I received my copy of the "King Of Jazz" book and have completed reading it. First of all it has so many great photographs. The book is organized into chapters, short bios if you will, about the major players in the making of King Of Jazz, such as Paul Whitman, John Murray Anderson, Carl Laemmle Sr. & Jr. Whitman's bio is also a bio of his orchestra. You also have the story of the original, unrealized, film as a story line. And then you have the story of the revue which was actually produced. There is a chapter of the film broken down scene by scene, with very short bios of some of the other performers featured in the film.
Finally you have chapters on the critics and audiences response to the film, one on foreign versions of the film, one on the rediscovery of the film, and lastly a chapter on the restoration of the film. There are 8 appendices at the end of the book with various statistics on many facts and figures.

The book is printed on very high grade stock and well bound with hard cover. There is also a stunning dust jacket which should be preserved with a protective cover. It would actually make a great presence on a coffee table.

Having been a "King Of Jazz" groupie for a couple of decades at least, this book has filled in many questions I have wondered about over the years. Although I first wanted to see the film because of Bing Crosby's participation in it, I really took to all the performances and performers in this unique film. I ardently hope that Universal will release this restored version on CD soon.

Good news, Jim. I've pre-ordered, so hope to receive my copy soon...

Many thanks, Jim. Much appreciated. Glad that the date agrees with Bing Crosby - Day by Day".

As I wrote earlier, I did learn a number of interesting details in reading this book. In a earlier post I made in this thread, just after I had viewed the restored film at MoMA in New York City in late June, I questioned why three of the short comedy skits that I have on my VHS version of "The King of Jazz", were not in the restored version that was aired that evening. The answer is that those three skits were cut from the originally released version of the film, but were added to the 1933 released version, when some of the original footage was cut.

This was something I already knew, and posted on the old Bing Crosby Internet Museum, but since we have revisited it now, this was an earlier question about "The King of Jazz" that bewildered me until I had enough information to figure it out. In the film during the "A Bench in the Park" number, The Rhythm Boys come behind the seated Brox Sisters and scat while the Brox Sisters sing the second half of their verse. Bing is directly behind Bobbe Brox, the only blonde of the three. At the very end of the number, The Brox Sisters get one last line to sing, while sitting in the laps of the Rhythm Boys. The Rhythm Boys are in the same lineup as earlier, Bing, Al, and Harry, from left to right, but Bobbe who was on the left in front of Bing, is now in the center sitting in Al Rinker's lap, a direct result of the run in Bing had with Bobbe at the rehearsal.

I remember reading about Bobbe Brox passing away in 1999. I was surprised that she was still alive and that she was still considered newsworthy enough to be in the obituary page of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The fact the she married Jimmy Van Heusen later in life probably helped her status for such coverage.

Richard, that was a really thorough obit of Bobbe Brox, much more than I had ever seen. I had already bought a DVD of "The Hollywood Revue of 1929" because I knew the Brox Sisters were in it.  A lot of big names in that one and a few scenes in color toward the end. It had some great dance routines, but overall I would not rate it as good as the "King of Jazz".

According to Gary Giddens book, "A Pocketful of Dreams", the altercation between Bobbe and Bing was about his drinking, and it was not the first time they were at odds about that. A couple of pages later in the book, Bobbe states that she could not stay angry with Bing and that they were good friends for a long time.

Bing had what I believe is a singular distinction of making a full feature film with three different singing sister trios and also recorded at least one commercial record with each of them. That would be, of course, the Brox, Boswell and Andrews Sisters. Bing also had the Lennon Sisters on one of his TV shows (I think a Christmas show) and I have a record where he introduces the Lennon Sisters before they sing a song without Bing, but I do not know if he sang any songs with them that were not released, or if they were a quartet or trio at the time. Finally, Bing had the Bell Sisters on a few of his radio shows and sang a number of tunes with them, but they were only two sisters. Still, that a lot of Sisters acts to have performed with.

This is great news.

I was one of the lucky ones who saw the restored version on the big screen in London earlier this year and it seemed logical that a Blu Ray/DVD release would follow the lavishly produced book that accompanied that release. Very pleased to hear that it’s finally come about...

Thanks for letting us know, Malcolm.

Very good news. I have a very old and rather scratchy VHS copy (shortened in some way) which hardly merits playing. I very much look forward to seeing it in decent quality.