On Stage Everybody


1h 15m 1945

Film Details

Genre
Comedy
Musical
Release Date
Jul 13, 1945
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Universal Pictures Company, Inc.
Distribution Company
Universal Pictures Company, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Suggested by the radio series On Stage Everybody (2 Jan--23 Jan 1945).

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 15m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
6,758ft (8 reels)

Synopsis

As private detective Fitzgerald is riding in a taxicab listening to the Tim Sullivan radio program, he reminisces to his fellow passenger about a time years before when he knew the hotheaded Tim and his daughter Molly: The two struggle as a vaudeville team, unaware that Fitzgerald has been hired by an unknown patron to act as their watchdog and ensure them high salaries and pay their debts. After Fitzgerald covertly helps them procure a job with Fulton's Follies, Tim promptly loses the position by refusing to perform on the radio, which he violently denounces as the destroyer of vaudeville. When the pair return to their hotel, they find that their property has been seized because of their unpaid bill, and they are forced to return to their home at Ma Cassidy's Boarding House. At Ma's, Tim and Molly reunite with their fellow vaudevillians, Emmet Rogers and his son Danny, both of whom now work prosperously at a local department store. Although Tim at first blanches at the thought of giving up show business, poverty soon convinces him to accept work with Emmet. As soon as the store manager places him in the radio department, however, Tim furiously destroys the merchandize and is jailed. When Tim's father-in-law, the radio broadcasting executive businessman James Carlton, bails him out of jail, Tim realizes that James has been helping him all along, through Fitzgerald, out of concern for Molly. Tim is angry, but allows James to convince him that Molly would be better off living with the Carltons, and soon persuades Molly to visit them, telling her that it will be temporary. After Ma bombards Molly with lessons on how to act like a socialite, Molly arrives at the Carltons' estate sporting a stiff upper-crust attitude and a fake patrician accent, which disappoints her lively cousin Vivian and Vivian's group of friends. It is not until Vivian lures Danny to the estate for a visit that Molly reveals her true, bawdy talents as an entertainer, thus charming the group. Meanwhile, Tim retires to the Actors' Home, where he plays horseshoes with other ex-vaudevillians. When the World Series airs on the radio, Tim is slowly seduced by the excitement of the live broadcast, and becomes a radio fanatic. A few weeks later, Molly visits him in time to appear in a big variety show. Although he misses Molly, Tim tries to convince her to stay at the Carltons', believing that she will be happier there. Molly, however, desperately misses him, and talks him into developing a new radio show, which will feature different vaudeville performers each week. Soon after, Tim pitches the idea to James, controlling his temper long enough to sell his ideas. During a test broadcast of their "On Stage Everybody" show, which Tim hosts, James introduces Molly to potential sponsors. Molly despairs when the sponsors decide that they must have a star as the host, and tearfully informs her father of this decision. In the present, Fitzgerald finishes his story, telling his cabmate that after hundreds of letters poured in supporting Tim, he began his long and successful career as the host of the show.

Film Details

Genre
Comedy
Musical
Release Date
Jul 13, 1945
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Universal Pictures Company, Inc.
Distribution Company
Universal Pictures Company, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Suggested by the radio series On Stage Everybody (2 Jan--23 Jan 1945).

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 15m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
6,758ft (8 reels)

Articles

Peggy Ryan (1924-2004)


Peggy Ryan, the bouncing, effervescent dancer and leading lady to Donald O'Connor in a string of youth musicals during World War II, died on October 30 in Las Vegas' Sunrise Hospital from complications of a stroke. She was 80.

Born Margaret O'Rene Ryan on August 28, 1924, in Long Beach, California, Ryan began dancing professionally as a toddler in her parents' vaudeville act, the Dancing Ryans, and was discovered by George Murphy when she was 12. Murphy arranged for young Peggy to dance with him in the Universal musical Top of the Town (1937). She would go on to make a few more film appearances over the next few years - the most striking of which as a starving, homeless girl in John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath (1940) - yet for the most part, she was hardly noticeable apart from a few dance numbers.

Her luck changed when Universal cast her opposite another teenage hoofer, Donald O'Connor in What's Cookin'? (1942). From then on, they teamed in a series of innocuous musicals that were low on production values, but high on youthful pluck. Just check out some of their titles: Private Buckaroo, Give Out, Sisters!, Get Hep to Love (all 1942); Top Man, Mr. Big (both 1943); Chip Off the Old Block, This Is the Life, and Bowery to Broadway (all 1944). They may have not been high art, but jitterbuggin' kids loved it, and given the low investment Universal put into these pictures, they turned quite the profit.

Her career slowed down after the war. In 1945, she married songwriter James Cross, and didn't return to films until 1949, when she made two minor musicals that year: Shamrock Hill, There's a Girl in My Heart. She divorced Cross in 1952 and met her second husband, dancer Ray McDonald, in her final film appearance, a forgettable musical with Mickey Rooney, All Ashore (1953). Tragically, McDonald died in 1957 after a food choking incident, and the following year, Ryan moved to Honolulu after marrying her third husband, Honolulu Advertiser columnist Eddie Sherman. She kept herself busy teaching dance classes at the University of Hawaii, but in 1969, she found herself back in front of the camera as Jenny Sherman, secretary to Detective Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord) on the long-running show Hawaii Five-O,. She played the role for seven years, remaining until 1976.

Eventually, Ryan relocated with her husband to Las Vegas, where for the last few years, she was teaching tap dancing to a whole new generation of hoofers. She is survived by her son, Shawn; daughter Kerry; and five grandchildren.

by Michael T. Toole
Peggy Ryan (1924-2004)

Peggy Ryan (1924-2004)

Peggy Ryan, the bouncing, effervescent dancer and leading lady to Donald O'Connor in a string of youth musicals during World War II, died on October 30 in Las Vegas' Sunrise Hospital from complications of a stroke. She was 80. Born Margaret O'Rene Ryan on August 28, 1924, in Long Beach, California, Ryan began dancing professionally as a toddler in her parents' vaudeville act, the Dancing Ryans, and was discovered by George Murphy when she was 12. Murphy arranged for young Peggy to dance with him in the Universal musical Top of the Town (1937). She would go on to make a few more film appearances over the next few years - the most striking of which as a starving, homeless girl in John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath (1940) - yet for the most part, she was hardly noticeable apart from a few dance numbers. Her luck changed when Universal cast her opposite another teenage hoofer, Donald O'Connor in What's Cookin'? (1942). From then on, they teamed in a series of innocuous musicals that were low on production values, but high on youthful pluck. Just check out some of their titles: Private Buckaroo, Give Out, Sisters!, Get Hep to Love (all 1942); Top Man, Mr. Big (both 1943); Chip Off the Old Block, This Is the Life, and Bowery to Broadway (all 1944). They may have not been high art, but jitterbuggin' kids loved it, and given the low investment Universal put into these pictures, they turned quite the profit. Her career slowed down after the war. In 1945, she married songwriter James Cross, and didn't return to films until 1949, when she made two minor musicals that year: Shamrock Hill, There's a Girl in My Heart. She divorced Cross in 1952 and met her second husband, dancer Ray McDonald, in her final film appearance, a forgettable musical with Mickey Rooney, All Ashore (1953). Tragically, McDonald died in 1957 after a food choking incident, and the following year, Ryan moved to Honolulu after marrying her third husband, Honolulu Advertiser columnist Eddie Sherman. She kept herself busy teaching dance classes at the University of Hawaii, but in 1969, she found herself back in front of the camera as Jenny Sherman, secretary to Detective Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord) on the long-running show Hawaii Five-O,. She played the role for seven years, remaining until 1976. Eventually, Ryan relocated with her husband to Las Vegas, where for the last few years, she was teaching tap dancing to a whole new generation of hoofers. She is survived by her son, Shawn; daughter Kerry; and five grandchildren. by Michael T. Toole

Quotes

Trivia

Notes

This film was inspired by the short-lived ABC radio program the same name, which aired in January 1945. Up-and-coming talents competed on the show for a chance to appear in films. The ten performers who play themselves in the film were culled from the radio show. Although a September 1944 Los Angeles Times article mentions Dorcas Cochran as a writer for the film, the extent of her contribution to the final film has not been determined.