Red Hot and Blue original footage

[Luvsbway]

Red, Hot and Blue in color with Bob Hope and Ethel Merman. Can anyone spot Viv in this?

[Neil]

These little color silent snippets are all the record left of these great musicals.  Shame, but it's better than nothing.

"Red Hot and Blue" was not an "A" Coles Porter (as Ricky would pronounce it) musical.  "It's Delovely" is the only solid hit.   "Down in the Depths on the 90th Floor" and "Ridin' High" are two that Ethel sang as part of her repertoire, though not frequently.  I've only heard the title tune on one of those Cole Porter Revisited albums sung by Kaye Ballard, Bibi Osterwald and Bobbie Short.

Red, Hot and Blue:

"Due to the tragic lowness of my brow

All music that's high-brow

leaves me upset.

Each time I hear a strain of Stravinsky's,

I hurry to Minsky's

and try to forget."

Note that the theater is the Alvin which 25 years later would play host to "Wildcat".  Both had about the same number of performances.

Was Viv in the cast AND Ethel's understudy in "Red Hot and Blue"?

[upperco]

Here's Merman's recording of the title number: 

 

This, along with other rarities (including the footage reposted above), found here: http://jacksonupperco.com/2014/09/29/r-is-for-red-hot-and-blue-1936/