Whoopee!
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This article is about Whoopee! the show and the film. For Whoopee! the comic, see Whoopee! (comic)
Whoopee! is a Broadway musical comedy which debuted on 4 December, 1928. The book is by William Anthony McGuire, featuring music by Walter Donaldson and lyrics by Gus Kahn. The original version was produced by Florenz Ziegfeld and starred Eddie Cantor and Ruth Etting. The 2 act musical ran for 379 performances. A 1979 Broadway revival of the show ran 204 performances.
Whoopee! is a 1930 musical comedy film adaptation of the popular Broadway show of the same name. Directed by Thornton Freeland, it was made in 2-strip technicolor. It was produced by Florenz Ziegfeld and Samuel Goldwyn. Whoopee! made a movie star of Eddie Cantor, already one of the leading Vaudeville and phonograph record stars of the United States. Other stars in the film are Eleanor Hunt, Ethel Shutta, and Paul Gregory. Future stars Betty Grable, Ann Sothern, and Virginia Bruce appear uncredited as "Goldwyn Girls". The film also launched the Hollywood career of Busby Berkeley, and was Alfred Newman's first gig in Hollywood. Richard Day did the set designs and behind the camera was Gregg Toland, who later found fame with Orson Welles.
The story line of Whoopee! is somewhat aged by today's standards, but there are several interesting moments in the movie, particularly Cantor's rendition of the song "Makin' Whoopee", and some of the big production numbers with the Goldwyn Girls - AKA the Ziegfield Girls.
Whoopee! is an important, but overlooked film in the history of the Hollywood musical. Made at the depth of the Great Depression, it had a ticket price of $5 when it opened, and made Samuel Goldwyn a lot of money at a time when his studio needed a hit.
In the history of musicals, it shows a look 5 years ahead if its time and foreshadows all of the great Warner Brothers musicals of the 1930s.