| Is Everybody Happy? | |
| Director: | Archie Mayo |
| Starring: | Ted Lewis Ted Todd Alice Day Gail Wilson Ann Pennington |
| Music: | The Original Dixieland Jazz Band Harry Akst W. C. Handy Ted Lewis Grant Clarke |
| Cinematography: | Ben Reynolds |
| Editing: | Desmond O'Brien |
| Studio: | Warner Bros. |
| Distributor: | Warner Bros. |
| Runtime: | 80 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Is Everybody Happy? (1929) is an American pre-Code musical film starring Ted Lewis, Alice Day, Lawrence Grant, Ann Pennington, and Julia Swayne Gordon, directed by Archie Mayo, and released by Warner Bros. The music for the film was written by Harry Akst and Grant Clarke, except for "St. Louis Blues" by W. C. Handy and "Tiger Rag". The film's title comes from Lewis's catchphrase "Is everybody happy?"
"...some nonsense about an old Hungarian violinist who played symphonies for royal families and his son who played jazz. Elements of mother love, fatherly pride, wealth that can buy finery but not happiness, fail to depress Jazz King Lewis. He excitedly and excitingly blows his clarinet and saxophone, juggles his high hat, croons odd songs in a hoarse voice. Best song: I'm the Medicine Man for the Blues"[1]
The film's soundtrack exists on Vitaphone discs preserved at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The Is Everybody Happy ? (1929) Complete Vitaphone Soundtrack, in two parts, can be found on YouTube.[2] [3]
The film itself is considered a lost film, according to the Vitaphone Project website.[4] A five-minute clip from the film can be found on YouTube.[5]
Lewis and his orchestra also appeared in a short subject called Is Everybody Happy? (1941), consisting of musical numbers cut from the Abbott and Costello feature film Hold That Ghost (1941) released by Universal Studios. Columbia Pictures released a feature-length biopic of Lewis also titled Is Everybody Happy? (1943).
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