The Big Broadcast of 1937 is a 1936 Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

 production directed by Mitchell Leisen

Mitchell Leisen

Mitchell Leisen was an American director, art director, and costume designer.-Film career:He entered the film industry in the 1920s, beginning in the art and costume departments...

, and is the third in the series of Big Broadcast movies. The musical comedy stars Jack Benny

Jack Benny

Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...

, George Burns

George Burns

George Burns , born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, film, radio, television and movies, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became...

, Gracie Allen

Gracie Allen

Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen , known as Gracie Allen, was an American comedian who became internationally famous as the zany partner and comic foil of husband George Burns...

, Bob Burns, Martha Raye

Martha Raye

Martha Raye was an American comic actress and standards singer who performed in movies, and later on television....

, Shirley Ross

Shirley Ross

Shirley Ross was an American actress and singer.Ross was born Bernice Gaunt in Omaha, Nebraska but her family relocated to California when she was a child. She studied at Hollywood High School and the University of California and auditioned successfully for Gus Arnheim's band during her second...

, Ray Milland

Ray Milland

Ray Milland was a Welsh actor and director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best remembered for his Academy Award–winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend , a sophisticated leading man opposite a corrupt John Wayne in Reap the Wild Wind , the murder-plotting...

, Benny Fields

Benny Fields

Benny Fields was a popular singer of the early 20th century, best known as one-half of the Blossom Seeley-Benny Fields vaudeville team...

, Frank Forest

Frank Forest

Frank Forest was an American operatic tenor and actor who enjoyed success in the 1930s and 40s.-Biography:Frank Forest was born Frank Hayek in St. Paul, Minnesota on October 17, 1896. He studied pianoforte and singing and at twelve was singing as a soloist in a church choir. At seventeen he taught...

 and the orchestra of Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman

Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...

 (featuring Gene Krupa

Gene Krupa

Gene Krupa was an American jazz and big band drummer and composer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style.-Biography:...

). Uncredited roles include Jack Mulhall

Jack Mulhall

Jack Mulhall, born John Joseph Francis Mulhall, was a film actor since the silent film era and appeared in over 430 films....

.

German animator Oskar Fischinger

Oskar Fischinger

Oskar Fischinger was a German-American abstract animator, filmmaker, and painter. He made over 50 short animated films, and painted c. 800 canvases, many of which are in museums, galleries and collections worldwide. Among his film works is Motion Painting No. 1 , which is now listed on the...

 was hired to create an animation sequence in Technicolor

Technicolor

Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...

. However, when Paramount changed the production to black-and-white only, Fischinger's original abstract animation design was changed to a hybrid animation and live-action sequence showing consumer products emanating from a broadcasting tower, to the song "Radio Dynamics" by Ralph Rainger

Ralph Rainger

Ralph Rainger was an American composer of popular music principally for films.-Biography:Born Ralph Reichenthal in New York City, Rainger embarked on a legal career before escaping to Broadway where he became Clifton Webb's accompanist...

.

It has yet to receive a DVD or VHS issue.

Cast

Jack Benny

Jack Benny

Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...

 Jack Carson

George Burns

George Burns

George Burns , born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, film, radio, television and movies, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became...

 Mr. Platt

Gracie Allen

Gracie Allen

Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen , known as Gracie Allen, was an American comedian who became internationally famous as the zany partner and comic foil of husband George Burns...

 Mrs. Platt

Bob Burns Bob Black

Martha Raye

Martha Raye

Martha Raye was an American comic actress and standards singer who performed in movies, and later on television....

Patsy

Shirley Ross

Shirley Ross

Shirley Ross was an American actress and singer.Ross was born Bernice Gaunt in Omaha, Nebraska but her family relocated to California when she was a child. She studied at Hollywood High School and the University of California and auditioned successfully for Gus Arnheim's band during her second...

 Gwen Holmes

Ray Milland

Ray Milland

Ray Milland was a Welsh actor and director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best remembered for his Academy Award–winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend , a sophisticated leading man opposite a corrupt John Wayne in Reap the Wild Wind , the murder-plotting...

Bob Miller

Films in series

• The Big Broadcast
  The Big Broadcast
  The Big Broadcast is a musical comedy film produced by Paramount Pictures, directed by Frank Tuttle, and starring Bing Crosby, Stuart Erwin, and Leila Hyams, with George Burns and Gracie Allen in supporting roles...
  
  (1932)
• The Big Broadcast of 1936
  The Big Broadcast of 1936
  The Big Broadcast of 1936 is a Paramount Pictures production, directed by Norman Taurog, and is the second in the series of Big Broadcast movies...
  
  (1935)
• The Big Broadcast of 1938
  The Big Broadcast of 1938
  The Big Broadcast of 1938 is a Paramount Pictures film featuring W.C. Fields and Bob Hope. Directed by Mitchell Leisen, the film is the last in a series of Big Broadcast movies that were variety show anthologies...
  
  (1937)