Just a Broadway Baby: Vivacious Mary Ellen Ashley in Career Documentary

Patrick Riviere’s 24-minute documentary Just a Broadway Baby: Mary Ellen Ashley opens by hinging itself on the wise old lady charm of its subject through a line of voiceover, beckoning the story to begin at the beginning. The narrative takes us to the WWII era: grainy footage, retro instrumentals and the cherubic face of child star Mary Ellen Glass.

Ashley is instantly likeable. Her flair for drama blends with humour to produce excellent theatricality as she recounts the story of how she got her start. Though the film peters out into what is essentially a chronological speedrun of Ms Ashley’s long and successful career, it pauses now and then to yield moments of wistfulness, ambition, and of course, more than anything else, humour. The form of the film is a simple talking head interview, divided into chapters and overlaid with archival photos and newspaper clippings that give visual substance to Ashley’s narration. “Picket Fences”, the sequence that delves into a conflict between career and parenting, best showcases the film’s ability to throw in lower tones into the narrative’s colourful carousel and have it be richer for it. The jazz score is fitting without drawing all attention to itself. A shift to clips from Ashley’s on-screen and stage work brings new life to the narrative, restricted as it had been to images until then. The vitality is remarkable.

It is humour and restrained melancholia with which the documentary ends, with an eighty-four year-old Mary Ellen Ashley performing a comedic musical. If one listens carefully, there is fondness in the laughter she draws from the audience.

Watch Just a Broadway Baby: Mary Ellen Ashley Documentary on Vimeo On Demand