Abstract

As a singer, actress, vaudeville performer, recording artist, Ziegfeld star, and nightclub hostess, Helen Morgan was ideally positioned to make the transition to sound film. Two films made in New York in 1929, Applause and Roadhouse Nights , illustrate Paramount’s attempts to build a screen persona based on Morgan’s established reputation. Newspapers, fan magazines, and accounts from contemporary media establish how the Depression led to rapid changes in public taste, undermining the popularity of genres in which Morgan excelled—vaudeville, melodrama, and the torch song.

Abstract

As a singer, actress, vaudeville performer, recording artist, Ziegfeld star, and nightclub hostess, Helen Morgan was ideally positioned to make the transition to sound film. Two films made in New York in 1929, Applause and Roadhouse Nights, illustrate Paramount’s attempts to build a screen persona based on Morgan’s established reputation. Newspapers, fan magazines, and accounts from contemporary media establish how the Depression led to rapid changes in public taste, undermining the popularity of genres in which Morgan excelled—vaudeville, melodrama, and the torch song.

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