Musicals were all the rage in the first year of talkies. No matter the singing ability, rare was the actor or actress who escaped from appearing in musicals to belt out a tune or two. Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, one of movies' more popular pairings on the screen with 12 films together, including 1927's "7th Heaven" and 1928's "Street Angel," were no exceptions. And their off-screen relationship was fodder for the movie tabloids.
'The American Lovebirds' starred in the romantic musical, October 1929's "Sunny Side Up," the first talkie for both Gaynor and Farrell. And yes, they each had to sing for the first time in film. "Sunny Side Up" is also the first musical containing songs written specifically for a movie. The team of B. G. DeSylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson composed several originals, three becoming instant classics. Gaynor's "I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All?" was recorded by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra shortly after the release of the film. Whiteman was backed up by the vocal group The Rhythm Boys, led by a young Bing Cosby. The second original song was "Turn on the Heat," made famous by Fats Waller's rendition recorded soon after the Fox Film Corp. Movie premiered. And lastly, "(Keep Your) Sunny Side Up" was a hit for the dance band Johnny Hamp's Kentucky Serenaders. The band's 1929 recording is heard in the closing credits of 1973's film "Paper Moon," with Ryan and Tatum O'Neal.
This fourth pairing of Gaynor and Farrell begins with a sweeping elevated traveling single exterior shot of several families primping up for Fourth of July festivities, all mapped out by director David Butler. Molly Carr (Gaynor) lives in the poorer Upper East Side section of Manhattan. She meets rich Hamptons' socialite Jack Cromwell (Farrell) as he angrily drives into town after his intended fiancé told him she wants to continue having a wild time with other guys before she settles down. Jack asks Molly to come with him to the suburbs so he can make his fiancé jealous. The results: Molly and Jack fall in love.
In real life, in the midst of filming "Sunny Side Up," Farrell proposed to Gaynor. The actress recalled, "I think we loved each other more than we were 'in love.' He played polo, he went to the Hearst Ranch for wild weekends with Marion Davies, he got around to the parties - he was a big, brawny, outdoors type... I was not a party girl... Charlie pressed me to marry him, but we had too many differences. In my era, you didn't live together. It just wasn't done." She claims she married San Francisco businessman Lydell Peck soon after, just so Farrell would stop pursuing her. Gaynor and Peck divorced four years later.
Meanwhile, "Sunny Side Up" was a big box office winner in 1929, listing at number four. The American Film Institute members nominated the film in their Greatest Movie Musicals category.
'The American Lovebirds' starred in the romantic musical, October 1929's "Sunny Side Up," the first talkie for both Gaynor and Farrell. And yes, they each had to sing for the first time in film. "Sunny Side Up" is also the first musical containing songs written specifically for a movie. The team of B. G. DeSylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson composed several originals, three becoming instant classics. Gaynor's "I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All?" was recorded by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra shortly after the release of the film. Whiteman was backed up by the vocal group The Rhythm Boys, led by a young Bing Cosby. The second original song was "Turn on the Heat," made famous by Fats Waller's rendition recorded soon after the Fox Film Corp. Movie premiered. And lastly, "(Keep Your) Sunny Side Up" was a hit for the dance band Johnny Hamp's Kentucky Serenaders. The band's 1929 recording is heard in the closing credits of 1973's film "Paper Moon," with Ryan and Tatum O'Neal.
This fourth pairing of Gaynor and Farrell begins with a sweeping elevated traveling single exterior shot of several families primping up for Fourth of July festivities, all mapped out by director David Butler. Molly Carr (Gaynor) lives in the poorer Upper East Side section of Manhattan. She meets rich Hamptons' socialite Jack Cromwell (Farrell) as he angrily drives into town after his intended fiancé told him she wants to continue having a wild time with other guys before she settles down. Jack asks Molly to come with him to the suburbs so he can make his fiancé jealous. The results: Molly and Jack fall in love.
In real life, in the midst of filming "Sunny Side Up," Farrell proposed to Gaynor. The actress recalled, "I think we loved each other more than we were 'in love.' He played polo, he went to the Hearst Ranch for wild weekends with Marion Davies, he got around to the parties - he was a big, brawny, outdoors type... I was not a party girl... Charlie pressed me to marry him, but we had too many differences. In my era, you didn't live together. It just wasn't done." She claims she married San Francisco businessman Lydell Peck soon after, just so Farrell would stop pursuing her. Gaynor and Peck divorced four years later.
Meanwhile, "Sunny Side Up" was a big box office winner in 1929, listing at number four. The American Film Institute members nominated the film in their Greatest Movie Musicals category.