''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 breaks ...

directed by William Keighley from a script by Jerry Wald,

Richard Macaulay Richard Macaulay (1909–1969) was an American screenwriter. He wrote a number of films with Jerry Wald while under contract to Warner Bros. He was a noted anti-Communist and was a member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of Ame ...

Warren Duff Warren Duff (May 17, 1904 – August 5, 1973) was a film and television writer and producer. As a writer, Duff wrote for films including, ''Fashions of 1934'', ''Angels with Dirty Faces'' (1938), ''Experiment Perilous'' (1944), '' Step Liv ...

and

Sig Herzig Sig Herzig (July 25, 1897 – March 12, 1985) was an American screenwriter and playwright. Biography Born Siegfried Maurice Herzig in New York City, Herzig began his career as the director of the comedy short ''Husband and Strife'' (1922), ...

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 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 Pole ...

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 th ...

, and Priscilla Lane. Released by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...

, it features songs by

Richard A. Whiting Richard Armstrong Whiting (November 12, 1891 – February 19, 1938) was an American composer of popular songs, including the standards "Hooray for Hollywood", "Ain't We Got Fun?" and "On the Good Ship Lollipop". He also wrote lyrics occasiona ...

and many others. The finale was directed by Busby Berkeley.

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 Gener ...

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 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 local National Guard 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 as Professor Sylvester Biddle *

Johnnie Davis John Gustave Davis (April 11, 1910 – October 28, 1983) was an American actor, singer and trumpeter. Born in Brazil, Indiana, into a family of musicians, Davis developed an interest in music during his childhood. He learned to play the tr ...

as Buzz Bolton * Ford Washington Lee as Buck * John William Sublett as Bubbles * Fred Waring as Ernie Mason * Lee Dixon (actor) as Johnny 'Rubberlegs' Stevens * Sterling Holloway 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, Fred Waring 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 Pennsylvania State University, Penn State by the brothers Fred and Tom Waring and thei ...

, to the shoot and planned on using the college glee club from Pomona College ("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 The Robert Shaw Chorale was a renowned professional choir founded in New York City in 1948 by Robert Shaw, a Californian who had been drafted out of college a decade earlier by Fred Waring to conduct his glee club in radio broadcasts. History ...

. 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