The Big Broadcast of 1938
Encyclopedia
The Big Broadcast of 1938 is a 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...

 film featuring W.C. Fields and Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...

. 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...

, the film is the last in a series of Big Broadcast movies that were variety show
Variety show
A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...

 anthologies. This film featured the debut of Hope's signature song, "Thanks for the Memory
Thanks for the Memory
"Thanks for the Memory" is a popular song, with music composed by Ralph Rainger and lyrics by Leo Robin. It was introduced in the 1938 film The Big Broadcast of 1938 by Shep Fields and His Orchestra with vocals by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross...

" 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...

, which Hope's character sings as a duet with 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...

, accompanied by Shep Fields
Shep Fields
Shep Fields was the band leader for the "Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm" orchestra during the Big Band era of the 1930s.-Biography:...

 and his Orchestra.

Production

The movie had many other stars of the era, a wide variety of acts ranging from the comedy of Fields and Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...

 to a powerful performance of Ride of the Valkyries
Ride of the Valkyries
The Ride of the Valkyries is the popular term for the beginning of Act III of Die Walküre, the second of the four operas by Richard Wagner that comprise Der Ring des Nibelungen. The main theme of the Ride, the leitmotif labelled Walkürenritt, was first written down by the composer on 23 July 1851...

by Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

 singer Kirsten Flagstad
Kirsten Flagstad
Kirsten Målfrid Flagstad was a Norwegian opera singer and a highly regarded Wagnerian soprano...

 in full Brunhilde armor and winged helmet.

The film was Hope's first feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...

, and was the final film under Fields' long-running Paramount contract, before he moved to Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

 to make his final series of films. On 13 May 2008, the New York Times reviewed a new DVD box set of Leisen titles, released by Universal, including Big Broadcast of 1938, which is the only one of the Big Broadcast films to be released on VHS or DVD to date.

Cast

  • W. C. Fields
    W. C. Fields
    William Claude Dukenfield , better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer...

     as T. Frothingill Bellows
  • Martha Raye
    Martha Raye
    Martha Raye was an American comic actress and standards singer who performed in movies, and later on television....

     as Martha Bellows
  • Dorothy Lamour
    Dorothy Lamour
    Dorothy Lamour was an American film actress. She is best remembered for appearing in the Road to... movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope .-Early life:Lamour was born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Carmen Louise Dorothy...

     as Dorothy Wyndham
  • 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...

     as Cleo Fielding
  • Lynne Overman
    Lynne Overman
    Lynne Overman was a film actor in the 1930s and early-1940s who often played a sidekick.-Selected filmography:* Dixie * The Desert Song * The Forest Rangers...

     as Scoop McPhail
  • Bob Hope
    Bob Hope
    Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...

     as Buzz Fielding
  • Ben Blue
    Ben Blue
    Ben Blue , born Benjamin Bernstein, was a Canadian-American actor and comedian.Born to a Jewish family in Montreal, Quebec, at the age of nine, Blue emigrated to Baltimore in the United States where he won a contest for the best impersonation of Charlie Chaplin...

     as Mike
  • Leif Erickson
    Leif Erickson
    Leif Erickson was an American film and television actor.-Background:Leif Erickson was born William Wycliffe Anderson in Alameda, California. His father was commander of a fleet of ships and his mother was a noted newspaperwoman and writer...

     as Bob Hayes
  • John Serry, Sr.
    John Serry, Sr.
    John Serry, Sr. was an accomplished concert accordionist virtuoso, arranger, composer, organist and educator who performed on the CBS Radio and CBS Television networks...

     as Himself
  • Russell Hicks as Captain Stafford
  • And Billy Daniels
    Billy Daniels
    William Boone Daniels , better known as Billy Daniels, was a singer active in the United States and Europe from the mid-1930s to 1988, notable for his hit recording of "That Old Black Magic" and his pioneering performances on early 1950s television.Daniels was born in Jacksonville, Florida, where...

    , Leonid Kinskey
    Leonid Kinskey
    Leonid Kinskey was a Russian-born movie and television actor who enjoyed a long career. Kinskey is best known for his role as Sascha in the film Casablanca ....

    , Bernard Punsly
    Bernard Punsly
    Bernard Punsly , was a New York City-born American actor who later left show business to become a physician.-Career and personal life:...

    , Irving Bacon
    Irving Bacon
    Irving Bacon was an American character actor who appeared in over 400 films. He played on the stage for a number of years before getting into films in 1920. Bacon was sometimes cast in films directed by his namesake Lloyd Bacon such as The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse...

    , James Craig
    James Craig (actor)
    James Craig was an American actor.After graduating from the Rice Institute, Craig began appearing in films in 1937, most often in B-movies and serials...

  • Specialty numbers by: Kirsten Flagstad
    Kirsten Flagstad
    Kirsten Målfrid Flagstad was a Norwegian opera singer and a highly regarded Wagnerian soprano...

    , Tito Guízar
    Tito Guízar
    Federico Arturo Guízar Tolentino was a Mexican singer and actor. He was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico....

    , Shep Fields
    Shep Fields
    Shep Fields was the band leader for the "Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm" orchestra during the Big Band era of the 1930s.-Biography:...

     and his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra

Other credits

  • Art direction by Hans Dreier
    Hans Dreier
    Hans Dreier was a film art director.Born in Bremen, Germany, Dreier began his career in German film in 1919 and by the end of the 1920s had relocated to Hollywood....

     and Ernst Fegté
    Ernst Fegté
    Ernst Fegté was a German art director. He won an Academy Award and was nominated for three more in the category Best Art Direction.He was born in Hamburg, Germany and died in Los Angeles, California....

  • Costumes by Edith Head
    Edith Head
    Edith Head was an American costume designer who won eight Academy Awards, more than any other woman.-Early life and career:...

  • Cartoon sequence by Leon Schlesinger
    Leon Schlesinger
    Leon Schlesinger was an American film producer, most noted for founding Leon Schlesinger Productions, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, during the golden age of Hollywood animation.-Early life and career:...

  • Songs by Leo Robin
    Leo Robin
    Leo Robin was an American composer, lyricist and songwriter. He is probably best known for collaborating with Ralph Rainger on the 1938 Oscar-winning song "Thanks for the Memory," sung by Bob Hope in the film The Big Broadcast of 1938.-Biography:Robin was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and...

     and 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...

    ; "Zumi Zumi" - music and lyrics, performed by Tito Guízar
    Tito Guízar
    Federico Arturo Guízar Tolentino was a Mexican singer and actor. He was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico....


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...

  • The Big Broadcast of 1937
    The Big Broadcast of 1937
    The Big Broadcast of 1937 is a 1936 Paramount Pictures production directed by Mitchell Leisen, and is the third in the series of Big Broadcast movies. The musical comedy stars Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Bob Burns, Martha Raye, Shirley Ross, Ray Milland, Benny Fields, Frank Forest and...

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