Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 123

 Ann’s in there somewhere!

Yesterday, Ron Hutchinson over at the Vitaphone Project announced that TWO M-G-M shorts featuring Ann Dvorak are going to be restored within the next year. Ok, he did not exactly identify Pirates and Manhattan Serenade as “Ann Dvorak shorts,” but she does happen to be in both of them as a chorus girl. Here’s what Ron had to say about the project over on his Facebook page.

As promised, here’s yet ANOTHER big Technicolor restoration announcement. As you know, after the discovery of the lost Stooges 1933 Technicolor short HELLO POP earlier this year, we began pursuing what other color shorts might be out there. James Layton at George Eastman House shared with me a number of restoration possibilities. GEH has a matching grant in place so that if we developed funding, it would be doubled in impact. The Vitaphone Project was able to quickly obtain three very generous donors who are funding the already announced THE SULTAN’S JESTER, but also these two I’m announcing today: MANHATTAN SERENADE (MGM Colortone, 1929) with Nina Mae McKinney and The Brox Sisters, and PIRATES (MGM Colortone, 1930). James kindly made some frame grabs which I have posted here. The work is required to be completed within a year per the grant. All I can say is NINA MAE McKINNEY IN COLOR!

Ron filled me in about these in early March, so it’s great to finally have the cat out of the bag. These early M-G-M films were the only time Ann was filmed in color. It’s amazing that they actually still exist, and a restoration by the George Eastman House is truly heartwarming to this here Ann-D fanatic.