The Revelers

[1] The original Revelers were tenors Franklyn Baur and Lewis James (and occasionally Charles W. Harrison substituting when Baur or James was unavailable), baritone Elliot Shaw, bass Wilfred Glenn (who had popularized "Asleep in the Deep" on phonograph records), and pianist Ed Smalle.

This one-reel short film, recently restored by The Vitaphone Project, shows the group performing "Mine," "Dinah," and "No Foolin'."

Due to the limitations of the primitive sound production, the group was forced to perform the entire nine-minute set in one continuous, uninterrupted take, with the camera in a fixed position.

Lardner outlined his "perfect radio program" for The New Yorker magazine, and found a place for The Revelers along with Paul Whiteman and Fanny Brice.

Although The Revelers stayed current, making a point of including the latest popular songs and show tunes in their repertoire, their sound seemed increasingly old-fashioned.

Their listening audience gravitated toward the top soloists of the early 1930s, like Bing Crosby, Arthur Tracy, and Russ Columbo.

Senior member Wilfred Glenn continued to make live appearances with a male chorus billed as The Revelers.

A scripted sketch re-created the group's search for a new "top tenor," followed by a vocal medley of "Dinah," "In a Little Spanish Town," "Sleep, Kentucky Babe," and "Oh!

This foursome is not to be confused with another Revelers group based in Plainfield, New Jersey; this was a mixed quartet that sang at local affairs.

Australian musicologist Frank Bristow has identified four of The Revelers (Baur, Harrison, Shaw, and Glenn) as part of the sextet The Troubadors [sic] with singers Harold Yates and Cooper Lawley.