UCLA presents ‘Vaudeville in Film’

UCLA Film and Television Archive rings in 2011 with its monthlong “Mixed Nuts: Vaudeville in Film” series. It pays homage to the comedic greats who hailed from vaudeville and found success in early talkies such as Jimmy Durante, W.C. Fields, Eddie Cantor, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Wheeler and Woolsey, and Charlotte Greenwood. The fun opens Friday at the Billy Wilder Theatre with the 1934 oddball musical comedy “Hollywood Party,” featuring Durante, Laurel & Hardy and, yes, Mickey Mouse. There’s also the 1934 musical “Stand Up and Cheer!” with Shirley Temple, the 1929 Burns & Allen short, “Lambchops” and a performance by Janet Klein and the Parlor Boys. On tap for Saturday is 1933’s Marx Brothers’ classic “Duck Soup,” the 1931 Wheeler & Woolsey comedy “Cracked Nuts” and Cantor’s 1930 short, “Getting a Ticket.”

—Susan King