The Big Broadcast (1932) User Reviews

Bing's Big Broadcast

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 26 August 2004]

Paramount made the first of its Big Broadcast films, the first and best of them. This first one gave Bing Crosby his first role in a feature film, previously he had done guest appearances and also short subjects for Mack Sennett. Not wanting to mislead anyone about who was numero uno in this film, Paramount had him play a radio crooner named Bing Crosby. Eleven years later Frank Sinatra would make his feature film debut as Frank Sinatra.

Bing's the star attraction of this one horse town radio station, appearing for Griptight Girdles on the Griptight Girdle Hour. That is when he can get to the studio. His job is being threatened and he's also coming between Stu Erwin who buys the station and Leila Hyams who's manager George Burns's secretary.

It's a thin plot, but nicely done and it's to show off some of radio's greatest talents of that year. In addition to Bing Crosby, appearing are Kate Smith, Arthur Tracy, the Boswell Sisters, Burns and Allen, Cab Calloway and Vincent Lopez with their respective orchestras, the Mills Brothers and tenor Donald Novis.

Bing gets to sing three numbers, Please and Here Lies Love which were written for this film and Dinah. Crosby made a classic recording of Dinah with the Mills Brothers and I wish they'd reprised that for the movie. Instead it's done with a black shoeshine boy giving him a beat with the rag while Bing is scatting like Ella Fitzgerald. Bing was great, but the staging is something that black people would find offensive. Please became a great early hit for him.

Here Lies Love is sung by Crosby, but he reprises it after it's been introduced by Arthur Tracy. Tracy, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, was billed as the Street Singer and had an almost operatic quality to his voice. He rivaled Crosby, Russ Columbo, Rudy Vallee, and Morton Downey in popularity as a radio singer, but American movie audiences didn't take to him. He went to Great Britain in the mid-30s and there he became a movie star. He went back to the US after World War II and only appeared sporadically after that. Tracy was fabulously wealthy due to good investments and lived to the age of 97. He did a cameo appearance in Crossing Delancey, you'll see him briefly discussing issues of the day over the pickle barrel there.

For Kate Smith, radio was a godsend. That beautiful and powerful voice was also trapped in an elephantine body like a Wagnerian opera soprano. She was never going to be a film star. But she was radio's most popular female vocalist, no one else was ever even close and she sings a great rendition of It Was So Beautiful in The Big Broadcast.

Burns and Allen did surreal comedy that was probably only equaled by Monty Python years later. Gracie Allen was in her own world and the ever patient George gave up trying to deal with her reasoning. They did some great guest bits in films like this one and two more with Bing Crosby. But they never really carried a film by themselves with the exception of Here Comes Cookie. I did a review of that and it's the best example of their work.

Donald Novis was a popular radio tenor, totally forgotten now. He also was on the Broadway stage and in Rodgers&Hart's Jumbo introduced their classic, The Most Beautiful Girl in the World. They give him Trees to sing, Joyce Kilmer's poem put to music. I wish he'd sung something more popular.

With all these radio stars it's hard to remember that the nominal star of the film is Stu Erwin. Erwin did a fabulous job in creating some great milquetoast characters from the early talkies. The climax of the film involves a long running gag with him trying to get a recording of Bing singing Please to the studio to substitute for Crosby who's AWOL. It's done almost without dialog and it is interspersed with several of the stars previously mentioned. It's a hilarious bit of slapstick.

The Big Broadcast is enjoyable nostalgic fun and a piece of history since it's the feature film debut of America's greatest entertainer, Bing Crosby.

Revue-style show with a minimum of plot, valuable as archive material covering many stars of the time

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 7/10 · 25 July 2005]

Soon after the beginning of the talkies, radio started to cannibalize Hollywood talent…It offered stars huge sums for brief appearances on the air, to the great distress of movie exhibitors who claimed that people would rather stay home and hear their favorites than pay to see as well as hear them… Soon the screen returned the compliment, with "The Big Broadcast," the first in a series of Paramount musicals lightly fooling the new medium of radio…

In a role obviously suggested by his off-camera life, Crosby played a genial but irresponsible radio singer who loses his girl and his job with a radio station…

Going on a spree, he meets wealthy and also lovelorn Stuart Erwin, who eventually puts him back on the air… The plot was merely a frame for appearances by radio stars who were currently popular on the airwaves: Kate Smith, The Boswell Sisters, the Mills Brothers, Cab Calloway and his band, and others…

The score included three of Bing's best-known tunes: "Please," "Here Lies Love," and the song that became his trademark, "Where the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day."

The pattern was set from the start: Crosby, would caress a girl or a lyric with equal self-assurance, and his full and rich voice, on screen or on radio, became one of the familiar of the decade

On the Radio

[lugonian · 8/10 · 16 November 2000]

THE BIG BROADCAST (Paramount, 1932), directed by Frank Tuttle, is what one might classify to be the 'granddaddy' of all radio musicals, or the first of its kind. A satire, if ever there was one, from Mack Sennett type-comedy from the silent movie era to plenty of songs performed by notable radio personalities of the day. Historians will delight at the film's two-and-a-half minute opening of assortment of lobby frames coming to life with brief segments of radio entertainers doing what they do best, singing signature numbers as Bing Crosby's "When the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day," Kate Smith's "When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain", The humming Boswell Sisters; Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher," Arthur Tracy's "Marta, Rose of the Wildwood," Vincent Lopez and his Orchestra; and Burns and Allen doing part of their funny verbal exchanges before the titles begin to roll. While Stuart Erwin heads the cast, it's the second billed Bing Crosby, in his first leading role in a feature film, who gets most of the attention.

The slight plot revolves around Bing Crosby (Bing Crosby), the most popular singer at WADX Radio Station in New York City. Due to his constant lateness, Mr. Clapsaddle (George Barbier), the upset sponsor, forces radio manager, George Burns (George N. Burns) to have Crosby fired. Anita Rodgers (Leila Hyams), Burns' secretary, silently loves Bing, though he fails to notice her. Bing is engaged to marry dancer, Mona Lowe (Sharon Lynn), the one responsible for his irresponsible behavior. While celebrating his final days as a bachelor with his friends at a speakeasy, Bing sees a newspaper article of Mona eloping with a broker and jilting Crosby. After befriending an equally depressed Leslie McWhinney (Stuart Erwin), a Texas oil man jilted by the girl he loves and being taken for $100,000 by a gold-digging widow, Bing invites the poor soul to his apartment where he plans a double suicide. Bing's plot fails with the arrival of Anita, Leslie's girlfriend from back home, with the news of Mr. Burns agreeing to give Bing his job back now that he's no longer engaged to be married. As Bing arranges to find Leslie a job at the studio, warrant officers turn up to close down the station. With his remaining $900,000, Leslie buys the radio station and becomes its president. All goes well until Mona Lowe returns to Bing life again, making him irresponsible once more. Here lies love.

With old and new tunes (by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger) combined for THE BIG BROADCAST, the musical program features that of "Dinah" (sung by Bing Crosby); "Speakeasy" (sung by telephone operators, Major, Sharp and Minor); "Here Lies Love" (sung by Arthur Tracy); "Here Lies Love" (reprised by Crosby); "Please" (Crosby); "Tiger Rag" (sung by the Four Mills Brothers); "Please" (reprise by Crosby); "I'm the Drummer" (sung by Vincent Lopez); "Trees" (sung by Donald Novis); "Crazy People" (sung by The Boswell Sisters); "It Was So Beautiful" (sung by Kate Smith); "Kicking the Gong Around" (sung by Cab Calloway); and "Please" (finale). At one point in history, a motion picture soundtrack of THE BIG BROADCAST was available through Sandy Hook records in the 1980s, but the movie itself thus far has never been distributed to home video.

The comedy team of George Burns (radio manager) and Gracie Allen (the receptionist) incorporate their vaudeville routines as part of the plot on two separate occasions rather than during the on-screen radio broadcast. The movie also acquires the brief glimpses of actual radio announcers (James Wallington, Donald Ball, William Brenton and Norman Brokenshire) introducing the upcoming acts. Paramount pulls no stops on broad comedy, whether cartoonish, the use of high speed projection, laughing toy horses or even allowing material reminiscent to those silent comedy era through situations enacted through radio theme music but no inter-titles as the hapless Leslie tries in vain to acquire a Bing Crosby record and prevent himself from either losing or damaging it.

Commonly presented on broadcast television in the 1970s and public television a decade later, the only known cable TV showing in latter years for THE BIG BROADCAST happened to be from American Movie Classics (1990-91). Due to its enormous popularity and career launching of Bing Crosby, Paramount repeated its success with follow-up sequels in name only: THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1936 (1935), 1937 (1936) and 1938 (1938), with the 1938 edition being notable for the feature film introduction of Bob Hope, Crosby's on-screen partner in seven installments to "The Road to" comedy series from 1940-1962. Regardless of surreal plot and situations, THE BIG BROADCAST is nostalgic in its own little way, and should still be of entertaining value even today. One final note: Why do many references refer to Crosby's role as Bing Hornsby? He's addressed and billed as Bing Crosby throughout the entire story. And now, The Big Broadcast. (**1/2)

If it were not so odd it would plod...

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 15 August 2020]

...That is, the storyline would plod. It actually does plod, but everything else distracted me from most of the plodding. And besides an intriguing screenplay was never the point of these "big broadcast" films.

So what is so odd? The film opens with a loudly ticking clock as everything in the radio station acts in synchronization with the sound of the clock. The steps of a messenger boy as he goes down the hall, the steps of a black cat as he walks, Cab Calloway's baton, as everybody is waiting for a tardy Bing Crosby.

When the sponsor of the show appears and demands that Bing be fired for persistent lateness, the clock face grows astonished eyes and its hands move in horror. The cat freezes and slips under a door through a half inch crack. A radio microphone grows astonished eyes when a surprising announcement is made.

Who else runs the radio station but George Burns aided by his hare brained secretary, Gracie Allen. "A lot of people around here have been driving me crazy for years and I thought for once I'd hire somebody that would drive them crazy." - Burns' explanation of why he hired this secretary.

The really oddest scene in the entire film? An attempted suicide by Bing and his new pal Leslie McWhinney (Stuart Erwin). Both just dumped by their gals, they turn on the gas in Bing's apartment and wait for the end. They begin to hallucinate, seeing a skull and dancing skeletons. Very precode. That and Stuart Erwin trying to make up with Leila Hyams while she is in the shower and he is just outside the curtain wearing her lingerie. If you want an explanation of this watch the film.

Note that Stu Erwin is top billed over Crosby as Bing's career is just starting out. In fact, this was Bing's first feature film for Paramount, the studio that would become his home. Erwin acquits himself well, including a long mute comic bit towards the end that he handles deftly.

The real reason to watch this besides the weird humor and the macabre and precode moments are the musical acts - Kate Smith, Cab Calloway and his orchestra, the Mills Brothers, and the Boswell Sisters. And Bing Crosby singing "Please" should please just about anyone.

Watch it for the comical and musical oddity that it is. I wish that somebody would clean it up and put it on physical media.

Hilarious tongue-in-cheek

[HotToastyRag · 7/10 · 30 November 2018]

The Big Broadcast is so cute! Bing Crosby stars as himself-he actually plays Bing Crosby, the singing radio sensation. George Burns is George Burns, the radio station owner, and his silly secretary is Gracie Allen, who plays Gracie Allen. Bing frequently gets recognized, and when he meets a new friend, Stuart Erwin, who doesn't, Bing starts crooning "Where the Blue of the Night" to jar his memory.

This entire more is tongue-in-cheek, so if you like that humor, you'll split your sides laughing. Once, Stuart enters an empty room and says to the camera, "Hmm, no chair." From off-camera, someone literally slides a chair into frame for him to sit on. In another scene, Leila Hyams says, "First I cry because I'm happy, now I want to do something even sillier." Stuart guesses, "You want to laugh because you're sad?" The main plot of the movie involves a love triangle between Stuart, Leila, and Bing, and the film discusses the concept of hero worship, celebrity crushes, and real love. All that in a silly comedy? Well, when a comedy is a good comedy, it can revolve around actual topics while still including humor. So, the answer is yes.

In one scene, Bing and Stuart wake up in twin beds with no memory of what happened the night before. "This is my bedroom," Bing says, looking at the sheets. In the neighboring bed, Stuart asks, "Are we married?" Then, in pre-Code glory, the camera captures Leila's legs as she slips her negligee and underwear off then hops in the shower. Both Bing and Stuart talk to her while she's covered in only a shower curtain, and once she's fully dressed, Stuart shows her off and says, "Feel how solid she is!" Bing looks her up and down then asks Stuart where he should squeeze. Aren't pre-Code movies grand?

Unfortunately, once the "big broadcast" actually happens, during the last thirty minutes of the movie, it's full of radio acts and singers who are no longer household names today. Modern audiences will probably be very bored by the ending, but if you're bored, just remember the hilarity of the first part of the movie.

The first BROADCAST is not the best

[gridoon2024 · 6/10 · 20 November 2013]

I have now seen all 4 of the Paramount "Big Broadcast" films made between 1932 and 1938: they are all uneven by nature (since they are crazy, genre-meshing variety shows with many guest stars), but all 4 contain stuff worth looking at and listening to. "The Big Broadcast" (1932) has moments of pure early surrealism, a few great photographic tricks, a lively song from the mega-cute Boswell Sisters (most of the other songs are too "operatic" for my tastes), and George Burns and Gracie Allen who are, however, quite underused (Gracie has only two scenes!). But the main love-quadrangle story seriously drags the film down, and has some unshakably distasteful sides (especially at the very end). One potentially risqué sequence - with Leila Hyams in the shower - is not so risqué after all. **1/2 out of 4.

Bing's breakout hit movie.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 17 October 2021]

"The Big Broadcast" marks Bing Crosby's first full-length film. Before this, he'd been a member of The Rhythm Boys who sand with Paul Whiteman's orchestra and Bing also starred in several short films. But this film helped to establish him as a movie star...and before this he was much more a recording and radio star. It is fitting, then, that this story is set at a radio station.

When the story begins, Bing is late for a radio broadcast and it's not all his fault. Like many famous crooners, he's attacked by adoring fans and barely makes it to the studio in one piece! But the sponsor is furious with Crosby and demands he be fired...and the station's owner (George Burns) complies. However, soon they regret it because Bing is such a big star.

In the meantime, Bing's life goes from bad to worse, as not only is he off the radio, but his girlfriend has just run of with another man! He soon meets Les (Stu Erwin) in a bar and he, too, has girl trouble...so they both decide to kill themselves! Wow...talk about a dark turn. Now all this happens in the first 10-15 minutes of the film...so rest assured...they'll be alright. What's next? See the movie and find out yourself.

While much of this film was an excuse to feature various radio acts (not just Crosby but Kate Smith, the Mills Brothers, Cab Calloway and a few others), it actually had more story than I expected from a movie like this. Overall, an interesting look at some wonderful musical acts and a decent story as well...made better by Erwin and his pleasant persona.

Music!! Music!! Music!!

[kidboots · 10/10 · 13 August 2012]

Musicals hadn't quite come back in fashion but one that certainly helped was "The Big Broadcast". Radio favourites had always been popular in the movies ("Check and Double Check" (1930) featuring Amos and Andy) even if only for the novelty, so Paramount was excited enough about a movie built around current radio stars to finance the short lived Broadway show "Wild Waves" in order to gain screen rights.

The slim story about an unreliable radio star was tailor made for Bing Crosby who actually played himself!! Frank Tuttle directed with a breezy comic style, featuring some visual gimmicks such as a black cat stopping in it's tracks and an opening which has radio acts coming to life from lobby photos and singing a few bars of a song which is associated with them. The surrealistic start combines rhythmic sound and action. Crosby, the station's popular star is late again but that doesn't deter Cab Calloway, who launches into the frenetic "Hot Toddy". When the station manager goes on the warpath the clock puts on an alarmed face, a black cat melts under a door and Cab Calloway's microphone even jumps along with the swinging beat. Bing is mobbed the instant he arrives and the crush carries him up in the lift and leaves him, lip stick smeared, at the microphone where he only has time for the last line of "I Surrender, Dear". This is a terrifically fun movie by the way. He instantly goes to the men's room where he gives a fantastic scat version of "Dinah" with the beat of the song provided by the shoe shine boy and his trusty towel and in another scene Bing gives a casual vocal treatment to "Please", accompanied by Eddie Lang on guitar - for me two of the movie's highlights.

The irate sponsor, Mr. Clapsaddle (George Barbier), gives the order - "Bing must be sacked"!!! Even the switchboard operators (a harmonizing trio called "Major, Sharp and Minor") get into the act with a Boswell inspired blues number - "Have You Heard That Bing is Through". Meanwhile Texas oil millionaire Leslie McWhinney (Stuart Erwin) is crying into his beer because "a dame has taken him for all his dough"!! He is in New York to look up the fiancée that left him for the Big City - it is none other than Mr. Burn's (George Burns) efficient secretary (well efficient compared to Gracie) Anita (Leila Hyams). Bing also finds he is unlucky in love - his girl Mona Lowe (a play on the song "Moanin' Low)(Sharon Lynne) has given him the air and to the strains of street singer Arthur Tracy's rendition of "Here Lies Love" he takes McWhinney back to his place. With the "Crosby Cry" in full force his rendition of "Here Lies Love" soon has McWhinney crying into his pillow and a very weird scene follows when they both decide to end it all but are stopped by the visiting ghost of Arthur Tracy!!!!

McWhinney hasn't lost all his money and buys the radio station to give as a wedding present to Anita and Bing. Yes, there is a muddled love triangle going on - Leslie loves Anita who is star struck about Bing but when Mona returns Bing is once again putty in her hands and it is doubtful if he will make it to the big broadcast that night. The radio stars were interspersed with the funny amblings of Leslie, on a night mission to see if he can secure a recording of "Please" as a backup in case of a Bing no show!! Definitely the highlights for me were the Mills Brothers performing "Hold That Tiger", the Boswell Sisters crazily scatting to "Crazy People" and Cab Calloway's zany drug inspired "Kicking the Gong Around". Not so pleasant was Kate Smith's very fruity interpretation of "It Was So Beautiful". I know she was known as the Songbird of the South but I think Annette Hanshaw's version is so much better. Kate Smith also owed the cameraman no favours and showed why she fared so much better on radio than she did on the movies.

Bing Crosby having just finished a series of two reel Mack Sennett shorts and bringing the same insouciant personality that he seemed to have in real life, fared the best but despite the popularity of the film it was almost five years before a follow up, "The Big Broadcast of 1936" was produced.

Bing heads a musical review and drama, featuring various radio stars

[estherwalker-34710 · 7/10 · 3 September 2022]

The first of several films of the '30s with the title "The Big Broadcast" A mostly non-musical first hour of drama is followed by about 25min of 'the big broadcast', featuring various musical performances, interspersed by tom foolery by costar Stuart Erwin, who plays at being a wealthy Texas oil man, who buys the radio station, when it's about to fold up. Bing emerges from a taxi, to be swarmed by a large gang of women, on his way to the radio station, covered with lipstick on his face when he gets to sing. The drama mostly consists of several skits of inane talk by Burns and Allen, or interactions between Bing and Stuart and sometimes blonde knockout Leila Hyams, who can't make up her mind if she likes Bing or Stuart better. She has a competitor for Bing in Mona(Sharon Lynn), who married another, to Bing's disappointment. But she shows up later, having divorced. Thus, Bing then has a choice between her and Leila. During the first 60 min., Bing sings some, including "Dinah" with a shoe-shine 'boy' creating the rhythm. Later, he does a warm up of "Please", which will be the last number in the 'the big broadcast'

I give you three choices: 1) Watch the whole movie, to experience the drama, along with the actual 'big broadcast'. 2) Watch only the film beginning with the 60min mar, to delete most of the drama. 3)watch the YouTube 'the Big Broadcast 1932 excepts': a 12 min. Extraction of what are considered the most entertaining musical numbers of the actual 'big broadcast'. The musical performances during the actual 'big broadcast' include the following: 1) the Mills Brothers sing "Tiger Rag" I don't know how the one manages to make a very good imitation of a musical instrument with just his hands together. 2)The Vincent Lopez orchestra does a rather amusing novelty number 3)Vincent Novis sings the inspirational song "Trees" (Only God can make a tree) 4) The 3 Boswell sisters sing the jazzy "Crazy People" 5 )Kate Smith sings an inspirational number 6 )Cab Calloway dances around while singing "Minnie the Moocher", backed up by his band. Lastly, Stuart tries to mimic Bing, who is late, in singing "Please". Eventually, Bing shows up, and sings the last part. You also get a brief look at the luscious Leila, if you haven't already,. Mona is also present, with an unexplained black eye(she was last seen in Bing's company).

If you aren't familiar with the 3 Boswell Sisters, they grew up in New Orleans during the birth of jazz there, which influenced much of their music. They were very popular on radio, as well as records from mid '20s to mid '30s, encompassing the late 'jazz Age' and early 'Swing Era'. The Andrew sisters took over their spot in the late '30s and 40s, during the height of the 'Swing Era' and WWII. Hence, they tend to be more remembered, although they learned much from the Boswell Sisters. The McGuire Sisters then largely replaced the Andrew Sisters in the'50s, I tend to remember the McGuire Sisters the least of these 3. There are several songs by the Boswell Sisters at YouTube, or you can buy one of the several CDs of their music currently available.

Musical Comedy?

[JasonLeeSmith · 5/10 · 27 September 2010]

This is one of many films from the 30s which attempt to showcase a wide variety of radio stars. Its basically a revue of different comedy and musical acts strung together with the barest hint of a plot.

I generally like the genre, however, I found this one to be a bit unpleasant, due in large part to one of the plot mechanisms.

In the film, Bing Crosby is jilted by his fiancé, and he winds up befriending an oil-man in a speakeasy, who has been similarly jilted. The two wind up getting drunk. Bing is so depressed about his predicament that he decides to commit suicide, and forces his friend to commit suicide with him. The climax of this sub-plot consists of the two of them sitting on the floor in Bing's kitchen with the gas turned on, waiting to die. Then, someone lights a match and blows up the kitchen.

I am familiar with the comedy styles from the 30's, and I realize that you cannot always apply modern sensibilities to them, but no matter how you look at it, this was just not funny. It was a very long and drawn out sub-plot that did not have many jokes in it.

There are some great moments in the film, though. The interplays between George Burns and Gracie Allen are, as always wonderful. There is also a musical number with Cab Calloway which is great. Its just the "Bing tries to kill himself" storyline that brings the whole thing down.

A refreshingly funny early musical

[dgmproductions · 9/10 · 19 April 2021]

The Big Broadcast was the first major film of singing sensation Bing Crosby in which he had a starring role. Playing a fictional version of himself, Bing puts his comedic skills (that he had worked on for the shorts he made for Mack Sennett) to great use. The songs, direction by Frank Tuttle, the crazy special effects (that are amazing for 1932), and the list of famous radio stars of the day make this a really fun and entertaining film. This has recently been restored by UCLA but as yet there has been no official DVD release which is a pity. I rate this amongst the best of Bing's early films as it shows his complete naturalness in front of the camera whilst his renditions of Dinah, Here Lies Love and the hit song Please highlight his wonderful voice.

Bing was so popular that he gets billing in the opening credits three times!

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 6 June 2019]

Bing Crosby has a great reason for always being late for the big broadcast. He's constantly being chased by women who want to steal his gloves and leave him with a face covered in lipstick. Let go by the sponsor for costing him advertising dollars, Crosby contemplate suicide and ends up commiserating with the troubled Stuart Erwin in a speakeasy. In the process, he when's the heart of Erwin's girlfriend (Leila Hyam) and is surprised when Erwin ends up buying the radio station! When this little drama is not going on, the audience gets to learn more about Gracie Allen Family tree as station manager George Burns gets frustrated with each recollection, whether it be her brothers who are in jail or another brother's involvement in a counterfeiting ring and a convenient way he changes American currency.

indeed, Crosby does get three mentions in the opening, first seen singing, then listed over the title and finally at the end of the credits with the full cast. Other than a few guest appearances and some forgotten movie musicals and leading roles in some Mack Sennett shorts, this was Crosby's big screen debut. He's playing a fictional version of himself, giving audiences a false view of what he was really like. But indeed, he is charming and it's easy to see why in the early thirties, it was the most popular crooner out there.

Guest appearances by Kate Smith, the Boswell sisters, Cab Callaway and the Mills Brothers gives the modern audience a look into the culture of depression-era America, not at all idle and depressed when the radio was on. the Boswell sisters, a forgotten girl group that predated The Andrews Sisters, play singing receptionists as well as themselves. Just came at a time of a lull In movie musical's popularity, and helped lead to a resurgence the following year when Bing's movie career really took off. films like this are stated simply because they are time capsules back into a different era and show that previous generations could have just as much fun as younger generations to come. What time is The Great American Songbook, where would American Music be today?

Interesting but Hardly Essential

[LeonardKniffel · 5/10 · 28 September 2019]

An interesting example of the filmed radio broadcasts that were popular in the 1930s, this movie offers dozens of performers who were enormously popular in their day singing songs they made standards in the American songbook or doing the shticks for which they were famous. Among the best are Kate Smith singing "When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain," Band leader Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher," and Bing Crosby crooning his classic "When the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)."

The Big Broadcast marked the big break in the movies for Bing Crosby

[tavm · 8/10 · 5 February 2019]

I first watched this movie 32 years ago when I moved to Jacksonville, FL, at 19 and was watching lots of afternoon TV during days I was looking for a job living at an aunt's house. This was Bing Crosby's big break in the movies having previously appeared In shorts and cameoed in other features. Also appearing are the comedy team of George Burns & Gracie Allen with Gracie's logic only making sense to Burns! Also, some of the most popular music stars of the time like Kate Smith, Donald Novis, Arthur Tracy, Vincent Lopez and His Orchestra, the Boswell Sisters who came from New Orleans which is a two-hour drive from where I now live in Baton Rouge, the Mills Brothers who perform "Tiger Rag" which is the theme song for my hometown's beloved LSU Tigers football team, and Cab Calloway and His Orchestra being his own crazy, hip self. In fact, he appears at the beginning as well! Director Frank Tuttle employs some great visual comedy whether through some silent comedy scenes or with some cartoonish effects with inanimate objects. There's even some surrealistic touches during a suicide attempt that's played for laughs. Stuart Erwin makes a good foil for Crosby. Leila Hyams is a fine leading lady, and Sharon Lynn is amusing as the lady that initially jilted Crosby. By the way, I mainly think of her as Lola from Way Out West, my favorite Laurel & Hardy movie. So on that note, I recommend The Big Broadcast.

Bing Crosby, George Burns and Gracie Allen's Feature Film Debuts

[springfieldrental · 8/10 · 19 December 2022]

Microphones not only changed cinema, the relatively new sound-capturing technology in the 1930s was also instrumental in introducing a new way of singing. No longer were vocalists, such as Al Jolson, forced to belt out tunes to listeners in cavernous auditoriums. An emerging generation of so-called crooners used the improved microphones to give a softer vocal delivery. Bing Crosby, at 29, was one of radio's more popular new crooners. Capitalizing on his widely-heard CBS radio show, '15 Minutes,' Paramount Pictures took advantage of the singer's star power by slotting him as the lead in his first feature film, October 1932's "The Big Broadcast." Based on William Ford Manley's 1932 play 'Wild Waves,' the movie served as a vehicle showcasing a bevy of radio personalities and musical acts built around Bing.

"The Big Broadcast" has Bing (also his character's name) more preoccupied with his fiancee Mona Lowe (Sharon Lynn) than his radio show when he shows up late for his broadcasts. The manager, George Burns (yes, the comedian), is on the verge of losing his radio station to bankruptcy. The movie's premise parallels Bing's early radio career when he didn't appear for the first couple of days to his premier '15 Minutes with Bing Crosby.' CBS had heavily promoted the singer's August 31, 1931 debut, but after rehearsing in a frigid air-conditioned studio earlier that day, his failure to come to the station that evening and on the following night led to rumors he was either too drunk or too nervous to sing. In reality, Crosby came down with a case of laryngitis.

"The Big Broadcast" was also George Burns' and his wife Gracie Allen's first feature film. Orphaned at a young age, Burns teamed up with three other kids to form the "Pee-Wee Quartet." Later in vaudeville, he was paired with females as a sounding board for his comic, singing and dancing routines. After one brief marriage, he partnered with Gracie Allen in 1923 and married her three years later. Burns recalled, "And all of a sudden the audience realized I had a talent. They were right. I did have a talent-and I was married to her for 38 years." At first Gracie said all the serious lines while George was the comic. As time passed, Burns discovered her quips were getting more laughs than his supposed funny jokes, so they switched deliveries. Gracie is the station manager's secretary in their debut film. The couple went on to become highly popular on the screen, in radio and on television.

"The Big Broadcast's" showcased several popular radio personalities as the station's new owner, Texas oilman Leslie McWhinney (Stuart Erwin), organized a single-night singing extravaganza to raise money. Cab Calloway, The Mills Brothers, Eddie Lang and Kate Smith are shown performing in front of the mic. Crosby himself sang three songs , including his hit 'Where the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day,' nominated by the American Film Institute as one of 400 tunes for the top 100 Songs in American Movies. The film was such a box office hit it spawned three additional feature films, "The Big Broadcast of 1936," "1937" and "1938." Newspaper reviews were generally very positive about Crosby's future in the entertainment world. Wrote the film critic for The New York American, "Bing Crosby is the star, make no mistake about it. He has a camera face and a camera presence. Always at ease, he troupes like a veteran." The reviewer must have had great intuition because Crosby went on to make over 70 feature films in his lifetime.