The Fabulous Dorseys is a 1947 fictionalized biographical film

Biography

A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...

 which tells the story of Tommy

Tommy Dorsey

Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...

 and Jimmy Dorsey

Jimmy Dorsey

James "Jimmy" Dorsey was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader. He was known as "JD"...

, from their boyhood in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania

Shenandoah, Pennsylvania

Shenandoah is a small town located in the lower part of the anthracite Coal Region, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. It is northwest of Philadelphia. The Greater Shenandoah area includes Shenandoah Heights, which is part of West Mahanoy Township and is located just north of Shenandoah.-History:The...

 through their rise, their breakup, and their personal reunion.

The Dorsey Brothers starred as themselves. Other actors include Janet Blair, William Lundigan

William Lundigan

William Lundigan was an American film actor. His films include Dodge City , The Fighting 69th , The Sea Hawk , Santa Fe Trail , Dishonored Lady , Pinky , Love Nest with Marilyn Monroe, The House on Telegraph Hill , I'd Climb the Highest Mountain and Inferno...

, Sara Allgood

Sara Allgood

-Biography:Allgood was born in Dublin, Ireland. Her sister was actress Maire O'Neill.Allgood began her acting career at the Abbey Theatre and was in the opening of the Irish National Theatre Society, appearing in many of their plays all over Britain...

 and Arthur Shields

Arthur Shields

Arthur Shields was an Irish stage and film actor.Born into an Irish Protestant family in Portobello, Dublin, he started acting in the Abbey Theatre when still a young man. He was the younger brother of Oscar-winning actor Barry Fitzgerald. An Irish nationalist, he fought in the Easter Rising of...

. There are also cameo appearance

Cameo appearance

A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

s by Paul Whiteman

Paul Whiteman

Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...

, Charlie Barnet

Charlie Barnet

Charles Daly Barnet was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader.His major recordings were "Skyliner", "Cherokee", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", "In a Mizz", and "Southland Shuffle".-Early life:...

, Henry Busse

Henry Busse

Henry Busse Sr. was a jazz trumpeter known for work with sweet bands and big bands.-Early life:Born May 19, 1894 to a generational German Band family. Henry Busse studied violin and then trumpet under his Oompah Band leader uncle...

, Bob Eberly

Bob Eberly

Bob Eberly was a big band vocalist, best-known for his association with Jimmy Dorsey and his duets with Helen O'Connell....

, Helen O'Connell

Helen O'Connell

Helen O'Connell was an American singer, actress, and dancer.Born in Lima, Ohio, O'Connell joined the Jimmy Dorsey band in 1939 and achieved her best selling records in the early 1940s with "Green Eyes", "Amapola," "Tangerine" and "Yours"...

 and Art Tatum

Art Tatum

Arthur "Art" Tatum, Jr. was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso who played with phenomenal facility despite being nearly blind.Tatum is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time...

.

The Jimmy Dorsey composition and theme song "Contrasts" is played in the movie. "Green Eyes", "Tangerine", "I'll Never Smile Again", "Marie", and "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" are also featured in the movie, along with "To Me" and "Dorsey Concerto". Paul Whiteman and the Orchestra perform "At Sundown".

The film was written by Art Arthur, Richard English

Richard English

Richard English is a historian from Northern Ireland. He was born in Belfast in 1963. His father, Donald English was a prominent Methodist preacher. He studied as an undergraduate at Keble College, Oxford, and subsequently at Keele University, where he was awarded a PhD in History...

 and Curtis Kenyon. It was directed by Alfred E. Green.