Production notes

Because the movie was one of the early sound features and one of the early sound musicals, the production learned to record sound properly through trial and error. After the rushes were viewed, the sets were modified to enhance recording quality, and scenes were re-shot, resulting in extended days for the actors and a prolonged overall shooting schedule. It took over three hours to film Bessie Love's brief ukulele-playing scene. For earlier takes, a full orchestra was off-camera, but for later takes, the actors sang and danced to prerecorded music. A silent version of the film was produced, as there were still many motion picture theaters without sound equipment at the time. John Arnold shot with spherical lenses on 35mm black-and-white film, with one sequence in color. The film was presented in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 (sound on disc version) and 1.20:1 (sound on film version). The film featured a musical sequence for "The Wedding of the Painted Doll," presented in early two-color Technicolor (red and green filters). Color quickly became associated with the musical genre, and numerous features were released in 1929 and 1930 that either featured color sequences or were filmed entirely in color, like On with the Show (1929), Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), Sally (1929), The Life of the Party (1930), and others. The complete color footage is not extant, although a brief film fragment still survives. A 16-second 35mm Technicolor film fragment from the very beginning of the "Wedding of the Painted Doll" did manage to escape total degradation. This surviving physical footage is currently preserved at the George Eastman Museum (formerly George Eastman House) in Rochester, New York. The 24-foot fragment was discovered in 2012 at Haghefilm Conservation B.V. in Amsterdam. The footage was part of a compilation reel of two-color Technicolor print tests and snippets originally sourced from Technicolor's former laboratory in Boston.