The Great American Broadcast

1941 film by Archie Mayo

May 9, 1941 (1941-05-09)

Running time

90 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

The Great American Broadcast is a 1941 American musical comedy film directed by Archie Mayo and starring Jack Oakie, Alice Faye and John Payne.^[1] It was produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Plot

Impoverished roommates Rix Martin and Chuck Hadley have dreams of being the first to operate a coast-to-coast radio broadcast. They invest what little profit their small station makes into advanced equipment and finally get their wish when they bootleg the Jack Dempsey—Jess Willard 1919 heavyweight title fight from ringside.

Meanwhile, the station's band singer is surrounded by suitors—Payne, Oakie, and Chadwick, without whose money the station could not operate.

Cast

Alice Faye as Vicki Adams
John Payne as Rix Martin
Jack Oakie as Chuck Hadley
Cesar Romero as Bruce Chadwick
James Newill as Great American Broadcast Lead Singer
The Ink Spots as themselves: Bill Kenny, Deek Watson, Charlie Fuqua, and Orville "Hoppy" Jones
Bill Kenny as Song Specialty [member of The Ink Spots]
Orville "Hoppy" Jones as Song Specialty [member of The Ink Spots]
Charlie Fuqua as Song Specialty [member of The Ink Spots]
Deek Watson as Song Specialty [member of The Ink Spots]
The Nicholas Brothers as themselves: [Fayard and Harold Nicholas]
Fayard Nicholas as Railroad Station Dance Specialty [member of The Nicholas Brothers]
Harold Nicholas as Railroad Station Dance Specialty [member of The Nicholas Brothers]
The Wiere Brothers as themselves [Harry Wiere, Herbert Wiere & Sylvester Wiere]
Harry Wiere as Chapman's Cheerful Chappies & The Stradivarians [member of The Wiere Brothers]
Herbert Wiere as Chapman's Cheerful Chappies & The Stradivarians [member of The Wiere Brothers]
Sylvester Wiere as Chapman's Cheerful Chappies & The Stradivarians [member of The Wiere Brothers]
Mary Beth Hughes as Secretary
Eula Morgan as Madame Rinaldi
William Pawley as Foreman
Lucien Littlefield as Justice of the Peace
Edward Conrad as Conductor
Gary Breckner as Announcer
M.J. Frankovich [billed as Mike Frankovich] as Announcer
Frank Orth as Counter Man
Eddie Acuff as Jimmy
Mildred Gover as Jennie
Syd Saylor as Brakeman

Cameo appearances by:

Milton Berle as Radio Announcer [scenes deleted]
Jack Benny as Self [uncredited appearance in Opening Montage, taken from archive footage]
Eddie Cantor as Self [uncredited appearance in Opening Montage, taken from archive footage]
Kate Smith as Self [uncredited appearance in Opening Montage, taken from archive footage]
Rudy Vallee as Self [uncredited appearance in Opening Montage, taken from archive footage]
Paul Whiteman as Self [uncredited appearance in Opening Montage, taken from archive footage]
Walter Winchell as Self [uncredited appearance in Opening Montage, taken from archive footage]

References

^ "The Great American Broadcast – Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast – AllMovie". Archived from the original on 2012-07-17. Retrieved 2011-05-21.

Bibliography

Fetrow, Alan G. Feature Films, 1940-1949: a United States Filmography. McFarland, 1994.

External links

The Great American Broadcast at IMDb
The Great American Broadcast at the TCM Movie Database
The Great American Broadcast at AllMovie

Films directed by Archie Mayo

Money Talks (1926)
Christine of the Big Tops (1926)
Unknown Treasures (1926)
Johnny Get Your Hair Cut (1927)
Dearie (1927)
Slightly Used (1927)
The College Widow (1927)
Quarantined Rivals (1927)
State Street Sadie (1928)
Beware of Married Men (1928)
The Crimson City (1928)
On Trial (1928)
My Man (1928)
Sonny Boy (1929)
Is Everybody Happy? (1929)
The Sap (1929)
The Sacred Flame (1929)
Wide Open (1930)
Courage (1930)
Oh Sailor Behave (1930)
The Doorway to Hell (1930)
Illicit (1931)
Svengali (1931)
Bought (1931)
Under Eighteen (1931)
The Expert (1932)
Night After Night (1932)
Two Against the World (1932)
Street of Women (1932)
The Life of Jimmy Dolan (1933)
The Mayor of Hell (1933)
Ever in My Heart (1933)
Convention City (1933)
Gambling Lady (1934)
The Man with Two Faces (1934)
Desirable (1934)
Give Me Your Heart (1934)
Bordertown (1935)
Go into Your Dance (1935)
The Case of the Lucky Legs (1935)
The Petrified Forest (1936)
I Married a Doctor (1936)
Black Legion (1937)
It's Love I'm After (1937)
The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938)
Youth Takes a Fling (1938)
They Shall Have Music (1939)
The House Across the Bay (1940)
Four Sons (1940)
The Great American Broadcast (1941)
Charley's Aunt (1941)
Confirm or Deny (1941)
Moontide (1942)
Orchestra Wives (1942)
Crash Dive (1943)
Sweet and Low-Down (1944)
A Night in Casablanca (1946)
Angel on My Shoulder (1946)

v t e The Ink Spots
Bill Kenny Charlie Fuqua Deek Watson Hoppy Jones Jerry Daniels Bernie Mackey Cliff Givens Billy Bowen Huey Long Herb Kenny
Singles	"If I Didn't Care" "My Prayer" "Memories of You" "I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over You" "When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano" "Whispering Grass (Don't Tell the Trees)" "Maybe" "We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)" "Java Jive" "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" "I Can't Stand Losing You" "Cow Cow Boogie (Cuma-Ti-Yi-Yi-Ay)" "A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening" "I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You)" "I'm Making Believe" "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall" "I'm Beginning to See the Light" "The Gypsy" "Prisoner of Love" "To Each His Own" "The Best Things in Life Are Free" "You're Breaking My Heart" "Echoes" "If" "It Is No Secret" (Bill Kenny solo) "Trying" "Address Unknown"
Albums	If I Didn't Care (1979)
Related topics	The Great American Broadcast Pardon My Sarong The Brown Dots The Four Tunes The Bill Kenny Show

Darryl F. Zanuck

Producer

Old San Francisco (1927)
The First Auto (1927)
The Jazz Singer (1927)
Tenderloin (1928)
The Show of Shows (1929)
Three Faces East (1930)
The Doorway to Hell (1931)
Little Caesar (1931)
Illicit (1931)
The Public Enemy (1931)
The Man Who Played God (1932)
The Rich Are Always with Us (1932)
Doctor X (1932)
Life Begins (1932)
The Cabin in the Cotton (1932)
Three on a Match (1932)
20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)
Parachute Jumper (1933)
42nd Street (1933)
The Working Man (1933)
Ex-Lady (1933)
The Bowery (1933)
Blood Money (1933)
Moulin Rouge (1934)
Looking for Trouble (1934)
Born to Be Bad (1934)
Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (1934)
The Mighty Barnum (1934)
Folies Bergère de Paris (1935)
Les Misérables (1935)
Cardinal Richelieu (1935)
Call of the Wild (1935)
Metropolitan (1935)
Thanks a Million (1935)
The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo (1935)
Professional Soldier (1935)
The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936)
It Had to Happen (1936)
A Message to Garcia (1936)
Under Two Flags (1936)
The Road to Glory (1936)
Poor Little Rich Girl (1936)
Sing, Baby, Sing (1936)
Pigskin Parade (1936)
Seventh Heaven (1937)
Slave Ship (1937)
Wee Willie Winkie (1937)
Wake Up and Live (1937)
Thin Ice (1937)
Lancer Spy (1937)
In Old Chicago (1938)
Happy Landing (1938)
International Settlement (1938)
Kentucky Moonshine
Always Goodbye (1938)
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938)
Just Around the Corner (1938)
Little Miss Broadway (1938)
My Lucky Star (1938)
Submarine Patrol (1938)
Jesse James (1939)
Tail Spin (1939)
Wife, Husband and Friend (1939)
The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939)
Rose of Washington Square (1939)
Stanley and Livingstone (1939)
The Rains Came (1939)
Hollywood Cavalcade (1939)
Swanee River (1939)
The Little Princess (1939)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Little Old New York (1940)
The Man I Married (1940)
The Return of Frank James (1940)
The Great Profile (1940)
Brigham Young (1940)
Down Argentine Way (1940)
The Mark of Zorro (1940)
Hudson's Bay (1941)
Tobacco Road (1941)
The Great American Broadcast (1941)
Blood and Sand (1941)
A Yank in the R.A.F. (1941)
How Green Was My Valley (1942)
Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942)
Sex Hygiene (Short) (1942)
To the Shores of Tripoli (1942)
This Above All (1942)
Thunder Birds (1942)
The Purple Heart (1944)
Wilson (1944)
Winged Victory (1944)
The Razor's Edge (1946)
Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
Fury at Furnace Creek (1948)
The Snake Pit (1948)
Pinky (1949)
Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
No Way Out (1950)
All About Eve (1950)
David and Bathsheba (1951)
People Will Talk (1951)
Viva Zapata! (1952)
The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)
The Egyptian (1954)
The View from Pompey's Head (1955)
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956)
Island in the Sun (1957)
The Sun Also Rises (1957)
The Roots of Heaven (1958)
Crack in the Mirror (1960)
Sanctuary (1961)
The Big Gamble (1961)
The Longest Day (1962)
The Chapman Report (1962)
The Visit (1964)

Writer

as Mark Canfield	The Desired Woman (1927) (story) Maybe It's Love (1930) Baby Face (1933) (story) Crack in the Mirror (1960)
as Melville Crossman	Tenderloin (story) (1928) State Street Sadie (story) (1928) Thanks a Million (story) (1935) A Yank in the R.A.F. (story) (1941) Thunder Birds (original story) (1942) China Girl (story) (1942) The Purple Heart (story) (1944)
as Gregory Rogers	Find Your Man (Rin Tin Tin story) (1924) The Lighthouse by the Sea (Rin Tin Tin story) (1924) Three Weeks in Paris (story, screenplay as Darryl Zanuck) (1925) The Midnight Taxi (story) (1928)
as self	A Broadway Butterfly (1925) Red Hot Tires (1925) Hogan's Alley (1925) The Caveman (scenario) (1926) The Little Irish Girl (adaptation) (1926) The Social Highwayman (1926) Footloose Widows (1926) Across the Pacific (adaptation) (1926) The Better 'Ole (screenplay) (1926) Tracked by the Police (Rin Tin Tin story) (1927) Old San Francisco (1927) The First Auto (story) (1927) Good Time Charley (story) (1927) Noah's Ark (story) (1928) My Man (story) (1928) Hardboiled Rose (story) (1929) Madonna of Avenue A (story) (1929) Say It with Songs (story) (1929) The Life of the Party (1930) Little Caesar (story – uncredited) (1931) The Dark Horse (story) (1932) Lady Killer (story – uncredited) (1933) Folies Bergère de Paris (contributing writer – uncredited) (1935) G Men (story) (1935) This Is My Affair (story – uncredited) (1937) Alexander's Ragtime Band (contributing writer – uncredited) (1938) The Great Profile (story – uncredited) (1940) Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942)