REAL CHORUS GIRLS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 724, 25 July 1929, Page 14

REAL CHORUS GIRLS

CAST IN “BROADWAY MELODY” In going through the long lines of girls from which were “weeded out” the 60 members of the chorus of “The Broadway Melody,” Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s first all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing, production, which will open at the Xew Regent Theatre shortly, an effort was made to select a number of varied types. Director Beaumont and his assistant. George punningham, had a rigid list of requirements to which all the girls selected had to conform, yet at the same time they were looking for photographic individuality. The result was that many were called before even a few were chosen. Among the girls in the line are Diana Verne, dancer in “Chu Chin Chow” and “Artists and Models”; Alice Pitman, captain of the Tiller Sunshine Girls; Alice Weaver, a Broadway featured dancer; also the Angeles Sisters, and many show girls and dancers who have scintillated with the “Follies,” “Vanities” or George White’s “Scandals.” The average height of the girls is sft 2in, and their average weight 1101 b. Blondes are distinctly in the majority and about one-third of the sirens of syncopation have long hair. No inexperienced applicants even had a chance of “getting by.” Incidentally, nine of the girls, or about 15 per cent., claim college diplomas—a development that might have amazed another epoch, when brains in jumpers were un-dreamed-of commodities. The featured players of this scintillating Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production are Bessie Love, Anita Page and Charles King. The plot is founded on backstage show life.