Gold Diggers of Broadway (partially found musical comedy film; 1929)

Poster for the film.

Status: Partially Found

Gold Diggers of Broadway is a 1929 American musical comedy film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Winnie Lightner and Nick Lucas. It was the second film ever to feature both color and voices through its entire running time, the first being On with the Show!, also released by Warner Bros.

Despite its popularity and box office success, most of the film has been lost. The movie was filmed on Vitaphone sound-on-disc reels and were spread across ten different reels of 35mm nitrate film. Over time, these reels were lost possibly due to Warner Bros having destroyed many of its negatives in the late 1940s and 1950s due to nitrate film pre-1933 decomposition which could another reason why Warner Bros/First National has the most significant loss of its Early Sound era as well as its Silents . However, since the 1980s, various footage from reels nine and ten have been found. Additionally, the entire soundtrack has survived, with at least 18 minutes of it available on Youtube.

Additionally, a Youtuber named "MissVitaphone" had uploaded 15 minutes of surviving footage for the final two reels, which included scenes such as Lightner's character, Mabel, doing a rehearsal in the dressing room as well as a camera recording of four Czech eperts reels of "The Rogue Song", but due to the account's termination, these videos are no longer available.

Gallery

A dance number scene from Reel 9.

Surviving footage of reel 10.

More surviving footage that was found in 2005.

18 minutes of the soundtrack and dialogue.

at 0:19 shows 8 Seconds of 2 b/w musical numbers from Gold Diggers of Broadway used in a Trailer to promote "Gold Diggers of 1937",.

a poor quality version of reel 10 but with the earlier discussion scene backstage that ends at 1:37.