The Matinee Idol
(1928)

Here's a real comedy of the theater, which takes you behind the scenes of a thrilling melodrama and shows you how they acted in the old ten-twenty-thirties. You'll learn how to make love and say nice things to your sweetheart.

Released: 1928-03-14

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The famous matinee idol and blackface comedian, Don Wilson, heads out of town to escape adulation. There, calling himself Harry Mann, he accidentally joins a traveling acting troupe, and falls in love with Ginger Bolivar, who runs the troupe and stars in their Civil War melodrama. Don's producer sees the play, and thinks it's a comic masterpiece, and just what Don's Broadway show needs. But when Ginger finds out she's been played for a fool, will she forgive Don? Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. in 1997.

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Bessie Love

as Ginger Bolivar

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Johnnie Walker

as Don Wilson - aka Harry Mann

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Ernest Hilliard

as Arnold Wingate

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Lionel Belmore

as Jasper Bolivar

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David Mir

as Eric Barrymaine

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Joe Bordeaux

as Auditoning Actor (uncredited)

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Sidney Bracey

as Don's Valet (uncredited)

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Sidney D'Albrook

as J. Madison Wilberforce (uncredited)

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Mary Gordon

as Woman in Audience (uncredited)

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