Amateur opera singer Tony Pagano repeatedly performs arias from Verdi's Rigoletto on vaudeville and is booed off the stage. When New York radio station WOX holds auditions for "Colonel Edwards' Amateur Hour," Pagano again makes a grandiose attempt at Rigoletto and "gets the gong." The Amateur Hour's sponsor is Kello Soap, owned by Calvin Keller. Against her father's wishes, Marion Keller gets in line to audition and pairs up with ice cream vendor Eddie Warren. Marion repeatedly breaks dates with her fiancé, Gordon Rogers III, to rehearse with Eddie, and they fall in love. When her father belittles her artistic aspirations, Marion insists on forestalling her marriage until she proves herself as a singer. When Eddie and Marion compete for a professional radio contract, Pagano again peforms his "Rigoletto," and gets the gong. When Eddie and Marion perform, Keller gives them the gong and the audience is outraged. Eddie then discovers Marion's engagement and true identity and calls her a phony. Eddie's friend Jimmy and his dance partner, "Bubbles" McNulty, win that week's contest. After Eddie is offered his own radio program on a rival station, he tells Keller that he is not interested in his soap, his amateur hour, or his daughter. When WOX is deluged with hate mail for ousting the couple, Colonel Edwards insists on reuniting them. Marion, meanwhile, breaks her engagement with Gordon. The next Sunday, Jimmy coaxes Eddie to the studio by saying that he and Bubbles are going to get married over the air. The Amateur Hour starts without Eddie and Marion. While the audience shouts for "Warren and Keller," Pagano, disguised with a fake mustache and eyebrows, performs in a bad operatic quartet. Eddie and Marion finally arrive, and Keller negotiates with the producer of the rival station, who agrees to use Eddie only in the summer. Keller forces Eddie and Marion on stage as they fight. In the middle of their song, Marion tells Eddie she's not engaged anymore, and they announce their romance over the air.
