The Primrose Path. 1925. USA. Directed by Harry O. Hoyt. Screenplay by Lean Baird. With Clara Bow, Wallace MacDonald, Arline Pretty, Stuart Holmes. Silent. 2K digital restoration courtesy San Francisco Silent Film Festival using archiving materials made available by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Lobster Films; restoration funding provided by David Stenn. World premiere. 60 min.
“Clara Bow steals everything but the cameras as a nightclub headliner/seminal Jazz Baby in this low-budget indie ‘meller’ of sin and redemption (not hers). Not seen in full since its original theatrical release in 1925, The Primrose Path was one of Bow’s last program pictures before Paramount scooped up her contract and within a year turned her into Hollywood’s biggest new star” (David Stenn).
Preceded by Accent on Girls. 1935. USA. Directed by Fred Waller. With Ina Ray Hutton, The Melodears. 35mm restoration courtesy UCLA Film & Television Archive. New York premiere. 9 min.
Swing Hutton Swing! 1937. USA. Directed by Fred Waller. With Ina Ray Hutton, The Winsted Trio. 35mm restoration by UCLA Film & Television Archive; courtesy Swank Motion Pictures. New York premiere. 10 min.
“Ina Ray Hutton, the ‘Blonde Bombshell of Rhythm,’ fronted the Melodears, a pioneering all-female big band whose film appearances have, until now, circulated only in atrocious 16mm prints. These restorations of Hutton's best two shorts come from the original camera and track negatives, and feature Hutton—posthumously discovered to have been ‘passing’ as white—introducing dance craze anthems ‘Truckin’ and ‘Doin’ the Suzie Q.’ Both shorts directed by Fred Waller, later the inventor of Cinerama” (David Stenn).