''Varsity Show'' is a 1937 American

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as brea ...

directed by

William Keighley William Jackson Keighley (August 4, 1889 – June 24, 1984) was an American stage actor and Hollywood film director. Career After graduating from the Ludlum School of Dramatic Art, Keighley began acting at the age of 23. By the 1910s and 1920s ...

from a script by

Jerry Wald Jerome Irving Wald (September 16, 1911 – July 13, 1962) was an American screenwriter and a producer of films and radio programs. Life and career Early life Born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, he had a brother and sons who were act ...

, Richard Macaulay, Warren Duff and Sig Herzig and starring

Dick Powell Richard Ewing Powell (November 14, 1904 – January 2, 1963) was an American actor, musician, producer, director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility, and successfully transformed into ...

Fred Waring Fredrick Malcolm Waring Sr. (June 9, 1900 – July 29, 1984) was an American musician, bandleader, and radio and television personality, sometimes referred to as "America's Singing Master" and "The Man Who Taught America How to Sing". He was also ...

and

Waring's Pennsylvanians Waring's Pennsylvanians was a dance band that was founded at Penn State University by Fred Waring. First named the Collegians, the group was formed in 1918 at Penn State by the brothers Fred and Tom Waring and their friends Freddy Buck and Pol ...

Ted Healy Ted Healy (born Charles Ernest Lee Nash; October 1, 1896 – December 21, 1937) was an American vaudeville performer, comedian, and actor. Though he is chiefly remembered as the creator of The Three Stooges and the style of slapstick comedy ...

, and Priscilla Lane. Released by Warner Bros., it features songs by Richard A. Whiting and many others. The finale was directed by

Busby Berkeley Busby Berkeley (born Berkeley William Enos; November 29, 1895 – March 14, 1976) was an American film director and musical choreographer. Berkeley devised elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns. Berke ...

Plot

The film follows a group of students at fictional Winfield College who butt heads with their faculty advisor while producing the annual Varsity Show. They decide to enlist help from an alumnus, Chuck Daly (

), who is now a Broadway producer, to direct the show. What they don't know is that Daly's last three shows were big flops. Professor Biddle, Winfield's drama professor, wants a production in the fine tradition of College Circa 1900. The students want to stage a show that is ''au courant'', backed by Professor Mason, Biddle's assistant. Inevitably, Daly and the students clash with the stodgy Biddle. There is also the complication that Hollywood wants Chuck to come out and direct a musical, and is pressing him for an answer. A series of humorous events ensues, including an outbreak of

mumps MUMPS ("Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System"), or M, is an imperative, high-level programming language with an integrated transaction processing key–value database. It was originally developed at Massachusetts Gene ...

Chuck uses to temporarily get Biddle out of the picture; a counterstroke by Biddle involving exams that must be passed for the students to maintain eligibility for student activities; and a

student strike Campus protest or student protest is a form of student activism that takes the form of protest at university campuses. Such protests encompass a wide range of activities that indicate student dissatisfaction with a given political or academ ...

protesting Biddle's continuing as producer of the Varsity Show that attracts national attention. On learning the Hollywood offer has been withdrawn and in need of money, Daly returns to New York City and signs a contract to perform in another show. The Winfield students aren't willing to give up on Chuck. Led by Professor Mason, they follow him to the city. They take over the Stuyvesant Theater, and give their first performance to a significant percentage of the

NYPD The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

, the local

National Guard National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. Nat ...

unit, and the Mayor, who all came to eject them from their illegal occupation of the theater. The Varsity Show opens on Broadway with great success, and Daly's reputation as a producer is rehabilitated.

Cast

as Charles 'Chuck' Daly * Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians as Fred Waring Orchestra *

as William Williams * Rosemary Lane as Barbara 'Babs' Steward * Priscilla Lane as Betty Bradley *

Walter Catlett Walter Leland Catlett (February 4, 1889 – November 14, 1960) was an American actor and comedian. He made a career of playing excitable, meddlesome, temperamental, and officious blowhards. Career Catlett was born on February 4, 1889, in S ...

as Professor Sylvester Biddle * Johnnie Davis as Buzz Bolton * Ford Washington Lee as Buck * John William Sublett as Bubbles *

as Ernie Mason * Lee Dixon (actor) as Johnny 'Rubberlegs' Stevens *

Sterling Holloway Sterling Price Holloway Jr. (January 4, 1905 – November 22, 1992) was an American actor and voice actor who appeared in over 100 films and 40 television shows. He did voice acting for The Walt Disney Company, playing Mr. Stork in '' Dumbo'', A ...

as Trout * Mabel Todd as Cuddles * Scotty Bates as Scotty * George MacFarland as Hap *

Poley McClintock James Roland "Poley" McClintock (September 22, 1900 in Tyrone, PA -January, 1980, in East Stroudsburg, PA) was a member of Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians, a popular jazz band of the 1920s. As a child, McClintock was a neighbor of Waring in Tyrone, ...

as Poley

Production

In 1937,

was approached to play a starring role in this film. He brought his famous glee club,

the Pennsylvanians Waring's Pennsylvanians was a dance band that was founded at Penn State University by Fred Waring. First named the Collegians, the group was formed in 1918 at Penn State by the brothers Fred and Tom Waring and their friends Freddy Buck and Poley ...

, to the shoot and planned on using the college glee club from

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became t ...

("Winfield College" in the movie) for additional singers. When Waring arrived at the campus he found the Glee Club conductor was ill but his replacement was Robert Shaw. Shaw followed Fred Waring, after the movie was finished, to New York. There, Shaw founded the

Collegiate Chorale MasterVoices (formerly the Collegiate Chorale) is a symphonic choir based in New York City, USA. It was founded in 1941 by Robert Shaw, who was later to found the professional Robert Shaw Chorale. MasterVoices continues to give several performance ...

and the Robert Shaw Chorale. Robert Shaw went on to be one of the most important personalities in American choral music in the 20th century.

References

External links

* * * *

Bibliography

*Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation page 72 {{Busby Berkeley 1937 films 1937 musical films American black-and-white films American musical films 1930s English-language films Films directed by William Keighley Films scored by Ray Heindorf Films scored by Heinz Roemheld Films set in universities and colleges Warner Bros. films 1930s American films