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The Big Broadcast of 1938

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Contents

[edit] Introduction

A lively pastiche of vaudeville, burlesque and novelty acts, familiar to audiences of 1930s' radio and film, strung together via a loose plot and popular film and radio personalities.

Today, best remembered as the last film W.C. Fields made for Paramount before moving to Universal Pictures; the first major film appearance of Bob Hope; and the introduction of what would become Hope's signature theme throughout his long career, Thanks for the Memory.

Directed by Mitchell Leisen. Song Thanks for the Memory written by Ralph Rainger (music) and Leo Robin (lyrics) won the Academy Award (1939) for Best Music/Original Song, as well as the ASCAP Award (1989) for Most Performed Feature Film Standards.

Fourth and final picture in the series of The Big Broadcast . . . films made in the 1930s by Paramount Pictures:

[edit] Main Cast

[edit] The Movie

Shipping magnate T. Frothingill Bellows (W.C. Fields) makes a bet that his new ocean liner, S.S. Gigantic, can outrace his rival's ship, the Colossal. To ensure his victory, Bellows sends his dipsomaniac brother S.B. (also played by Fields) to travel the Colossal, and cause havoc. And havoc does ensue when S.B. boards the wrong ship.

On board the S.S. Gigantic are also T.F. Bellows' hapless and helpless man-hungry daughter, Martha (Martha Raye), as well as radio announcers Buzz Fielding (Bob Hope) and Scoop McPhail (Lynne Overman) who are reporting on the race.

In a sort of The Love Boat meets The Ed Sullivan Show, the story of the Bellows' family and their transatlantic race is just one of several concurrent storylines woven throughout the film, and interconnected by a variety of musical and novelty numbers.

While The Big Broadcast of 1938 is certainly a product of its time -- Depression-era B-picture filled with raucous comedy, music and dancing, strung together with the barest of plots -- it, and its ilk, were the forerunners to the successful genre of celebrity-filled (or in some cases, pseudo-celebrity filled) comedies like Airplane! (1980), The Cannonball Run (1981), Scary Movie (2000), Rat Race (2001) and Meet the Spartans (2008). Films that are totally connected to the times in which they're produced and released, and require familiarity with their particular period's history and pop culture references in order to fully understand much of the humour and its appeal.

Perhaps the most memorable and timeless scene in the film is the sophisticated, tender and touching rendition of Thanks for the Memory as sung by Fielding (Hope) and his ex-wife Cleo Fielding (Shirley Ross). If one is only familiar with the multitude of bastardizations Hope did of this song throughout his career, it's worth viewing the original:

[edit] Timeline

[edit] Fandom & Kerfluffles

Because of both the age of the film (70+ years as of this writing) and the [probable] non-existence of a fandom devoted to it (as opposed to fandoms devoted specifically to actors W.C. Fields and Bob Hope), the likelihood of any fannish kerfluffles is minimal.

[edit] External Links

[edit] FanWorksFinder

[edit] Wikipedia

[edit] W.C. Fields

[edit] Bob Hope

[edit] Martha Raye

[edit] Sources

Below is a partial list of books to help you continue to learn about this film and its actors.

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