1933 Oscar-Winning Shorts: A Year of Sensations (Part 1 of 3)
RKO goes all in on musical short subjects and Phil Harris! The story of the Academy Award winning film, "So This Is Harris"...
Long Story Short: “So This Is Harris” became the second film to win the Best Live Action Short Subject, Comedy category at the Oscars. RKO Pictures’ musical short subject was a major trend-setter in Hollywood and a massive vehicle for its titular star Phil Harris, who rose to prominence for his performances as the band leader at the Cocoanut Grove, a famous nightclub in Los Angeles. The film is a comedic take on his rising fame. Keep reading to get the full story about this cheeky musical novelty…
Welcome back to Long Story Short where I’m covering each and every Oscar-winning short from 1931 to the present day. Today, we will focus on the Oscar winners from 1933, and let me tell you, it was a banner year for short subjects. The short films in 1933 proved to Hollywood that they were a valuable asset to the movie-going experience. Vice-President of Columbia Pictures Jack Cohn expressed this sentiment in The Film Daily:
“The motion picture industry is awakening to the importance of the short subject. It is realizing that the one- and two-reel subjects are as important a part of the program as the feature picture…I firmly believe that shorts can make or break a program” (13).
Cohn’s words are perfectly demonstrated by the three films selected by the Academy as the best shorts of the year. These films were not merely successful but often described as sensations. They were critically beloved, wildly crowd-pleasing, and generated unusually high audience engagement. They even eclipsed their feature counterparts on the bill. Furthermore, these short films represented major accomplishments for their respective studios and helped shape future projects. Even if you haven’t seen or heard of these films, their impact reached much further than their theatrical runs. They are each, in their own way, exactly the kinds of short films that got me interested in covering Oscar-winning shorts in the first place.
There was so much to cover with each film that I had to split this retrospective into three parts. Parts 2 and 3 will be posted later this week! For now, here is the first Oscar-Winning short film from the 6th Academy Awards!
Winner of Best Live Action Short Subject, Comedy at the 6th Academy Awards
So This Is Harris (Sandrich, 1933)
Stars: Phil Harris, Walter, Catlett, Helen Collins, June Brewster
Distributor: RKO Radio Pictures
Recipient of the Award: Louis Brock
Other Nominees: Mister Mugg, A Preferred List
RKO’s So This Is Harris is a peculiar little film with massive implications for its studio. 1933 was a huge year for RKO with King Kong (Cooper & Schoedsack, 1933), the studio’s biggest and most culturally significant hit released in March. Outside of its features, RKO was also completing short subjects rapidly, and none of them were as consequential as So This Is Harris. Its premise centers on the tremendous popularity of one man: Phil Harris. After traveling the world and performing gigs as a drummer, he landed a prestigious job as the band leader at the Cocoanut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel, where he garnered profuse attention, particularly from women. According to Walter Ramsey’s piece in Radio Stars, Phil Harris’s shows at the Cocoanut Grove brought in up to a thousand people per night and generated even more attention on the radio. As Ramsey described, “Southern débutantates and movie stars began staying home at night just to listen for Harris” (48). The entertainment industry was taking notice, and Harris would soon take his talents from the radio to the big screen.
Possibly the best and most interesting indication of Harris’s popularity, particularly with female audiences, comes from Helene Handin’s piece on her interview with Harris for Radio Digest. This interview is less interesting for the information it provides on Harris than for Handin’s descriptions of him, which indicate that she is totally smitten, or as she puts it “his’n” (44). In one of the opening paragraphs, Handin enthusiastically writes, “Don’t remember my writing when you when I first arrived here in May about my first visit to the Cocoanut Grove and my going “ga-ga” about the new (to me) band leader there, who did things to song nothing short of marvelous” (44). This is the tone that Handin carries through the rest of her piece on Harris. It has the charming style of a woman writing to her close friends. It’s the type of gem that one can only find by digging deep into the archives of 1930s trade magazines. More importantly, it perfectly captures the craze over Phil Harris, which also serves as the premise for So This Is Harris. The film is fiction, but it’s based on something very real, indeed. In the film, Phil Harris plays himself and performs at the Cocoanut Grove to thousands of adoring fans. The film’s other star Walter Catlett (also playing an exaggerated version of himself) becomes increasingly frustrated at the constant and overwhelming adoration for Harris, especially from his wife Dorothy (Helen Collins). Things come to a head at a country club golf course where the two men meet, leading to a hilarious scenario of mismatched identities, musical numbers, and infidelity. Catlett’s role as a curmudgeonly husband fits with his persona, as he was known for playing “excitable, officious blowhards.” While Catlett is a major player in the film, the appeal of So This Is Harris rests entirely on the titular star both as a person and a phenomenon. Even when he’s not on-screen, the entire project is centered on him.
So This Is Harris was not merely a star vehicle for Phil Harris. A lot was riding on the success of this film for RKO. The studio had seen success with their comedies in the past (they received an Oscar nomination the previous year for Scratch-As-Catch-Can (Sandrich, 1932)). However, So This Is Harris is not just any comedy, but a musical comedy with songs written by Will Jason and Val Burton and conducted by the legendary Max Steiner (composer for Gone with the Wind (Fleming, 1939), Now, Voyager (Rapper, 1942), and Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942)). The producers at RKO believed that musical short subjects were coming back into fashion, and So This Is Harris would be the start of this trend. In a quote for The Film Daily, director Mark Sandrich stated the following:
“The musical-comedy short is the most logical incidental program entertainment yet devised. The object of a good short subject is to provide contrasting entertainment to the feature bill. With spoken dialogue playing the larger part of the bill, not only in the feature, but in newsreels, travelogues and other special items, the leading short subjects will be most keenly appreciated by the average audience if it furnishes a tuneful, singing-and-dancing interval. It’s a distinct and welcome change” (12).
RKO was extremely committed to the viability of musical short subjects, and producer Lou Brock spared no expense. According to Ralph Wilk in The Film Daily, Brock assembled “the largest cast ever employed by [RKO] for a short film” (6). Additionally, The Film Daily noted that the film was completed and rushed out to previews in “record time” (6). The speed at which the film was completed and screened indicated the eagerness and confidence of RKO. They wanted to capitalize on an emerging trend and have So This Is Harris be seen as one of the first of its kind.
Upon release, So This Is Harris was received warmly by critics and audiences. Leo Meehan of Motion Picture Herald gave the film a positive review stating that “the music is infectious, the story is clever and well-developed by director Mark Sandrich…It is sprightly and entertaining, out of the ordinary in every way.” Meehan was particularly pleased that the film took place on a golf course rather than using “stuffy sets” that he had grown to expect from musicals (23). The Film Daily also gave the film a positive review: “Good comedy, fast tempo, rich settings, and the music and song making this a swell musical novelty because of its unusual treatment combined with the action” (14). In a more mixed review, Variety criticized the “trite story” and stated that there was “too much plugging for the star,” but ultimately, praised the film’s “production values” and called it “a little better than the ordinary short” (14).
The film was also a hit with audiences as theater owners reported an unusual amount of interest compared to most short subjects. In the Motion Picture Herald, a local theater from Chandler, Oklahoma noted that So This Is Harris generated a lot of positive buzz even though “patrons never mention the short subjects” on most occasions (50). This theater owner wasn’t the only one to notice the unique power of So This Is Harris as others reported that the film was strong enough to overshadow the features. In Selma, Louisiana, Edith M. Fordyce of the Princess Theatre called it “100% entertainment” and recommended putting it alongside a “weak picture” to appease the audience (48). Similarly, Robert K. Yancey of the Paradise Theater in Cotter, Arkansas said it “will rank with the best” and noted that his audience doubled on the days it played (60). Possibly the most encouraging review (at least from RKO) came from Ware Shoals, South Carolina. H.E. Newbury of the Y.M.C.A Theatre enthusiastically stated the following: “A musical comedy that will help any program. Why don’t the producers get wise and make more like this one. Wonderful entertainment” (85). This praise confirmed RKO’s inclination that musical short subjects were a marketable product, as audiences and critics enjoyed having something fresh on the bill. This positive attention would eventually lead to an Academy Award. So This Is Harris became the second winner of the Best Live Action Comedy Short Subject, Comedy category at the 6th Academy Awards, ironically held at Phil Harris’s performing spot, The Ambassador Hotel. The film beat out fellow RKO comedy short A Preferred List (Jason, 1933), which came in second place. It was a banner year for RKO’s short subject division, and So This Is Harris was their crown jewel.
So This Is Harris might’ve been a big hit in its day, but how does it hold up now? I found the film quite amusing, albeit very dated and not riotously funny. The humor is not nearly as timeless as Laurel and Hardy, where the pratfalls and destruction will always be funny. The musical numbers are entertaining, but not anything super impressive. Most of them aren’t even songs but rhythmically spoken rhymes. It’s certainly not the best Hollywood musical, but it definitely stands out amongst other short subjects because of its music. Walter Catlett is very funny and fully leans into his curmudgeonly persona and is the perfect foil for the easy-going and incredibly charming Phil Harris. Harris is not necessarily your typical movie star and certainly not a heartthrob, but he does have an irresistible quality that shines when he’s singing. It’s easy to see why he was so popular. Harris’s popularity is certainly exaggerated for the film as everyone practically worships the ground he walks on, and his music is utterly inescapable. This comical exaggeration of Harris’s popularity juxtaposed with Catlett’s hatred of him makes for some hysterical moments.
While I found the film’s comedy and music to be enjoyable, the thing that interests me most about So This Is Harris is its vulgarity, at least in the context of 1930s Hollywood. This is something that is mentioned in the most negative review of the film I could find from Motion Picture Reviews, which states, “A clever idea is spoiled by vulgarity. Phil Harris presents a musical novelty which is different and entertaining until Walter Catlett and the story inject vulgarity” (11). Without spoiling it, the story revolves around infidelity with Phil Harris directly getting in the way of Dorothy and Walter’s marriage. Further, the film contains an entire musical number in the showers of the country club. Though nothing explicit is shown, Phil Harris is shown shirtless while singing “Singing in the Shower,” and the number also features a whole host of female dancers singing and dancing along in their respective stalls, completely naked. These topics are hardly depicted as salacious by the film and are instead treated as rather innocent and common.
Nowadays, these things are not particularly scandalous and honestly, I find the accusation of “vulgarity” pretty adorable. However, I am intrigued by these scenes because they would be completely banned from Hollywood films shortly after So This Is Harris’s release. In 1934, Joseph Breen became the director of the Production Code Administration (PCA) and strictly enforced the rules of the Hays Code, which barred Hollywood from depicting many “indecent” topics with nudity and infidelity being among them. Thus, So This Is Harris is a fascinating document of the pre-code era where Hollywood studios would put in copious amounts of scandalous material with little pushback from censors. If So This Is Harris had come out just a year later, it certainly would not have had such casual and comedic instances of cheating, nor a completely superfluous display of nudity. For this reason, I find So This Is Harris to be very compelling not only as a unique musical short subject but also as a relic of a Hollywood era that would soon come to a close.
Following the success of So This Is Harris, RKO would continue working in the musical genre and even expand into feature-length projects. Shortly after its release, Phil Harris was cast in a feature-length musical called Melody Cruise (Sandrich, 1933) (originally called The Maiden Cruise in the Hollywood Filmograph), where he re-teamed with director Mark Sandrich and writer Ben Holmes. The film was fairly well-liked, but according to Radio Fan-Fare, Phil Harris didn’t work in a romantic lead role (31). Though I couldn’t find Melody Cruise, I did find a clip of historian Leonard Matlin and Turner Classic Movies Host Ben Mankiewicz discussing the film. I would highly recommend watching this clip to understand how creative and innovative the effects of Melody Cruise were for the time. I was particularly interested in Matlin’s description of how the film uses “the music of life,” in which the sweeping of the streets and other mundane activities are set to rhythm. This concept of “the music of life” is also showcased in So This Is Harris with the cab driver’s parking brake being used as music, and even a man’s body being used as a drum during the “Singing in the Shower” sequence. Sandrich and RKO would continue this winning musical formula with two huge stars: Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. With all the tricks he developed with So This Is Harris and Melody Cruise, Sandrich would go on to direct five Rogers and Astaire movies (The Gay Divorcee (1934), Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Shall We Dance (1937), and Carefree (1939)), which would earn the studio loads of success.
As for Phil Harris, he continued his successful career as a radio personality after his stay at the Cocoanut Grove ended and eventually became largely remembered for his beloved roles in Disney cartoons. Decades after So This Is Harris, Phil Harris voiced Baloo the Bear in The Jungle Book (Reitherman, 1967), Thomas O’Malley in The Aristocats (Reitherman, 1970), and Little John in Robin Hood (Reitherman, 1973). If you’ve ever been caught singing “The Bare Necessities” in the shower (and let’s face it, we all have!), you were singing along to the voice of Phil Harris. So This Is Harris might have been forgotten over time, but it certainly left a large mark on Hollywood. It’s available on both YouTube and Vimeo and if you enjoy cheesy, peculiar Hollywood musicals, I’d recommend giving it a watch.
Works Cited
Cook, David A. A History of Narrative Film. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016.
The Film Daily, 30 Sept. 1932, p. 1, 6.
The Film Daily, 4 Oct. 1932, p. 7.
The Film Daily, 10 Dec. 1932, p. 12.
The Film Daily, 10 Dec. 1932, p. 6.
The Film Daily, 6 Jan. 1933, p. 8.
The Film Daily, 25 Jan. 1933, pp. 1, 4.
The Film Daily, 28 Jan. 1933, p. 14.
Handin, Helene. "So This Is Harris?" Radio Digest, 8 Aug. 1932, pp. 44, 46.
Hollywood Filmograph, 29 Oct. 1932, p. 13.
Hollywood Filmograph, 10 Dec. 1932, p. 12.
Hollywood Filmograph, 18 Mar. 1933, p. 1.
The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Jan. 1933, p. 7.
Meehan, Leo. "Oriental Idea in Films." Motion Picture Herald, 17 Dec. 1932, p. 23.
Motion Picture Herald, 11 Mar. 1933, p. 26.
Motion Picture Herald, 15 Jul. 1933, p. 85.
Motion Picture Herald, 5 Aug. 1933, p. 50.
Motion Picture Herald, 12 Aug. 1933, p. 60.
Motion Picture Herald, 19 Aug. 1933, p. 56.
Motion Picture Herald, 9 Sept. 1933, p. 48.
Motion Picture Herald, 20 Jan. 1934, p. 70.
Motion Picture Herald, 24 Mar. 1934, p. 19.
The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930, www.umsl.edu/~gradyf/theory/1930code.pdf.
Motion Picture Reviews, Feb. 1933, p. 11.
Walk, Ralph. "A Little from Lots." The Film Daily, 18 Oct. 1932, p. 6.
The New Movie Magazine, Jun. 1933, p. 60.
The New Movie Magazine, Aug. 1933, p. 67.
Pondillo, Bob. "Joseph Breen." The Free Speech Center, 1 Jan. 2009,
firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/joseph-breen/.
Radio Fan-Fare, 1 Oct. 1934, p. 19.
Ramsey, Walter. "So This Is Harris." Radio Stars, 1 Sept. 1933, pp. 38, 48.
"TCM Comments on Melody Cruise (1933)." YouTube, uploaded by 24fpsfan, 12 Dec. 2022,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JNsjy4IL20&t=320s.
Variety, 28 Feb. 1933, p. 14.
“Walter Catlett.” Hollywood Walk of Fame, 9 Dec. 2020, walkoffame.com/walter-catlett/.