King of Jazz - Release

Release

The film debuted on April 20, 1930 at the Criterion Theater. Box-office receipts at this theater were below expectations within the first two weeks.

A grand premiere was held on May 2, 1930 at the Roxy Theater in New York, where the Whiteman Orchestra, together with George Gershwin and the 125-piece Roxy Symphony Orchestra, put on a stage show. It featured the Rhapsody in Blue and Mildred Bailey backed by the Roxy Chorus and was performed five times a day, between showings of the film, for a week. The film continued to play at the Roxy for only one additional week.

As originally released, the film was 105 minutes long. However, after a strengthened Production Code went into effect in July, 1934, it was shortened to 93 minutes as the result of censorship. The censors ordered the following parts of the film to be cut before they would issue a permit for it to be re-released:

• A sketch with William Kent about a suicidal flute player, with the Whiteman Orchestra performing Caprice Viennois as background music.
• A specialty number featuring Nell O'Day, with unknown music, set in a cabaret lobby.
• A segment featuring Grace Hayes singing My Lover.

This shortened version was used for the videocassette release of the film in 1992. Prints of the original uncut version still survive. As of the end of 2010, there had been no legitimate release of any version on DVD.

However in the Winter of 2011/2012 there was a very important discovery, recently leaked reports in other venues allowed The Vitaphone Project to give VITAPHONE NEWS readers some preliminary background on the long awaited restoration of Universal's all-Technicolor 1930 musical THE KING OF JAZZ. This film has circulated in washed out VHS versions for years, and then only in the cut-down 1933 reissue length. As often happens with film discoveries, a stunningly beautiful, but fragile 35mm nitrate print of the original 1930 version turned up, at The Library of Congress. And on top of this discovery half a country away in Texas, a record auctionee was located who was actually selling the complete set of 16 inch Vitaphone disks, again for the 1930, not 1933, version. (ie, the uncut version)

As of 2012, The Vitaphone Project will provide more detail on this important and challenging restoration. Suffice to say that it will be done with the utmost attention to providing the best sound and picture quality that modern technology allows. Rutgers film Professor Richard Koszarski and his wife Diane have researched the making of THE KING OF JAZZ for over 30 years, accumulating a massive amount of documentation on the film in its nine different language versions. It is hoped that the completed restoration can be further enhanced with a book or at least an extensive set of notes utilizing the Koszarski's research.