Tin Pan Alley
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Walter Lang
Alice Faye
Betty Grable
Jack Oakie
John Payne
Allen Jenkins
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In New York, in 1915, 46th Street and 8th Avenue was known as Tin Pan Alley, the headquarters of shoestring song publishers. Among those struggling to be recognized are ex-vaudevillian Harry Calhoun and his tunesmith partner, Skeets Harrigan. The existence of Calhoun and Harrigan is so tenuous that Skeets must participate in periodic bouts in the boxing ring in order to pay the rent. In desperation, they recruit the singing Blane sisters to plug their songs, and when Katie Blane and Skeets fall in love, Katie loans Skeets the money to buy the tune that makes them a success. However, Skeets's first love is his business, and when he gives a well-known singer the song that he had promised to Katie, Katie leaves in despair to join her sister Lily in her London act. In London, the sisters become the toast of the town while back in New York, Skeets and Calhoun's business hits the skids and Skeets is forced to return to the boxing ring to pay their bills. When war is declared, the partners, disgusted for having rejected the next hit tune, enlist in the army and are sent overseas to London. On the day that they are to ship out to France, Skeets and Katie rekindle their romance, and when Armistice is declared, they are all happily reunited in New York.
Director
Walter Lang
Cast
Alice Faye
Betty Grable
Jack Oakie
John Payne
Allen Jenkins
Esther Ralston
Nicholas Bros.
Ben Carter
John Loder
Elisha Cook Jr.
Fred Keating
Billy Gilbert
Lillian Porter
Princess Vanessa Ammon
Brian Sisters
Roberts Bros.
Tyler Brooke
Hal K. Dawson
William B. Davidson
Lionel Pape
Billy Bevan
Dewey Robinson
Robert Emmett Keane
John Sheehan
George Watts
Crew
Travis Banton
Billy Baskette
Gene Bryant
Benny Davis
Richard Day
Robert Ellis
Seymour Felix
Mack Gordon
Archie Gottler
Eugene Grossman
Pamela Harris
Roger Heman
Edgar Leslie
Thomas Little
Helen Logan
Kenneth Macgowan
Edward Madden
Jack Mahoney
Alfred Newman
Geoffrey O'hara
C. Francis Reisner
Leon Shamroy
Al Siegal
Harry B. Smith
Ted Snyder
Walter Thompson
Thomas "fats" Waller
Harry Warren
Percy Wenrich
Francis Wheeler
Joseph C. Wright
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Wins
Best Score
Quotes
Trivia
The censors ordered cuts in the "Sheik of Araby" number because the costumes were deemed too revealing.
Scenes which were deleted from final version appear In "Hidden Hollywood: Treasures From The 20th Century Fox Vaults"
Notes
According to materials contained in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection at the UCLA Theater Arts Library, this film was based on the original unpublished story "Life is a Song" by Pamela Harris. In memos from the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library, Joseph I. Breen, Director of the MPPDA, ordered that cuts be made in the "Sheik of Araby" number because the dancers' costumes violated production code stipulations regarding semi-nudity. The film won an Academy Award for Best Musical Score.
