Editing Footlight Parade (section)

===Pre-Code era scenes and promotion===
[[File:BeaScott1FootParade33Trailer.jpg|thumb|250px|Bea ([[Ruby Keeler]]) was not an immediate fan of Scotty ([[Dick Powell]])]]
The film was made during the [[pre-Code]] era, and its humor is sometimes quite risqué, with multiple references to [[prostitution]] and suggestions of profanity largely unseen again in studio films until the 1960s, when the [[Production Code]] collapsed.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eTGbDwAAQBAJ&q=footlight+parade+hays+code&pg=PA240|title=Music, Narrative and the Moving Image: Varieties of Plurimedial Interrelations|date=May 15, 2019|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-40131-0|language=en}}</ref> For example, Dick Powell's character is being "kept" by Mrs. Gould until he falls in love with another girl.

Joan Blondell's character of Nan Prescott is the center of several lines and moments. She introduces her roommate, Vivian Rich, as "Miss Bi... Rich"; and later, when Vivian tries to take advantage of an intoxicated Chester, Nan kicks her out of their apartment, claiming Vivian will have a job "as long as there are sidewalks".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/withamusementfor00ashb|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/withamusementfor00ashb/page/223 223]|quote=footlight parade hays code.|title=With Amusement for All: A History of American Popular Culture Since 1830|last=Ashby|first=LeRoy|date=May 12, 2006|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0-8131-7132-6|language=en}}</ref> In the Shanghai Lil number, it is clear that Lil and all the other girls are prostitutes working the waterfront bars along with scenes of an opium den.<ref name="Spivak"/> A character played by [[Hugh Herbert]] acts as the censor for Kent's productions, constantly telling Kent certain parts of his production numbers have to be changed. His character is portrayed as buffoonish and comical, saying disagreeable lines to Kent such as "You must put [[brassiere]]s on those dolls..." (referring to actual toy dolls) "...uh uh, you know Connecticut." There is also a scene in which, after seeing black children having fun in the water off a fire hydrant, Chester gets an idea for a prologue involving women dressed in black face and getting wet under a waterfall. 

As with many other pre-Code films, including musicals, promotional materials featured scantily clad women on movie release posters, lobby cards and promotional photographs, as seen of Joan Blondell.[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Joan_Blondell_banned_1932_publicity_photo.jpg ]