The Show of Shows
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!
From the archive
In 1929, the studio gave the cinema its voice and offered audiences a chance to hear their favorite actors and actresses from the silent-screen era. For the first time, they can be heard in a gaudy, grandiose musical-comedy revue. But also appearing are actors and actresses from the first 'talkies', stars from Broadway, and, of course, German shepherd Rin-Tin-Tin
Why this is free to watch
The Show of Shows (1929) is hosted by the Internet Archive as a public-domain or openly licensed work, which means its copyright has expired, lapsed, or was released by the rights holder. No signup, no payment and no advertising interrupts playback. Nitrate streams the file directly from the Archive and hosts no video itself.
- Director
- John G. Adolfi
- Starring
- Frank Fay, Lloyd Hamilton, Lupino Lane, Ben Turpin, Sally O'Neil, Alice Day, Patsy Ruth Miller, Marian Nixon
Player shortcuts
- Space Play / pause
- ← → Skip 10s
- ↑ ↓ Volume
- M Mute
- F Fullscreen
- 0–9 Jump to %
