Trixie Friganza

Vaudeville is a 1997 PBS documentary under its American Masters program. Using film clips and photos, the art and history of vaudeville (1890-1930s) is illustrated.

Gold digging blonde Lorelei and her brunette friend Dorothy are searching for rich husbands. This film is believed lost.

Gopher City Kansas hosts a beauty contest. The winner, Elvira Plunkett, and her mother go to Hollywood. The Chamber of Commerce also provides Elvira with an agent, Gopher City's own Elmer J. Butz. Elmer likes Elvira and the shy Elvira likes him, but Mrs. Plunkett, a formidable woman, has little use for hapless Elmer. On the train west, they meet movie star Larry Mitchell, who takes a shine to Elvira and helps her meet MGM directors once they get to Tinsel Town. Elmer, meanwhile, wants to help Elvira with her career and he also wants to be her man. Movie stardom does come to the Gopher City entourage, but to whom is a surprise. And who will win the lovely Elvira's hand?

Adam Larey becomes a fugitive from justice when he escapes after being blamed for a crime he did not commit. He wanders into the desert wastelands and joins an outlaw gang who prey on gold prospectors. Years later, he meets his wife and her gold-prospecting father as they have come there seeking their fortune, and not knowing the danger of the treacherous desert wastes, the poisoned-water holes and the outlaw bands of marauders who roam the desert in search of the gold found by others. He comes to their aid and, eventually, manges to clear his name of the false charge against him.

Three girls from a small town win a trip to Monte Carlo. The trip was sponsored by their local newspaper, which sends along its ace reporter Bancroft as their "chaperone".

Marcia, a pretty young girl, goes to work as a model for a lecherous dress-shop owner. She resists his advances, despite his giving her expensive gifts. One day Mrs. Reilly, a prominent society woman and a customer of the shop, invites Marcia to a party she's throwing. Marcia winds up impersonating a famous writer in order to impress a "duke" for Mrs. Reilly, who doesn't know the "duke" isn't really a duke. Complications ensue.

A wild dancer in a cheap Seville cafe, Mariposa is taken to New York by Señor Sprott, a prominent theatrical producer. Billed as "The Charmer," Mariposa becomes the toast of two continents. Among her most ardent admirers are Ralph Bayne, a millionaire playboy, and his chauffeur, Dan Murray, both of whom first met her in Spain. Madly in love with Bayne, Mrs. Sedgwick invites Mariposa and her mother to a weekend party in a deliberate attempt to humiliate the beautiful dancer. Bayne quickly realizes that Mariposa is out of place in high society, and, determining to make her his mistress, takes her home with him. Mrs. Sedgwick unexpectedly arrives at Bayne's swank suite ( followed by her suspicious husband), and Mariposa protects the society woman's reputation at the cost of her own.

The snooty Fernanda decides to leave Spain to visit her uncle in San Francisco in order to escape the attentions of the dandy, amorous Don Diego, but he follows her. She is rescued from a wild taxi ride by a passerby who owns a huge plumbing company. Believing him to be a common plumber, she snubs him, but he pursues her and a romantic rivalry is born.

Construction worker Buzz Blackwell becomes the guardian of 12-year-old Pat Johnson after one of his buddies, her father, is killed. Buzz and Pat, along with their chum Axel Swensen, head to New York to look for the girl's uncle. The trio soon unexpectedly become owners of a tired restaurant.

Jenny, a dance instructor, accidentally meets Joe Hall, a song promoter who escorts her home. She gives him a song idea by saying "Thanks for the Buggy Ride".

A matinée idol and a bumbling manager fight for the love of a would-be starlet. Estrellados is the Spanish version of Free and Easy (1930) with Hispanic/Spanish-speaking actors.

Dress model Sheila Conroy loses her job after ruining a gown she borrowed from her employer. Harlan, a criminal posing as a government agent, offers Sheila work as his assistant. She accepts for the sake of her brother-in-law, Billy, who embezzled money from his firm and is in danger of discovery. Her assignment is to obtain the necessary "evidence" on Mrs. Bordon, a wealthy widow who smuggled a valuable jewel into the country. Channing Maynard, a real government agent, reveals the truth to Sheila, and after they bring Harlan to justice, Channing takes Sheila for his bride.

Malena's apparent frigidity toward her husband Kenneth is a result of injustice done in an earlier incarnation when he was a knight and she was a gypsy headed for burning at the stake. This becomes evident when their unconscious minds travel back from a train wreck in the American plains to Elizabethan England.

Myrt has a show chock full of talented performers that deserves to be on Broadway, but can't raise the necessary money. Jackson, a lecherous "producer", provides the money in order to get his hands on the show's pretty young star, Marge. Myrt teams up with Marge's boyfriend to try to thwart the randy producer and get the show to Broadway.

A "Peeping Tom" likes to look through windows at women undressing. We see him as he sneaks a peek at two subjects. The first, a woman dressed in lingerie, is young, shapely and attractive. The second, to be charitable, isn't. That doesn't stop him, and the viewer, from getting an eyeful.

College student Jimmy Shaw inherits a racehorse, named Lightning Lad, and sells stock to fellow students in order to obtain funds for racing the horse. Lightning Lad wins very race he is entered in. Marion Braddock, a spoiled rich girl who owns a racing stable offers to buy Lightning Lad, but Jimmy refuses to sell. The day of the big handicap-race arrives and Jimmy and his fellow stockholders are on their way to the track. But a group of gamblers, betting on Lightning Lad to lose, have some skullduggery plans to ensure Lightning Lad does not win the race.

Chester Binney, a wounded war veteran, erroneously believes he is carrying a silver plate in his head and must avoid all excitement. He returns to his hometown, and there his former employer, George Simmons, attempts to arrange a match between Chester (who is to inherit a fortune) and his daughter Ethel. Ethel, however, finds Chester unexciting as a lover; and to enliven the affair, the father invents a lurid past for the boy by displaying a signed photograph of Rita Renault, a famous movie star. Rita, accompanied by her jealous husband, Jack Shields, arrives in the town for a personal appearance. By chance, Jack discovers the photograph of Rita, presumably the property of Chester, and when he sees his wife kissing Chester, a running fight ensues.

Unfinished pre-Code era film consisting of three sections with past performers from the stage and the vaudeville circuit, then-present-day performers and up-and-coming performers. Musical excerpts were later used in Broadway to Hollywood (1933), Nertsery Rhymes (1933), and Roast-Beef and Movies (1934). "The Lock Step" was later used in That's Entertainment! III (1994)

A trio of former sideshow performers double as the "Unholy Three" in a scam to nab some shiny rocks.

When Red Walden loses out in the annual town motor race, Aunt Hattie Wayne and her niece Sally advise him to pay more attention to his garage.