(archive footage)
Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were battling the Depression as well as eventually getting ready for another World War.
At the Canadian National Exhibition, a young boy gets separated from his parents and meets some celebrities.
Ole
Ole and Chic are comedians employed in a nightclub, but seeking to be released from their contracts to take a better job. But the prissy nightclub owner, B. J. Wagonhorn, refuses to let them go. In reprisal, they start hurling insults at the nightclub patrons… a ploy that soon has them facing multiple lawsuits… to the delight of three struggling attorneys, Charlie Rodman, Bettty Wilson and Arthur Lane.
Himself
Two zanies get mixed up with a Southern colonel, his beautiful daughters, a nightclub and a haunted mansion.
Himself
Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson are Broadway stars who return to Universal Studios to make another movie. The mere mention of Olsen and Johnson's names evacuates the studio and terrorizes the management and personnel. Undaunted, the comedians hire an assistant director and unknown talent, and set out to make their own movie.
Ole Olsen
Olsen and Johnson, a pair of stage comedians, try to turn their play into a movie and bring together a young couple in love, while breaking the fourth wall every step of the way.
Torchy
A federal agent poses as a criminal to infiltrate a gang of parolees seeking vengeance on the lawmen who jailed them.
Olsen
Two vaudevillian comedians try to stage a show in a theatre that has a reputation for being being haunted.
Himself (as Olsen)
Actor Lee Tracy presides as ringmaster over a show that combines the best elements of cinema with the circus, what he calls a Cinema Circus. Tracy introduces a number of professional circus acts, plus a cavalcade of movie stars who have side shows under the open air big tent. There is as much action in the audience as Tracy identifies a number of movie stars watching the proceedings incognito, having their own fun in the stands, and sometimes interacting with the circus acts.
J.D. McAllister
After being run out of town after town for trying to sell worthless stock, two con artists breeze into the small town of Chesterville, where they find themselves accused of kidnapping a young boy to whom they offered a ride. When that misunderstanding is cleared up, the two conmen hatch a plot to unload all their worthless paper on the gullible citizens of Chesterville.
George Harlan
Early 30s pre-code comedy about a woman attempting to get her two ex-husbands to pay back alimony.
Simon Johanssen
In this comedy, two men make an extravagant $50,000 dollar bet that one of them will be able to successfully court a lovely woman with out spending any money. To foil his scheme, the other bettor hires two henchman to stop him.
Simon
Based on the farcical stage play written by Pulitzer Prize-winning* writer Elmer Rice, Oh, Sailor Behave! is a movie Musical with a split personality. Nanette Dodge (Irene Delroy) falls for newspaper reporter Charlie Carroll (Charles King) who is on assignment in Venice to land an interview with Romanian General Skulany (Noah Beery). Our couple is split apart by a pair of storylines - Nanette tries to woo a Russian prince (Lowell Sherman) who is blackmailing her sister, while Charlie, following a lead to the general, finds himself Romantically involved with Kunegundi (Vivien Oakland), "the general's favorite."