Fantastic short! There is much more historical importance to this song and why it is played by Abe Lyman, for posterity! The VARSITY DRAG came from a Broadway musical about college life, called GOOD NEWS. Abe Lyman's band was actually in this show and played it !! That's why he recorded it on Brunswick records. The 1927 show (with it's score by DeSylva Brown and Henderson) was such a hit, it played for a year and a half on Broadway! Maybe they filmed this in 1928 after the show ended. Or if it was early 1928, it would have been filmed during the show run! So, the VARSITY DRAG made Abe Lyman famous, and became one of the best songs of the decade, recorded by many singers into the 1950s! Gotta mention George Olsen's band also, as his band also played for a long time as the pit orchestra in the show, was the first band to perform in GOOD NEWS, and actually premiered it on Broadway! This is why George Olsen got to record the VARSITY DRAG on the VICTOR record label. It made Olsen famous too! They say Olsen's musicians came running down the theatre aisles yelling college cheers as they assembled in the pit orchestra section in front of the stage. Some fun!
WOW! Excellent information, filling-in some needful gaps. Thanks very much for taking the time to share of it. So . . . now THE PROJECT is to find the film. And, bye-the-way, Abe and the boys recorded two or three selections on Brunswicks, from that first Science Fiction Musical, -- "JUST IMAGINE !!!" This is a highly creative Deco masterpiece of the typically 20's-nonsencial kind and was very futuristic. I think it can still be found here on Y-T somewhere. Now it is possible that C.B. de Mille's "Madam Satan" preceded IMAGINE, but, that was way-less Sci-Fi of an antique sort, and more Horror-Musical-Comedic.
My father was a fan of al Bowley to the point when my father past away at 90 years young we played al Bowley songs at his funeral and 17 years later I find myself listening to al Bowley songs and it brings a smile in my heart thinking about my wonderful father god bless you mum and dad x❤
Holy smokes, that was great! I never knew Abe Lyman was a drummer! This is one of the best videos I've ever seen to show the state of drum-set drumming in the 20s! Usually they're way in the back, and you can't see anything! Very, very cool, thank you!
Great visual study on the genesis of the "drum set" or "drum kit" as we know it today. Pretty much standardized by about 1960. Great showmanship by Mr. Lyman, too.
Good points and information too. Abe WAS 'the aces' in my book. (He and his good bad-boys left many dozens of shellac sides to us.) Thank you your input.
This sassy, carefree music lifts my spirits up sky-high! I'm positive that if the chronically losing football teams of my high school and colleges could have enjoyed music like this at half times, they would have won a lot more games!
From an early Vitaphone short. Lynan did the original theme music, "Get Happy", for Warner's Merrie Melodies cartoon series. He was billed on the second title card as " Abe Lyman's Brunswick Recording Orchestra" Based on aural evidence, he was only used on about 2 cartoons before Warner's began using (probably) their house band.
Awesome clip. Absolutely amazing! Great to see Horace "Zip" Keyes in action on reeds. This is a gem of a film. Abe says "Our next selection" makes me wonder if there's more from this amazing film.
You are lucky indeed to enjoy such a distinguished relative as Abe Lyman himself. I wonder if any other Lyman Vitaphones were taken and if so, where to be located?
A wonderful early sound film which captures a bit of the jazzy music when Bix, Duke, Jelly and Louis were coming into their own -. Interesting to see the battuto bow technique often used by bassists of the time, but discarded in the early 1930s. The precision phrasing and blend of both the brass and reed sections was "de rigueur" - and a matter of pride among the arrangers. Too bad there is no improvising - but we do get a good look at the drumming technique of the 20s. Imagine the $$ and talent it took to make this short film. Thank you all -
"Rock and roll" existed as a phrase, but not yet as a genre of music. Similarly, "swing" was a verb, then an adjective, and became a noun in the 1930s.
This version is the liveliest and wildest ever !!!! I LOVE IT !!! It blows all others right out of the water !!!! Was it really recorded 1927 ? I have a feeling it was 1928.
Great band . It’s interesting to note that drummers in the 1920’s didn’t have the hi hat since it wasn’t invented yet. They did by this time have a early version of the hi hat called a Low Boy or a Snow Shoe. The low boy looked like a little hi hat and was only about 12 inches high. Not everyone used them. That drum set is beautiful, all drummers had the standard 28” bass drum a snare a cymbal and maybe a Chinese tom or two plus wood block and cow bells. This looks like a Leedy drum set. No computers or overdubbing with this music. It’s all live.
@@michaelmills7198 I’ve heard that too. It seems most vintage drum set historians aren’t sure but have mentioned Vic’s name. If you look in old drum catalog’s from the 1920’s and 30’s you start seeing ads for the Lowboy and Snowshoe and then the hi hat as we know it. I think the swing drummer Papa Jo Jones use to say he invented the hihat but that hasn’t been proven. It’s interesting that DW now sells a Lowboy for Cajon players to use. I have a Lowboy from the 1920’s with the 10” hihat cymbals that works great.
Lyman was an authentic original. Over a fair period he held-forth at the Coconut Grove in L.A. at the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Blvd., and became quite popular with the Hollywood crowd. Also, there were made quite a few transcription discs containing nice sets of his group, these as if announced broadcasts. His very first shellac was waxed in nearby Santa Monica by Nordscog, I believe it was. At this link following might be found a really nice piece about Abe and his career beginning with his quite humble origins, as done from an early Los Angeles history type perspective: homesteadmuseum.wordpress.com/2018/05/11/striking-a-chord-with-a-phonograph-record-by-abe-lymans-california-orchestra-11-may-1925/ As happens so often with the good, Abe had only 59 action-packed years on this earth, leaving us in 1957 however, he does live-on most heartily in his and his group's many recordings and film shorts. (And, BLESS those ever-creative Warner Bros. for preserving so much of inestimable value, by means of their pioneering Vitaphone Process!) . : .
that has to be one of the earliest uses of the traps in a jazz band on record. a lot of the old stuff just used a snare, cymbal and optional kick drum.
Lyman was really big with turning out terrific Brunswick sides. In all maybe nearing a hundred? Also, there are the Coconut Grove sort-of broadcast discs available on-line as CD's. I have a bunch and they are SWELL! (Actually, to put it correctly, like Abe himself they are "the bees' knees.") . : .
Must be one of the very earliest music-films ever! I didn´t know that sound film was in existence as early as 1927! I have always thought that the first year of the sound-film was 1929
these short subjects were the testing ground before sound was added to feature films.. they started making these as early as 1926 but testing had been going on long before that. The main problem was getting sound to project out and fill a theater ..
Lee de Forest was making "Phonofilms" as early as 1925. Vitaphone started soon after that. Musical short films were the most popular format in the early years of sound films, both to test and demonstrate the new technology.
This was a Vitaphone short. The original Vitaphone system had the sound on shellac discs, one disc per reel, mechanically synchronized with the projector. "The Jazz Singer," released the same year as this short, used the Vitaphone system.
The filming people ordered that this be applied. Something having to do with how the film-stock of that time reacted variously to changes of light intensity. Later on it was improved.
Susan R Jecker I watched it in my hometown at our movie theater in Sarasota. It was definitely 1927. I remember the day because I forgot to switch off the oven and my thanksgiving turkey burned. :)
@@TuanBasikal Actually on the Goldkette recordings Brown does more bowing than plucking. He plucked in his own idiosyncratic way, utilizing the bass as a kind of drum. Most other New Orleans bass players usually plucked four to the bar.
This film is incredible!! Lyman is not seen or is the drumer? All the musicians are enjoying the performance and the reed players displayed all their saxes. I'm a frustrated musician so my admiration goes for all them. There is a banjo AND a guitar that seems to have four strings. Thank you very much, I can't stop watching this number!! Lyman leads an unpretentious but very good orchestra in California in 1941 with great boogie woogie numbers. A musician said: "He was a good man to work for, a fair and understanding guy. He doesn't allow drinking musicians in his bands as a rule".
Good Lord, this was about 100 years ago, and I have to say, Abe's band rocked!
Good Jazz doesn't rock, it SWINGS !
@Linda Fitak wow your really a purist. I appreciate what your saying.
It is absolutely fantastic !
☺🤗🤗Heavons above 100 years ago what an Astonishing recording and I'm 63 years old my mother was born in 1922 in london
Ya haven't seen March winds and showers tho Holy perfection
Pure gold my gouy
Fantastic short! There is much more historical importance to this song and why it is played by Abe Lyman, for posterity! The VARSITY DRAG came from a Broadway musical about college life, called GOOD NEWS. Abe Lyman's band was actually in this show and played it !! That's why he recorded it on Brunswick records. The 1927 show (with it's score by DeSylva Brown and Henderson) was such a hit, it played for a year and a half on Broadway! Maybe they filmed this in 1928 after the show ended. Or if it was early 1928, it would have been filmed during the show run! So, the VARSITY DRAG made Abe Lyman famous, and became one of the best songs of the decade, recorded by many singers into the 1950s! Gotta mention George Olsen's band also, as his band also played for a long time as the pit orchestra in the show, was the first band to perform in GOOD NEWS, and actually premiered it on Broadway! This is why George Olsen got to record the VARSITY DRAG on the VICTOR record label. It made Olsen famous too!
They say Olsen's musicians came running down the theatre aisles yelling college cheers as they assembled in the pit orchestra section in front of the stage. Some fun!
WOW! Excellent information, filling-in some needful gaps. Thanks very much for taking the time to share of it.
So . . . now THE PROJECT is to find the film.
And, bye-the-way, Abe and the boys recorded two or three selections on Brunswicks, from that first Science Fiction Musical, -- "JUST IMAGINE !!!"
This is a highly creative Deco masterpiece of the typically 20's-nonsencial kind and was very futuristic. I think it can still be found here on Y-T somewhere.
Now it is possible that C.B. de Mille's "Madam Satan" preceded IMAGINE, but, that was way-less Sci-Fi of an antique sort, and more Horror-Musical-Comedic.
The making of a timeless standard
You’re listening to very talented and experienced musicians performing at their best. They make it look so easy!
Such amazing quality and synchronized sound with video for 1927!
For this, we can thank those rascally Warner Bros.!!
My father was a fan of al Bowley to the point when my father past away at 90 years young we played al Bowley songs at his funeral and 17 years later I find myself listening to al Bowley songs and it brings a smile in my heart thinking about my wonderful father god bless you mum and dad x❤
Al Bowlly what a singer.
Excellent instrumental version of a great twenties standard!
Holy smokes, that was great! I never knew Abe Lyman was a drummer! This is one of the best videos I've ever seen to show the state of drum-set drumming in the 20s! Usually they're way in the back, and you can't see anything! Very, very cool, thank you!
Well T-T-M, all here were just born too late! Dang!
The 1920s had good music and bad liquor.
Now we have good liquor and bad music.
Very well-said and, unfortunately that's the truth
th-cam.com/video/fF3HS0e6i90/w-d-xo.html this isnt bad!
Interesting selection there Andrei, I actually like that tune. Anyways much agreed on that.
Ha ha! Very clever comparison, and so true! Thanks for that bit of brilliant wit. 😊
I say who needs any liquor with intoxicating rhymes and rhythms like this while sipping a coke or coffee!
Oh fabulous! I wonder if he's be pleased to know he could still bring such a wide smile to people's faces all these years later!
Good point, Mr. Hunter!
Really now, how could one not be so-elated?
what great music carnt stop my feet tapping best music ever
Great visual study on the genesis of the "drum set" or "drum kit" as we know it today. Pretty much standardized by about 1960. Great showmanship by Mr. Lyman, too.
Good points and information too. Abe WAS 'the aces' in my book. (He and his good bad-boys left many dozens of shellac sides to us.) Thank you your input.
My kind of music
Encore maestro.
Me too
This sassy, carefree music lifts my spirits up sky-high! I'm positive that if the chronically losing football teams of my high school and colleges could have enjoyed music like this at half times, they would have won a lot more games!
this was when there was great music i have too keep watching all the time love my feet going crazy
Amazing music just can't sit still with this best - he was one of the early drumstick twirlers too
From an early Vitaphone short.
Lynan did the original theme music, "Get Happy", for Warner's Merrie Melodies cartoon series.
He was billed on the second title card as " Abe Lyman's Brunswick Recording Orchestra"
Based on aural evidence, he was only used on about 2 cartoons before Warner's began using (probably) their house band.
The cartoons in question are "Smile, Darn Ya, Smile" and "One More Time."
I love this! It has always been my favorite music since I was a little kid and the music I specialize in my piano playing.
This Vitaphone short was in theaters in 1928. They did two or three other numbers that aren't seen here in this video.
Awesome clip. Absolutely amazing! Great to see Horace "Zip" Keyes in action on reeds. This is a gem of a film. Abe says "Our next selection" makes me wonder if there's more from this amazing film.
th-cam.com/video/78d-3ciYNq8/w-d-xo.html here
YES! There was another selection. Not sure if it can be found here.
one of the best versions I have heard! My other equally favorite is by Sam Lanin, with lyrics!
thanks for the great post!!!!
My children's Great Uncle Abe...also,Mike Lyman, who
was a singer with one of his brothers....
I have at least half of his recording which come with many rarities of his😉
You are lucky indeed to enjoy such a distinguished relative as Abe Lyman himself. I wonder if any other Lyman Vitaphones were taken and if so, where to be located?
@@newambassador376 Surely, one lucky fellow you are. 👍
Very well synchronised recording between film and disc....wow what a peppy number for the time. 👍👍👍🤗🤗🤗
The Jazz Singer came out in 1927 so it makes sense that this talkie was made in 1928. I love it!
I was really fed up tonight and saw tis again, cheerd me up, thanks
A wonderful early sound film which captures a bit of the jazzy music when Bix, Duke, Jelly and Louis were coming into their own -. Interesting to see the battuto bow technique often used by bassists of the time, but discarded in the early 1930s. The precision phrasing and blend of both the brass and reed sections was "de rigueur" - and a matter of pride among the arrangers. Too bad there is no improvising - but we do get a good look at the drumming technique of the 20s. Imagine the $$ and talent it took to make this short film. Thank you all -
Some nice useful observations there, Andrew. Thanks!
. : .
¡¡¡Bravo...!!!
¡¡¡Hermoso...!!!
👍👍👌👌👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Simply wonderful!!
made my night again, brill, thanks Abe and RIP
That's some fancy drumming by Abe.
Abe was quite good, I think.
And those sticks!
my feet are still going crazy what great great music 2021
Up on the heels down on the toes that's how you do the Varsity Drag!
The style in dress compared to today's groups is incredible
The guy to the left of the drummer (our left) looks like he’s holding the forte-piano of the guitar family .. DAMN is this old ..
Best song to come out of the era.
Wow, motion picture footage with sound from 1927. This is nice!
This makes me smile Some like it hot yeh Tony Curtis jack lemon Marilyn munroe. What a fab tune.over a hundreds years ago truly remarkable recording
Que lindo verdadera orquesta del recuerdo que padre nombraba cuando era marino 1927
That was pretty much the kind of music one was listening to at that time way before the words rock and roll came along.
"Rock and roll" existed as a phrase, but not yet as a genre of music. Similarly, "swing" was a verb, then an adjective, and became a noun in the 1930s.
This version is the liveliest and wildest ever !!!! I LOVE IT !!! It blows all others right out of the water !!!! Was it really recorded 1927 ? I have a feeling it was 1928.
It could have been 1928.
Absolutely fantastic. That band was as tight as the skins on Abe's drum kit ....and what a fantastic time keeper he was.
Bello, lindo, hermoso!!!
I remember Vivian Vance singing this song on 'I Love Lucy' once.
Brilliant! The Twenties Roared
Estas orquesta las favorita de mi padre 1927
WOW WOW WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From a mad keen 76yo Aussie fan.
Una maravilla...!
Una exquisitez...!🌷
Best version -- dwarfs all other attempts.
Super excellent with very good interesting video
Fabulous! Bravo!
Great band . It’s interesting to note that drummers in the 1920’s didn’t have the hi hat since it wasn’t invented yet. They did by this time have a early version of the hi hat called a Low Boy or a Snow Shoe. The low boy looked like a little hi hat and was only about 12 inches high. Not everyone used them. That drum set is beautiful, all drummers had the standard 28” bass drum a snare a cymbal and maybe a Chinese tom or two plus wood block and cow bells. This looks like a Leedy drum set. No computers or overdubbing with this music. It’s all live.
I have read that the high hat was invented by drummer Vic Berton.
@@michaelmills7198 I’ve heard that too. It seems most vintage drum set historians aren’t sure but have mentioned Vic’s name. If you look in old drum catalog’s from the 1920’s and 30’s you start seeing ads for the Lowboy and Snowshoe and then the hi hat as we know it. I think the swing drummer Papa Jo Jones use to say he invented the hihat but that hasn’t been proven. It’s interesting that DW now sells a Lowboy for Cajon players to use. I have a Lowboy from the 1920’s with the 10” hihat cymbals that works great.
Lyman was great - and he was nuts!
bloody hell !!! made my night brilliant, love it ..
Splendid happy interpretation!!!thank you!!
This is great !! Band members sure dressed a lot different than they do today 😂🤠
Lyman was an authentic original. Over a fair period he held-forth at the Coconut Grove in L.A. at the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Blvd., and became quite popular with the Hollywood crowd. Also, there were made quite a few transcription discs containing nice sets of his group, these as if announced broadcasts. His very first shellac was waxed in nearby Santa Monica by Nordscog, I believe it was.
At this link following might be found a really nice piece about Abe and his career beginning with his quite humble origins, as done from an early Los Angeles history type perspective:
homesteadmuseum.wordpress.com/2018/05/11/striking-a-chord-with-a-phonograph-record-by-abe-lymans-california-orchestra-11-may-1925/
As happens so often with the good, Abe had only 59 action-packed years on this earth, leaving us in 1957 however, he does live-on most heartily in his and his group's many recordings and film shorts.
(And, BLESS those ever-creative Warner Bros. for preserving so much of inestimable value, by means of their pioneering Vitaphone Process!)
. : .
that has to be one of the earliest uses of the traps in a jazz band on record. a lot of the old stuff just used a snare, cymbal and optional kick drum.
One, possibly two of the trombones have in-line tuning slides, which were popular in the 1920s. Heavy, but more in tune.
Those were the days. Join a band, get all dressed up and rip it in some swanky nightclub, even if the drummer's a show off.
It i s Abe Lyman's band and he is the drummer. Hence he can show off!
Yeah! Abe had LOTS to show-off, and did.
The drummer’s great. If you’ve got it flaunt it.
Amusing, that the very talented band had to sit behind the leader on the drums...
Amusing?
It was his outfit; he paid for it and made sure his boys had jobs. Why "amusing" to you?
Enjoyed your video, thanks very much.
Splendid! Thanks.
My new favorite tune!
Amazing. Think I was born in wrong time frame.
Me too.
AS were we all, Barbara!
Rocked it!
Amazing sound quality! They may have been playing live.
George Olson wrote and sang this rune - his band was beyond tight
You can actually hear the violins !
I was thinking the same thing.
Lyman was really big with turning out terrific Brunswick sides. In all maybe nearing a hundred? Also, there are the Coconut Grove sort-of broadcast discs available on-line as CD's. I have a bunch and they are SWELL! (Actually, to put it correctly, like Abe himself they are "the bees' knees.")
. : .
Great song.. Band has plenty of pep.. Roaring 20s
Love it sewwwwww much 💚💚 green army
What a great video. However, enduring over five minutes of ads before the video was agonizing. If you can find the video without the ads, do so.
Superb!!!
Can you imagine this live?
Must be one of the very earliest music-films ever! I didn´t know that sound film was in existence as early as 1927! I have always thought that the first year of the sound-film was 1929
these short subjects were the testing ground before sound was added to feature films.. they started making these as early as 1926 but testing had been going on long before that. The main problem was getting sound to project out and fill a theater ..
Lee de Forest was making "Phonofilms" as early as 1925. Vitaphone started soon after that. Musical short films were the most popular format in the early years of sound films, both to test and demonstrate the new technology.
This was a Vitaphone short. The original Vitaphone system had the sound on shellac discs, one disc per reel, mechanically synchronized with the projector. "The Jazz Singer," released the same year as this short, used the Vitaphone system.
@@donaldwarren463 Actually, the bigger problem was keeping the sound synchronized with the picture.
He’s been playing the drums since he was 14
¡¡¡Bravo!!!
¡Excelente!
¡Genial
👍👍👍👍👍👍👌👌👌👌👌👌👏👏👏👏👏👏🌹
A great rendition.Swell!
Gotta love the eye shadow
The filming people ordered that this be applied. Something having to do with how the film-stock of that time reacted variously to changes of light intensity. Later on it was improved.
Ricko s Don't forget the lipstick!
Tremendous. Was able the drummer ? Back when banjos held the rhythm. This is kick ass. Swing me
Fabulosa Orchestra.
They still rocking!
THE SOUNDS OF THE ORCHESTRA MID -WESTERN NEVER GONNA EQUALED ....
As my band director would have said, "Saxophones, what is your problem!"
Susan R Jecker I watched it in my hometown at our movie theater in Sarasota. It was definitely 1927. I remember the day because I forgot to switch off the oven and my thanksgiving turkey burned. :)
Jack Benny: "Lyman directs his boys with a rawhide whip!"
Maravillosa música
What virtuosity!
Did anybody else notice that the bass player was playing arco (with the bow) through the whole piece?
That was very typical of jazz bands before 1930.
@@kafenwar The plucked and slapped string bass style was popularized by Steve Brown and widely imitated, but even he bowed it on occasion.
@@TuanBasikal Actually on the Goldkette recordings Brown does more bowing than plucking. He plucked in his own idiosyncratic way, utilizing the bass as a kind of drum. Most other New Orleans bass players usually plucked four to the bar.
ぼざろから
ぼざろの動画消えてる？
The bee's knees and the cat's pajamas.
EXACTLY SO !!
Also do let's add 'the cat's meow.
These boys seemed to have enjoyed themselves.
Strains from "The Era of Wonderful Nonsense!"
Love it!
HOT STUFF!
Superb!
Is there more to the original film?
I’m just curious because in the beginning Abe Says “Our next selection”
YES! There was another selection. Not sure if it can be found here.
This film is incredible!! Lyman is not seen or is the drumer? All the musicians are enjoying the performance and the reed players displayed all their saxes. I'm a frustrated musician so my admiration goes for all them. There is a banjo AND a guitar that seems to have four strings. Thank you very much, I can't stop watching this number!! Lyman leads an unpretentious but very good orchestra in California in 1941 with great boogie woogie numbers. A musician said: "He was a good man to work for, a fair and understanding guy. He doesn't allow drinking musicians in his bands as a rule".
Lyman is the drummer.
The guitar should be a tenor guitar and the banjo a plectrum banjo.
Música do programa Jô Soares onze e meia
Fabulous
Cheerful good rhytm
Great sound recording for such an early "talkie"
NICE!
Just wondering where and why this was filmed.
The audio here exceeds what we hear on his Brunswick records of the time.
Oh absolutely it was a good experiment they did too