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The BILLY MURRAY PAGES

Billy Murray in the Movies
  
Part I: The 1928 (1929 Release) M-G-M Shorts

By Allan Sutton
With thanks to Dick Carty for the reference materials

Related Article: Billy Murray on the Radio — The Annotated Program Listings
     

The synchronized soundtrack disc to "Rube Minstrels"
(Courtesy of Dick Carty)

On November 21, 1928, Columbia recorded a synchronized soundtrack disc for the M-G-M single-reeler, "Rube Minstrels" by the Eight Victor Artists, a promotional troupe featuring Billy Murray that was on the verge of being disbanded after a decade's service.

The date in the wax is not necessarily the actual recording date — some early M-G-M synchronized discs reportedly were dubbed at a later date from optical-film soundtracks — but it does firmly establish 1928 as the date this film was produced.

Another MGM single-reeler, titled "At the Club," was also produced around this time. A print of the film survives at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, but a corresponding soundtrack disc has yet to be reliably reported.

The soundtrack disc to "Rube Minstrels" bears a 1928 copyright notice on the label, which is the common-law copyright date; the formal copyright filing was not made until January 28, 1929, by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corporation. Four days later, M-G-M deposited two prints of "At the Club" for registration at the Copyright Office. Both films were released early that year, with a confirmed release date of March 9, 1929, for "Rube Minstrels."
 

Ad from the Frederick Post (Frederick, Maryland) for November 15, 1929. This showing of "Rube Minstrels" in rural Frederick came nine months after its release, by which time Murray was no longer recording for Victor. (Courtesy of Anna-Maria Manuel)

A 1929 Film Daily synopsis and less-than-enthusiastic critique of "Rube Minstrels" provides the following details:

Type of production ...... Song skit. This aggregation is well-known via the record route. Here they do their stuff dressed as rube performers planted on the opery house stage. Each number is interspersed with a running fire of wisecracks, most of which are antiquated and register as such. The opening number delves into the secret of where the mosquitoes go in the winter time. Then comes "The Farmer Took Another Load Away" as it would be sung in various countries. Will get by as an average short subject but has nothing distinctive to recommend it. The group, however, may have appeal where their records are popular. This is a decision to be made by the individual exhibitor. Time, 10 mins.

"At the Club" is somewhat better documented, as copies of the original script and Copyright Office materials have been widely circulated among collectors in recent years.
     

Title page from the script for "At the Club." The rubber-stamped date apparently
is M-G-M's filing date after the material was returned from the Copyright Office,
not the date on which the script was written.
(Courtesy of Dick Carty)

 
The following excerpts from the script — with material subject to copyright protection or not covered by fair use deleted — provide an idea of the film's content:

  
METRO GOLDWYN MAYER
Presents

Henry Burr - Monroe Silver
Billy Murray - Frank Banta -
James Stanley - Carl Mathieu -
Stanley Baughman - Sam Herman

Known as the
8 VICTOR ARTISTS

“At the Club”

12 seconds of music for title.

This production opens with the 8 Victor Artists in front of the curtain singing -

  “Hello people hello,
  We are an aggragation you have often listened to,
  Hail, hail the gang's all here,
  We're the record artists and we're here to sing for you -

One man sings -

  I will sing opera,

Another man -

If you do you'll be shot sir,

All together -

Cut that out, cut that out, let the people know,
Just exactly who we are, then we'll give our show.

After the finish of this song, the men run behind the curtain, the curtains part and the men are seen wining and dining "at the club". One of the men sings -

"Billy Murray - that's me - hurry, hurry. You all know Monroe Silver, Cohen on the phone, and Sammy Herman who plays the Zylphone [sic]. Next is Carl Mathieu, Jim Stanley over there, also Stanley Baughman, believe me he's a bear. At the piano, Frankie Banta creates quite a stir, then the last but not the least, your old friend Henry Burr.

They all join in and sing -

You have been our friends in winter, summer spring and fall, Now we'll try to please you all.

One of the men announce -

"Jim Stanley will sing the "Gypsy Love Song.” [Lyrics deleted here.]

"That's fine. Lovely Jim. Fine."

One of the men says -

"Boys how about Frank Banta doing his stuff. Suppose Frank you play, “if a girl don't get the man she wants, heaven help the man she gets."

Mr. Banta plays solo "Novelette.” The men all compliment him.

"That's fine Frank."

One of the men announces, "tenor solo by Henry Burr". [Lyrics to “When You Played the Organ and I Sang the Rosary” deleted here.]

The first half of the second chorus is played on the organ as a solo and the last half sung - [Lyric deleted here.]

Curtain.