The Show of Shows poster

Movie · 1929

The Show of Shows

Released 21 November 1929 More from 1929 → Letterboxd ↗ · TMDB ↗

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!

FR·01

How old were they?

Oldest first
Tully Marshall
as Performer in "The Pirate" / Soldier (segment "Rifle Execution") (uncredited)
65
H.B. Warner
as The Victim - Guillotine Sequence (uncredited)
53
John Barrymore
as Richard III in 'Henry VI Part III' (uncredited)
47
Johnny Arthur
as Hero - Performer in 'The Pirate' (uncredited)
46
Chester Conklin
as Traffic Cop in 'Bicycle Built for Two' Number (uncredited)
43
Lois Wilson
as Performer in 'Bicycle Built for Two' Number (uncredited)
35
Richard Barthelmess
as Meet My Sister Presenter (uncredited)
34
Betty Compson
as Performer in 'The Pirate Number' & 'Lady Luck' Numbers (uncredited)
32
Chester Morris
as Performer in $20 Bet Sketch and 'Bicycle Built for Two' Numbers
28
Dolores Costello
as Performer in 'Meet My Sister' Number
26
Myrna Loy
as Performer in 'What Became of the Floradora Boys' & 'Chinese Fantasy' Numbers
24
Mary Astor
as Performer in 'The Pirate' Number (uncredited)
23
Ann Sothern
as Performer in 'Meet My Sister' & 'Bicycle Built for Two' Numbers (as Harriet Lake)
20
Sally Blane
as Performer in 'Meet My Sister' Number
19
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
as Ambrose in 'Bicycle Built for Two' Number (uncredited)
19
Loretta Young
as Performer in 'Meet My Sister' Number
16
FR·02

The numbers

Computed from the cast above
49years between the oldest and youngest billed
65Tully Marshall — oldest on the call sheet
16Loretta Young — youngest billed
33average age of the credited cast
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