Merry-Go-Round of 1938
Cast & Crew
Irving Cummings
Bert Lahr
Jimmy Savo
Billy House
Alice Brady
Mischa Auer
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In 1918, as she lays dying from a fall, aerialist "Dainty Doris" asks the vaudeville team The Grand Street Comedy Four, comprised of Bert, Billy, Jimmy and Mischa, to rear her daughter. The four men become devoted fathers, even missing out on a booking of a lifetime when they all come down with the mumps with Sally. By 1937, Sally is performing with her adopted fathers, and is in love with lawyer Tony Townsend. The comedians pretend that they have been offered a movie contract in Hollywood so Sally will not feel guilty about leaving them to marry Tony. Later, however, they do get a movie deal and go to Hollywood, while Sally goes to Wisconsin meet Tony's aunt, Hortense. Hortense refuses to consent to the marriage after Sally admits she is a theatrical performer, and although Tony wishes to marry her anyway, Sally fears he will resent her if he is disinherited. Sally stays in Wisconsin and works as a singer at Tony Apollon's nightclub. Bert, Billy, Jimmy and Mischa read about Sally's broken engagement in a newspaper and return to help her through her troubles. When they find out that Tony still wants to marry her, they contrive to convince Hortense of Sally's worthiness, without revealing to Sally they are there. Jimmy dresses up as a fictitious female member of British nobility, Lady Gwendolyn Flintridge, and convinces Hortense of Sally's royal connections. Mischa dresses up as a Swami, and Billy as his assistant, and after they conduct a séance during which they call up the spirit of Hortense's lost childhood love, Hector, Hortense invites them to stay at the estate, unaware that Bert was the voice of Hector. One night, Sally visits Tony in his cabin, but leaves angrily when she sees a woman's clothes draped over the furniture and is unaware that the clothes belong to "Lady Gwendolyn." Hortense finally accepts Sally, and Hortense's daughter Clarice, who has been trying to expose Mischa as a fake, is finally put in her place when he actually levitates Bert. The real Hector arrives and challenges Bert to a wrestling match to prove his true identity. Everyone performs in Hortense's charity party, and during the evening's wrestling match, Mischa levitates Hector, enabling Bert to win. Tony and Sally are married, and her foster fathers finally take the train to Hollywood with smiles on their faces.
Director
Irving Cummings
Cast
Bert Lahr
Jimmy Savo
Billy House
Alice Brady
Mischa Auer
Joy Hodges
Louise Fazenda
John King
Barbara Read
Dave Apollon
Richard Carle
Howard Cantonwine
Charles Williams
Charles Coleman
Joyce Kay
Fay Helm
John Kelly
Beverly Ann Welch
Vera Steadman
Hattie Mcdaniel
Lorin Raker
Irving Bacon
George Humbert
Arthur Housman
Leo Numa
Roger Gray
Edwin Stanley
Anna Demetrio
Pat West
Herbert Ashley
Bob Mckenzie
Ferris Taylor
Tom Herbert
Ernesto Morelli
James Morton
Grace Goodall
Jack Baxley
D'arcy Corrigan
Ian Mcewing
Eddie Hart
Eleanor Virgie
Margaret Cascarelli
Antonio Filauri
Yolanda Molinari
Lillian West
Ed Brady
Henry Sylvester
Tom Mcguire
Walter Soderling
Mrs. Genardi
Crew
Harold Adamson
Harold Arlen
Monte Brice
Monte Brice
Bernard B. Brown
B. G. Desylva
Mort Dixon
E. Y. Harburg
John Harkrider
William Hedgcock
Charles Henderson
Ted Kent
Charles Maynard
Joseph A. Mcdonough
Jimmy Mchugh
Henry Myers
A. Dorian Otvos
Harold Palmer
Charles Previn
Carl Randall
Charles R. Rogers
Frank Skinner
Joseph Valentine
Vera West
Harry Woods
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Correspondence in the AMPAS library clipping files indicates that two writers, Newman Levy and George Beck, would not be given final credits. Their contribution to the final film has not been determined. According to contemporary sources, Dave Apollon's orchestra appears in the film.
