Myrt and Marge
Cast & Crew
Al Boasberg
Myrt & Marge (radio's Sweethearts)
Ray Hedge
Eddie Foy Jr.
Grace Hayes
Trixie Friganza
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When Grady, the producer of the Broadway bound show My Lady's Legs , which features singer Myrt Minter, abandons the show, Myrt hires a theatrical backer named Jackson to manage her troupe. While the troupe rehearses in Newcastle, egotistical comic Eddie Hanley joins the show and leads the troupe to Mrs. Minter's boardinghouse. There he gets pretty singer and dancer Marge Minter to audition. Marge is accepted into the troupe, but her mother insists on coming along to protect her from Eddie's advances. Once in Johnstown, where the troupe will rehearse, Jackson convinces Mrs. Minter that he will protect Marge, and Mrs. Minter returns home. After she leaves, a drunk Jackson promises Marge that he will put her name in lights if she sleeps with him, and later he enters her bedroom while she is in bed. She then locks Jackson in the closet and runs to Eddie, who fights Jackson, and is arrested for almost killing him. Myrt blackmails Jackson into dropping the charges by pretending to speak to his wife on the phone. Jackson, however, wants the eighteen-thousand dollars he put into the show returned to him. When Mrs. Minter learns of the scandal, she sells her boardinghouse and buys the show. She is prepared to scold Eddie for the incident, but ends up praising his valor. She then reforms Jackson. My Lady's Legs has a successful opening at the Knickerbocker Theatre in New York, and its stars, Myrt and Marge, become a radio sensation.
Director
Al Boasberg
Cast
Myrt & Marge (radio's Sweethearts)
Ray Hedge
Eddie Foy Jr.
Grace Hayes
Trixie Friganza
J. Farrell Macdonald
Thomas Jackson
Ted Healy
Howard, Fine & Howard
The Colenette Ballet
Bonnie Bonnell
Crew
Jake Badaracco
Beatrice Banyard
Beatrice Banyard
Al Boasberg
Bill Cain
Henry Cronjager
Lambert E. Day
Bryan Foy
Fred Grossi
Jack Haskell
Arthur Hilton
Stanley Horsley
Joan Jasmyn
M. K. Jerome
Carl Laemmle
Carl Laemmle
William Montague
Walter Rankin
George Reid
Paul Salerno
John Stack
Joseph A. Valentine
Paul Van Loan
W. L. Vogel
Lester Weilson
Al Wetzel
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to pre-production news items in Hollywood Reporter, this film originally was to be based on a story by Willard Mack, and director Al Boasberg was set to write the screenplay, with William Thompson collaborating with Joseph Valentine on camera. Screen Achievements Bulletin and the Variety and New York Times reviews credit Beatrice Banyard with original story, although on the viewed print she receives only screenplay credit; and Variety and Film Daily credit Boasberg with dialogue, although the film lists him only as director.
The radio team of Myrtle Vail and Donna Damerel, who made their screen debut in this film, were mother and daughter. The Story of Myrt and Marge was first heard on CBS on November 2, 1931 as an early-evening serial drama sponsored by Wrigley's Gum. According to a modern source, Myrtle Vail, then a 43-year-old vaudevillian, created the story of two Broadway chorus girls and wrote ten radio skits, which she sold to the Wrigley Gum Company. She gave the character Myrt the last name of Spear and called the other girl Margie Minter to capitalize on Wrigley's popular Spearmint Gum. Myrt and Marge reportedly aired opposite Amos 'n Andy its first season, but eventually was put into a different time slot. Called the "first major soap opera of the air" in a modern source, Myrt and Marge aired in the evenings for its first five years, and on January 4, 1937, moved to an afternoon slot, and later a daily morning drama as its rating dwindled. Following the death of Donna, in childbirth on February 14, 1941, Marge was played by Helen Mack. In 1946, a new version of Myrt and Marge was syndicated, and was first heard in New York on WOR on 1 Apr, starring Alice Yourman as Myrt and Alice Goodkin as Marge. The new version was not as popular as the original; however, Variety, in a review of the film, called the original one of radio's ten most popular programs in its first two years.
Clarence Tiffingtuffer, the foppish costume designer in both radio shows, was played by Ray Hedge, who plays Clarence in this film. According to Variety, Grace Hayes' scenes were cut from the final print. The comedy trio of Larry Fine, Moe Howard and Curly Howard were also known as Ted Healy's Stooges, and were later known as The Three Stooges. According to a news item in Hollywood Reporter on July 10, 1933, producer Bryan Foy gave Boasberg a new car as a token of the company's esteem for his work on this film. Actor Eddie Foy, Jr. was producer Brian Foy's brother. A news item in Daily Variety on November 22, 1988 states that Universal pay television was distributing this film after it had been out of circulation for more than thirty years.
