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The IMDB cites Mr. Dunn as appearing in six Vitaphone shorts during 1929 and 1930:

In the Nick of Time (© Dec. 1929)
The Varsity Show (© Jun. 1930)
The Song Plugger (© Jun. 1930)*
Believe It or Not #3 (© Jun. 1930)*
Barefoot Days (Jul. 1930)
Tom Thumbs Down (© Dec. 1930)

The two with asterisks do survive and have been released by Warner Archive in the Vitaphone Varieties and Ripley collections but I haven't quite gotten around to buying them. Can anyone confirm his presence in these or know about the survival status of the others?

-HA

I just watched Ripley #3 and I believe he is in it. (I've not paid much attention to him before.)

Ripley has just supposedly returned from world travels and is met by several reporters while still
on the deck of a ship. Ripley tells some of his stories and is asked several questions by the reporters.

James Dunn is one of the reporters, and is probably the best-looking male reporter of the bunch.
There is one woman.

I don't have the other Vitaphone collection. I just checked for the other titles in my index of
TCM recordings, and don't see any of them.

Rick

James Dunn appears briefly at the beginning of "The Song Plugger" as a customer at the Widmark Music Company. He has one short line; "Okay, gimme it in A flat" in response to "Boys, here's the hottest number we've ever had!"

SFBOB wrote:James Dunn appears briefly at the beginning of "The Song Plugger" as a customer at the Widmark Music Company. He has one short line; "Okay, gimme it in A flat" in response to "Boys, here's the hottest number we've ever had!"

That makes sense. Can anyone confirm that his participation in the other shorts is as ... um ... short?

Dunn struggled mightily in forging a career through the first half of 1930. From September 1930-January 1931 he went on the road with the stage production Sweet Adeline which helped him get into Borzage land and into a full fledged film career.