A photographer's assistant promises to turn a chorus girl into a cover girl.

On her way to a dance rehearsal, chorus girl Judy LeRoy strolls through Central Park and dreams of meeting her true love. Melvin Hoover is having the same thoughts when he and Judy collide and exchange harsh words before going their separate ways. Melvin then heads to the lion house at the zoo and goes to work as the assistant to curmudgeonly Look magazine photographer Mergo. Later, while walking by the theater during a matinee of Judy's show, Quarterback Kelly , Melvin spots her face on a poster and uses his magazine credentials to go backstage during her dance number. After the show, as Judy is leaving with her beau, pompous paper box heir Harry Flack, Melvin approaches her and says he would like to do a photo spread on her for Look . Judy agrees, and in the ensuing weeks of photo sessions, Melvin and Judy begin to fall in love. As Judy spends more and more time with Melvin, her father, Frank "Pop" Schneider, complains that she is neglecting Harry. One night, Judy tells Melvin that her family is pressuring her to marry Harry, whom she does not love, and asks him to put her on the cover of Look . Desperate to win Judy for himself, Melvin agrees to try. The next day, Melvin begins papering the magazine's offices with photographs of Judy, but the editors decide to put a race horse on the cover. Meanwhile, the cast of Quarterback Kelly is notified that the show will close in three weeks. When Melvin drops by the theater, Judy tells him that Harry is coming to dinner on Monday to speak with her father, adding that he proposed to her the previous night but she gave no answer. Back at the office, Melvin enlists Mergo's help in producing a fake issue of the magazine with Judy's picture on the cover. On Monday night, as Harry is about to ask Pop for Judy's hand, Melvin comes by to show Judy the fake issue, and she excitedly assumes it is the actual cover. Before Melvin can tell her the truth, Judy tells Harry she cannot marry him. On the day the new issue of Look is to come out, Pop marches into the pharmacy where he works and gives his much-despised boss a piece of his mind. When the magazines are delivered, however, there is a picture of a boxing champion on the cover. Melvin goes to the Schneider house and tells Judy and her mother the cover was a mistake. Harry, having seen the magazine cover, drops by with flowers just before Pop staggers in and announces that he has been fired. Melvin nervously claims that Judy's picture will be on the next issue, and Judy says that if it is not, she will have to take a job with the road company of Quarterback Kelly . Cover after cover comes out without Judy's picture, and one night, while performing in Philadelphia, Judy gets knocked out during a strenuous dance number. When Judy learns that Pop is going to call on Look editor Henneman to ask when Judy's cover will come out, she rushes back to New York and interrupts the meeting to plead for Melvin. Henneman tells them the cover they saw was a fake, and Judy realizes that Melvin did it to keep her from marrying Harry. When Mergo informs them that his assistant quit three weeks ago, Judy's tearful declaration of love for Melvin wins Henneman over, and the police begin searching for him. Later, while sleeping on a bench outside the zoo in Central Park, Melvin sees a man reading an issue of Look with Judy on the cover. A zoo guard spots Melvin, and the police and Judy chase him through the park until he and Judy finally collide on the spot where they first bumped into each other. Judy shows him the magazine, which contains a full-page ad beseeching Melvin to come back, and the sweethearts kiss.