soon as she finishes, Lowell seeks out the real Mollie and marries her, after which Tangletop marries Clyde.

Happy O'Brien, called "The Microbe," or "Mike" for short, a female street urchin who sells newspapers dressed as a boy to avoid harassment, is saved from arrest for fighting other newsboys in Chinatown by wealthy author DeWitt Spense. DeWitt, there to purchase drugs, is so moved by Mike's pugnacity, that he takes her to his mansion for literary inspiration. When DeWitt learns that Mike is a girl, he resolves to educate her. As Mike blossoms, DeWitt's attentions turn to love, to the dismay of Judith Winthrope, who wants to marry him, and his friend Robert Breton, who, with Judith, convinces Mike that DeWitt's writing is suffering because of her.

When a wealthy young lady loses her inheritance, she decides to apply for work in disguise. In prim and proper working girl attire she becomes the respectable companion of a woman looking to reform her wayward nephew.

Evelyn and her boyfriend William Bard are members of a small Shaker community. They rock the community one day when they announce that they want to get married and have children, in direct opposition to the Shaker prohibition against marriage and procreating. The Shakers drive the couple out of town, but before she leaves Evelyn gives birth to a daughter, Eve. Shortly afterward Evelyn dies, and the Shakers inform William that their daughter Eve has died also. William leaves town, but vows to take his revenge on the Shakers, whom he blames for the loss of his family.

The Jazz Age rages in this comedy film starring Viola Dana as the madcap title character madly dashing through a series of adventures.

A series about the life, career and works of the movie comedy genius.

Clytie Whitmore (Viola Dana) finally consents to marry Cadbury Todd (Gerald Pring), but while walking down the aisle she runs out of the church and into the passing car of Ken Pauling (Bryant Washburn), a well-known jazz musician. Shortly after returning home, Clytie escapes from her locked room and goes to Pennetti's roadhouse, where Ken is appearing, closely pursued by gossip columnist Hamilton Peeke (Leon Barry). She dances in the show in place of Sonora, then escapes with Ken when the roadhouse is raided. They elope but eventually her family accepts the couple.

While on a "slumming" excursion, debutante Bobbie Walsh (Viola Dana) falls in love with tenement-district doctor Thornton (Allan Simpson). Not wishing to scare the doctor off, Bobbie doesn't tell him that she's the wealthy daughter of a prominent senator. But when Dr. Thornton ends up in night court after punching out a pair of would-be mashers, Bobbie is forced to reveal her true identity. The expected resentments arise, leading to the inevitable reconciliation. Star Viola Dana's final film.

Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.

When noted scientist John Vandam dies in the Orient, he leaves the guardianship of his eighteen-year-old daughter to his old friend Sandy Verrall. Sandy believes that Eliza is a little girl and so prepares for the arrival of a child. Displeased with the situation, Eliza decides to dress and act like a kid so that Sandy will tire of her and send her away.

June, a young orphan, is befriended by Perry Bascom when he shares his lunch with her on the road to Rising Sun. They soon fall in love and marry, only to find out that a woman in Perry's past has come to town to make trouble. Teaming up with the local political bully, the schemers set out to make Perry's life miserable, but June sticks by her husband to the end.

Krishna Dhwaj, the son of the Maharajah of Rhamput, is in love with Lakshima, the daughter of the Maharajah of Bhartari, but their fathers will not allow them to marry. Krishna is then sent to Harvard to get an American education. Lakshima, determined to kill herself when her father orders her to marry an old man, jumps into the ocean. She does not drown, however, but is rescued by George Morling, a Bostonian, who smuggles her on board his ship dressed in boy's clothing. George, the son of a minister, is engaged to a proper Bostonian woman. Although he has not behaved improperly, George fears that his fiancé and her father will not understand the situation, and so he hides Lakshima in a trunk. Once back in Boston, George's fiancé discovers Lakshima and is horrified, but after several misunderstandings, George and his fiancé are reconciled, and Lakshima is able to find and marry her Indian sweetheart Krishna.

Now hear this. The studio that gave the cinema its voice offered 1929 audiences a chance to see and hear multiple silent-screen favorites for the first time in a gaudy, grandiose music-comedy-novelty revue that also included Talkie stars, Broadway luminaries and of course, Rin-Tin-Tin. Frank Fay hosts a jamboree that, among its 70+ stars, features bicyclers, boxing champ Georges Carpentier, chorines in terpsichore kickery, sister acts, Myrna Loy in two-strip Technicolor as an exotic Far East beauty, John Barrymore in a Shakespearean soliloquy (adding an on-screen voice to his legendary profile for the first time) and Winnie Lightner famously warbling the joys of Singing in the Bathtub. Watch, rinse, repeat!

Connie McGill, a scullery maid at the Valentines, dreams of better things. One day, while serving, she sees her Prince Charming, Prentice Blue. Although Blue has nothing but his social standing, the nouveau riche Nathaniel Flint wishes his daughter Helen to marry him in order to gain family status. Flint gives a big party for Helen, which attracts the attention of the Du Geen band of crooks. In a scheme, they furnish the unsuspecting Connie with proper clothes, transforming her, and she ends up at the party dancing with Blue, who is enchanted with her. As she departs, she accidentally leaves her slipper with Blue. Unknown to her, she has aided the crooks in stealing jewels that night, and her slipper contains the key to Flint's safe.

After Ned Hamilton is rejected by his girlfriend, he travels to Japan where he hears an old legend about the Willow Tree Princess, who kills herself so that her lover will go off to battle. When he makes a purchase from Tomotada, an image maker, he meets his pretty daughter O-Riu, and they recreate the events of the legend.

The invalid Count de Suchet, nearing death, tells his friend, artist Henri Dutray, about the tragic events of his early life. He secretly married a dancer, and after she gave birth to a daughter, his father convinced her that she was ruining her husband's life. She gave the baby to an old couple, and then killed herself. The grieving count now worries about his daughter. Meanwhile, Jeanne, an Apache dancer in Montmartre, refuses to be sold by her brother Jacques to an old rogue. After she escapes and hides in Henri's studio, Henri, because he needs money, plots with Jacques to make the count believe that Jeanne is his daughter.