The Times News

Flying Down To Rio's Motif Suggests Cabaret Air Shows

What gay nightclubs of the future will be like is forecast in "Flying Down to Rio," RKO-Radio's sensational musical extravaganza.

Lou Brock, associate producer, says, "I have no doubt that aerial night clubs will spring up all over the country, carrying out the idea introduced in one of the film's elaborate settings."

Occupying an immense sound stage, covering approximately 22,500 square feet of floor space, it features such startling things as tables resembling the tail-ends of airplanes, while marble fuselage tapering down to the rudder and elevator, which are made of plate glass, lined with polished silver, and a tete-a-tete nook for spooners seeking privacy, which hangs in the air at one side of the dance floor and resembles the cabin of a giant dirigible.

The whole affair carries out the dirigible idea. The roof is supported not by pillars but by girders built like the latticed frame skeleton of the lighter-than-air craft.

The most notable innovation, however, is a "flying orchestra."

By a clever arrangement of concealed and silently operating tracks, the band in this remarkable club performs in a huge balloon basket, soaring about over the heads of diners and dancers.

In the exotic role of a Brazilian belle, Dolores Del Rio headlines the thrilling musical extravaganza "Flying Down to Rio," the RKO-Radio picture, with Gene Raymond.

The set, referred to in the film as the "Aviators Club," carries out the theme of the production itself, the first aerial musical ever staged. It climaxes in a spectacular all-air show, 100 beautiful girls singing and dancing on the wings of giant airplanes as they soar over beautiful Rio de Janeiro.