Dance Girl Dance

As Joe Pitt and Sally Patter, a vaudeville song-and-dance team known as "Pitter and Patter," finish their act in a "tank town," Joe blames their failure on Sally, whom he secretly married after playing her hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania. Joe, who has ambitions of playing Broadway, disparages Sally's desire to sing in the act. Sometime later, after Joe has run off with Cleo Darville, a magician's assistant, to form a new act, Sally visits Joe's agent in New York, Lou Kendall. When Lou advises her to return to Erie, she reveals that she and Joe are married and breaks down in tears. Lou takes Sally to lunch, where they run into Wade Valentine, who runs the Carlton Nightclub, known for having the best revue in town, and the show's backer Phil Norton. While Lou praises "Val" to Sally for leaving the women in his shows alone, she warns her about Norton. Lou arranges for a tryout for Sally, and although Val is not impressed with her dancing, he offers her a chance to be a chorine. Sally wants to audition a song she wrote for the Chataugua in Erie, but Lou discourages her. During a rehearsal for the new show, Val begins to whistle Sally's song, which his pianist, Mozart, has been playing. Sally impresses Val with her ambition to succeed, and he grooms her to take the place of the star Claudette, Norton's mistress, if Claudette should become ill. Meanwhile, Joe and Cleo are fired, and when Joe blames her, she leaves him. Sally faints one evening during the dance number, and Val, realizing that she is pregnant, gives Lou enough money for Sally to go away and have the baby. Although Sally tells Lou that she wants to die, Lou encourages her that winning life's battles is the only thing that makes life worthwhile. After she has the baby, Sally feels it is the most wonderful thing in the world. She realizes that she previously believed success to be the most important thing because she wanted to prove herself to Joe, whom she hated. Joe visits Mozart, whom he used to know, to borrow money, and Mozart encourages him to take a job in the club as a waiter. Back in New York, Sally now does a specialty number in the show singing her song. After her success, Val proposes to her in his office. Taken aback, she asks him for time. Joe, who saw her act, then enters with wine, but doesn't reveal his identity to Val. Feeling sorry for Joe, Sally asks Lou to get him a tryout. Joe gets Sally's address from Mozart and visits her apartment, where he apologizes for his earlier behavior. When he hears the baby, Sally, fearing he will try to take it away, orders him to leave her alone, but he convinces her to let him see the child once. He then tells Sally that if she ever wants him back, he'll come crawling to her on his hands and knees. Later, Lou finds Joe, who now has a steady job advertising soap in a sailor suit, and offers him a tryout. Having lost his self-confidence, Joe thinks he would flop, but Lou encourages him to try. Val visits Sally at her apartment and after telling her that a music publisher has bought her song for a $1,000 advance, proposes. He tells her he knows about the baby and doesn't care, but she gently turns him down. Joe's act with a male partner falls flat, until the orchestra plays Sally's song, which, to his surprise, she sings from a box. Their act together is a hit with the audience. In Sally's apartment, Lou arranges a deal for her and Joe, who kiss on the sofa as Lou holds their wet baby.