Bowery to Broadway (1944)
TO FILL YOUR EYES...TO THRILL YOUR HEART!
Genre : Comedy
Runtime : 1H 34M
Director : Charles Lamont
Writer : Arthur T. Horman, Edmund Joseph, Bart Lytton
Synopsis
Two Bowery vaudevillians find success in producing shows on Broadway, but when one of them suddenly departs to work for a beautiful woman, a feud erupts.
The story of two baby girls, born near in proximity, but worlds apart in life: Molly Helmer, the daughter of a thief, and Florence Banning, the daughter of the judge who would send Molly's father to prison. The girls' lives come together as young women at eighteen as Florence leaves the security of the exclusive Girls Select School, and Molly, now orphaned, begins her life free from reform school.
Wendy Ballantine's parents decide to retire from show biz so she can have a normal life. They are unwelcome in the small town until a storm lets the family show their stuff.
A series of 19 musical and comedy "vaudeville" sketches presented in the form of a live television broadcast hosted by Tommy Handley (as himself).
Construction worker Buzz Blackwell becomes the guardian of 12-year-old Pat Johnson after one of his buddies, her father, is killed. Buzz and Pat, along with their chum Axel Swensen, head to New York to look for the girl's uncle. The trio soon unexpectedly become owners of a tired restaurant.
Ex-convict Georges Manda returns to the free world determined to go straight and takes a steady job as a carpenter. Unable to completely shake his connections with the underground, he meets with a former prison mate, older gangster Félix Leca, who introduces him to his mistress, the sweet but guarded Marie "Casque d'Or". Marie and Georges fall into a passionate relationship, driving Félix to do everything in his power to ruin the couple.
A vaudeville and nightclub performer becomes successful and forgets who his friends really are.
The plot is built around two charming sisters — a strict, wayward Galina, an assistant professor of mathematics, and a windy, frivolous student Shurochka. Despite the fact that the girls are so different, they are looking, of course, for one thing — love. The events take place in the summer pre-war Moscow and in the country where both sisters go: one in order to prepare for the re-examination, the other — to conduct math classes with the military from the Yuryev Camps located near the dacha village.
Funny and difficult situations, intrigues, tears, joy — all this will be experienced by young girls on the way to their happiness.
In this through-the-years saga about a show business family, the fame of husband and wife vaudeville headliners of the 1880s is eclipsed by their son.
There's never a dull moment at the Hôtel du Libre Echange. Deceptions, hitches and other misunderstandings make a few people mingle whereas, for their own sake, they should not. An example among others: an expert who has come to the hotel for professional reasons had better not meet his wife, who is there to cheat on him with his best friend.
Husband-and-wife vaudeville stars separate when success goes to his head.
Father Conroy has a parish which serves the acting and performance community. When one of his parishioners gets too sick to work, his daughter Holly finds a job working for a dance club of questionable character, which is run by Tony Vincent. Vincent never made the big time, and Father Conroy tries to look after Holly.
A woman infiltrates a criminal mob to avenge her brother's death.
A talented songwriter gets his inspiration for songs from others and not from within himself. He is oblivious that he may harm other people when he uses their stories or their love for himself.
In this chronicle of a vaudeville family, Myrtle McKinley (class of 1900) goes to San Francisco to attend business school, but ends up in a chorus line. Soon, star Frank Burt notices her talent, hires her for a "two-act", then marries her. Incidents of the marriage and the growing pains of eldest daughter Miriam are followed, interspersed with nostalgic musical numbers.
A young woman, who wants to be in the Follies, is making ends meet by working at a department store's sheet music department, where she sings the latest hits. She is accompanied on piano by her childhood boyfriend, who is in love with her, despite her single-minded interest in her career. When a vaudeville performer asks her to join him as his new partner, she sees it as an opportunity to make her dream come true. Upon arriving in New York City, our heroine finds out that her new partner is only interested in sleeping with her and makes this a condition of making her a star. Soon, however, she is discovered by a representative of Ziegfeld.
Eddie Kehoe is a young vaudeville hoofer who thinks his inability to hit the big time is the fault of stage managers, agents, musicians...everybody but himself. Eddie likes to tell others how good he is, but seldom shows them. Kitty Mayo, an old-time burlesque queen, who is with the McNary Vaudeville Company, advises Eddie to get himself a partner, as his solo abilities can only be stretched so far. He decides to follow her advice and, while in a theatrical supply shop, he sees Rita Carey rehearsing her dancing act that includes a trained duck. Eddie tells Rita he is a good friend of McNary's, and, with him as her partner, her future in show business will be secured. She agrees to join him and Eddie promptly names the act "Eddie Kehoe and Partner". Despite his conceit, Rita likes Eddie, as do others in the troupe, including Cleo a little gold-digger.
A film director travels to Kentucky to seek out local talent for a hillbilly musical film. There, he gets kidnapped.
Jack and Jerry are doing okay between profession baseball and Vaudeville. That is, until love and gold-diggers get in the way.
Ted Healy and His Stooges alternate mildly risque vaudeville routines with semi-elaborate Berkeleyesque musical numbers with beautiful chorines.
Ted Howard, a vaudevillian left, stranded in a tank town. A local girl, Mary (Sally O'Neil), proposes to finance a new act with her savings and the team succeeds in a minor way until Ted is discovered by Broadway femme fatale Valeska (Carmel Myers). Not wishing to stand in her partner's way, Mary nobly resigns from the act and instead accepts a minor role in the show. She proves a sensation on opening night, however, and a jealous Valeska demands her ousted. But Ted, who is in love with Mary, reorganizes their old act and they begin a new life together as man and wife.