Author Archive: Retro

In this comedy, a wealthy sheik kidnaps and falls for a snobby socialite.

Film director Bud Pollard appears on screen to tell us of Bing Crosby’s rise to fame, using scenes from four early Crosby shorts to illustrate his fictional biography.

Young stowaway sings for his travel fare while going after stolen secret government papers. Songs include: “Down Where the Trade Winds Blow”, “Hawaii Calls”, “That’s the Hawaiian In Me”. Dir. Edward F. Cline

In Horne’s film debut, she plays a woman who gets her big break but must choose between love and fame. A great look at the black entertainment industry in 1938. A young Lena Horne shines in her performance as Ethel, a singer who makes her way to the ‘big time’.

College students create a fictional, “perfect” student, which interests the psychology professor, who wants to meet her. Songs include “I’ve Heard that Song Before”, “You’re So Good to Me”, “If It’s Love” “Man”, “You Got to Study, Buddy”. Dir. Albert S. Rogell

Two circus aerialists have a disagreement, with one fighting to keep her lover out of the hands of a scheming woman. Songs include, “Do You Think That I Could Grow on You?”, “It Must Be Love”, “Shoo the Hoodoo Away”, “There’s Happiness Over the Hill”, “With My Guitar and You”. Dir. Joseph Santley

Paderewski’s talents are showcased as stranded plane crash victims are affected by his art.

Portrays Foster as a shy bookkeeper who writes songs in his spare time, and is in love with a pretentious singer whose sister eventually becomes his muse and inspiration. Includes the Foster staples: “My Old Kentucky Home”, “Swanee River”, “Camptown Races”, “Oh! Susannah”, “The Old Folks at Home”, “A Ribbon in Your Hair”, & “I Still See Her in My Dreams” Dir. Allan Dwan

A singer (Frances Langford) from Kansas City lives in a theatrical boardinghouse near Broadway.