#rio rita

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Bebe Daniels

Rio Rita (1929)

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Patricia Morison as Rita, with John Tyers as Captain Jim Stewart, in an adaptation of the musical comedy Rio Rita for episode 104 of the Musical Comedy Time television show, which aired November 13, 1950.

[redhairclara]

Ada May Weeks poses for the Ziegfeld Follies production Rio Rita. Photographed by Alfred Cheney Johnston, 1927. From my collection.

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Dorothy Deborah Wegman was born in Manhattan on Nov. 27, 1904, to immigrants from Eastern Europe, and grew up in Washington Heights. Her father was a civil engineer; according to an article in The New York World-Telegram in 1934, it was her mother who steered her daughter, at first reluctant, onto the stage.

Dorothy's father died when she was 14, and she left high school to support her mother and younger brother by sketching clothes for a coat and suit manufacturer.

She made her debut as a dancer in a Shubert revue, ''The Passing Show of 1921,'' at the Winter Garden Theater.

Ziegfeld divided dancers into ''shorts, mediums and talls,'' and Mrs. Raphaelson, then known as Dolly, was cast in the Follies of 1924 as a medium. She switched to her proper name, Dorothy, for that show. In 1927, while appearing in the Ziegfeld musical ''Rio Rita,'' she was given the diminutive Dorshka by Marion Benda, a well-known Ziegfeld beauty, and the name stuck.During the run of ''Rio Rita,'' which The New York Times review said had ''inordinately beautiful dancing girls,'' she eloped with Samson Raphaelson, who wrote both the play and film versions of ''The Jazz Singer,'' as well as the short story on which they were based, among many other things.

After seven years with Ziegfeld, Mrs. Raphaelson took to domestic life ''like a bird to air,'' according to The World-Telegram. In later years, she acted in summer stock and published her second novel, ''Morning Song'' (1948). The couple lived successively in Hollywood; Bucks County, Pa.; and New York. Mr. Raphaelson died in 1983. Edit: Wikipedia

#DorothyWegman #Alfred Cheney Johnson #ShubertRevue #ZiegfeldFollies #RioRita #FricPic #CoffeTableBook

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Remembering dancer/model VIRGINIA BIDDLE…

Biddle appeared as a showgirl in the original 1927 production of “Show Boat”, at the Ziegfeld Theatre. She was also given a featured dance bit in 1928's "Rio Rita," which played on Broadway at three different theatres: the Ziegfeld, the Lyric and the Majestic, for a total of 494 performances. She became a regular presence in Ziegfeld's shows until the final Follies of 1931.

By 1931, she was seen as the girlfriend of actor/performer Harry Richman. Biddle was a close friend of fellow Ziegfeld performers Gladys Glad and Helen Walsh.

On July 26th of 1931, Richman made plans to take his new 36-foot motor yacht, 'Chevalier II' out for a trip with a hired pilot, inviting Miss Biddle, Daily Mirror writer Mark Hellinger, and the two other Ziegfeld girls: Miss Glad (who was also Hellinger's wife, they having been married in 1929), and Miss Walsh.

The boat was docked at Greenport, LI. Everybody piled aboard, some below decks/some above. The pilot got on and pressed the starter button - the boat, freshly filled with 140 gallons of gas, immediately exploded.

The pilot, a Capt. Samuel White, was blown overboard. Glad and Biddle somehow scrambled out from below decks and jumped into the water. Helen Walsh was not so fortunate: she was trapped below deck in a raging inferno. Richman and Hellinger raced below to see what they could do - somehow in the smoke and fire, Richman managed to reach Walsh and take her out, throwing her in the water and following in after her. The deck was close at hand, and all scrambled out.

The three men, and Gladys Glad, weren't hurt. Virginia Biddle had burns on her feet and legs. Helen Walsh was worse off. She had made it to a hospital in time, but her burns were too severe. Walsh died at age 23. At a benefit put on by Flo Ziegfeld a few nights later, every union stagehand and actor donated their services for the evening, so great was their affection for the much-loved showgirl. An event, in those days, unheard of for even the greatest of stars.

Virginia Biddle retired from the business shortly afterwards due to the burns on her feet. She married and became a realtor in Old Saybrook, Conn. She died from injuries in a car crash in 2003, at the age of 92.

PHOTO:

Virginia Biddle by Alfred Cheney Johnston, 1927.

[peggy-elise]

Jon Boles and Bebe Daniels in Rio Rita 1929 🎶

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Rio Rita (1929)

Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey kissing

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Rio Rita (formerly known as Senorita Rio) in Femforce #128: Halloween Horror Special, 2004, art by Ed Coutts