Celebrating the Life and Work of Entertainer Leonid Utesov

Leonid Osipovich Utesov, born on 21.03.1895, was a Russian and Soviet singer, reader, conductor, orchestra leader, entertainer, actor. He was a National Artist of the USSR and performed songs in various genres, from jazz to urban romance.

Jolly Fellows is a 1934 Soviet musical film, directed by Grigori Aleksandrov and starring his wife ...

Leonid Utyosov was brought up in Odessa, Russian Empire and attended the Faig School of Commerce, from which he dropped out and joined the Borodanov Circus troupe as an acrobat.

He started his stage career in 1911 in Kremenchuk, then returned to Odessa, changed his artistic name to Leonid Utyosov, and performed as a stand up comedian with the Rishelyavsky Theatre.

His popularity was on the rise in the 1930s when he co-starred with Lyubov Orlova in the comedy Jolly Fellows.

During the 1930s, Utyosov and his band, called "Thea-Jazz" (a portmanteau of Theatrical Jazz) had a regular gig at the Marble Hall of the Kirov Palace of Culture in Leningrad.

Both Orlova and her co-star, the jazz singer and comic actor Leonid Utyosov, were propelled to stardom after this movie.

During World War II, Utyosov performed on the front lines, helping lift the spirits of the Soviet soldiers fighting against the Nazis.

It features several songs from Jolly Fellows which instantly became classics across the Soviet Union.

Graham Greene, in his 26 September 1935 review for The Spectator, wrote that "it is the best thing that has happened to the cinema since René Clair made The Italian Straw Hat".

"The workers in the USSR have introduced to the world an entirely new sort of humour... behind the comedy of Jazz Comedy, but the electrifying strength and vitality and freedom of a working class."

Variety Stars is a Soviet feature film set at Mosfilm film studio in 1954.

The genre of satirical musical comedy became sort of the film-revue - a cascade of variety numbers with the participation of artists of different genres, with the most popular playing themselves.

The film was a precursor to the entertainment "light" genre on Soviet television.

Since the premiere on July 19, 1954 the film was watched by 31.5 million Soviet viewers, at the end of the year it took the 5th place in top releases.