Name: Country Music Holiday
Genre: Musical
Released: 1958
Duration: 1 min 21 s
Cast: Zsa Zsa Gabor, Ferlin Husky, Rocky Graziano, Jesse White, Faron Young

Cast & Crew

Film Details

Genre

Musical

Release Date

Jan 1958

Premiere Information

not available

Production Company

Aurora Productions

Distribution Company

Paramount Pictures Corp.

Country

United States

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 21m

Sound

Mono

Color

Black and White

Synopsis

While stationed in Tokyo at the close of the war, Pvt. Verne Brand pines for his hometown, Puff-n-Bluff, Tennessee and his girl friend Marietta, and hopes that the townspeople will remember him upon his return. Despite teasing the modest Verne about his drawl, friends Sgt. Lou Marks and Pvt. Al Fisher promise to visit him in Puff-n-Bluff upon their release. After his discharge, Verne returns home to find his father Pappy infuriated that Clyde Woods, Verne's childhood friend, has become a recording star known as the Tennessee warbler, usurping Verne's own local fame as a singer, but good-natured Verne is glad to hear of Clyde's success. On the veranda, Verne soothes a nervous Marietta with a song proclaiming them a perfect match. Days later, when Al and Lou visit Verne on their way to Broadway, Pappy tells them about the long-standing feud between the Brand and Woods families and laments that Verne's talent is being overlooked. Although Al and Lou vow to help Verne secure a recording contract through their contacts in New York, their only contact is booking agent Sonny Moon, to whom they owe money. Meanwhile, Sonny has opened a music recording business in the same building as the M and C Record Company, which represents Clyde. Desperate to outshine M and C owner Morty Chapman, Sonny is searching for a new country music talent just as Al calls. When dim-witted ex-boxer Rocky answers the collect call, Sonny orders him to hang up, but after Al and Lou's third attempt, Sonny finally assents to listen to Verne as he sings a ballad accompanied by dozens of townspeople. After Sonny agrees to bring the talented singer to New York for a further interview, the whole town celebrates in the general store with dancing and more songs. Days later in New York, Sonny signs the singer despite his previous bad experience with the deceitful Al and Lou. To attract publicity for his new singer, Sonny tells Verne to don a tuxedo and arranges for several glamorous women to accompany him to nightclubs. One night, actress Zsa Zsa Gabor recognizes her old friend Rocky with Verne at a nightclub and asks to be introduced to the singer. Unable to understand Verne's accent, the foreign-born Zsa Zsa asks what country he is from and then requests that he play some of his "American peasant music." As Rocky calls Sonny to ask permission for Verne's impromptu act, Al ignores him and orders Verne on stage. While Verne's crooning entertains the crowd, Al sells Zsa Zsa a fifty-percent share in the rising star for $10,000, without telling Sonny, who owns seventy-five percent of him already. Meanwhile, Chapman, having read society columns about the new singer, attempts to elevate Clyde's popularity by arranging acting lessons in hopes of making him a Hollywood star, but Clyde protests that he does not want to compete with Verne. Days later, Zsa Zsa holds a party for Verne, inviting other popular musical talents to entertain, including The Jordanaires and Lonzo and Oscar, and hands Al the check for her share of Verne's career. Later that night, Verne sings a seductive ballad while holding a young woman in his arms while Al and Lou bemoan Verne's twenty-four hour social schedule and note that he has not written Marietta since he arrived in New York. Days later, when a jealous Marietta sees a picture of Verne and Zsa Zsa in the newspaper, she rushes off with Pappy to New York to confront him. After television host Art Ford learns about Clyde's upcoming guest star appearance on the competing Lew Parker show, he asks Sonny to arrange for Verne to be his guest star that night, hoping that the new star can draw a larger rating. Sonny accepts the offer but then learns that Rocky does not know where Verne is. When Sonny asks Zsa Zsa, she tells them that she sent Verne to a Tchaikovsky concert for a musical education and inadvertently reveals that she owns fifty percent of the star. Upon returning to their hotel room, Al, Lou and Verne learn about the guest star appearance and rush to the television studio. Spotting Zsa Zsa and Sonny together, Al and Lou, realizing their swindle has been discovered, try to escape, but Rocky hangs them on stage hooks. Marietta and Pappy arrive soon after and bicker with the singer about his new life. Determined to get Verne onstage, Sonny promises Marietta and Pappy that he will help settle the argument after the show and orders Verne onstage, where he sings a ballad asking Marietta not to leave him. Meanwhile on the Lew Parker show, Clyde, accompanied by dancers, sings a jazzy number. Back at the Art Ford stage, after Verne promises to return home with Marietta and sings another number, a fretful Ford announces that his ratings have beat Parker's. When Pappy then informs him that Verne is returning to Puff-n-Bluff, Sonny instructs Al, Lou and Rocky to move there and start a new branch of Sonny Moon Records, and Zsa Zsa offers her fifty percent to Verne and Marietta as a wedding present.