The Big Broadcast of 1938

**The Big Broadcast of 1938** is a 1938 feature film from Paramount Pictures starring W.C. Fields, Martha Raye, Dorothy Lamour, and Bob Hope.

## Summary

In what is being billed as "The Race of the Ages," the new forty-million-dollar radio-powered Streamlined Ocean Liner S.S. *Gigantic* is about to race its rival, the slightly smaller S.S. *Colossal* across the Atlantic from New York's Pier 97 to Cherbourg in two-and-a-half days. *Gigantic* owner T. Frothingill Bellows intends to send his nearly identical younger brother S.B. to sail aboard *Colossal*, hoping he will cause trouble and sabotage the rival ship, enabling *Gigantic* and his own Bellows Line to win.

However S.B., who is delayed by a golf game, flies to meet *Colossal* en route and mistakenly lands aboard the deck of *Gigantic* instead, much to the consternation of Captain Stafford. Matters are made worse for *Gigantic* when S.B.'s outrageously unlucky daughter Martha is brought on board, being rescued after surviving the shipwreck of the yacht, *Hesperus V*.

Popular OBC radio emcee Buzz Fielding, who has just been released from "alimony jail" and is broadcasting live from *Gigantic*, is trying to juggle his three ex-wives Cleo, Grace, and Joan, his lukewarm girlfriend Dorothy Wyndham, and his inept microphone assistant Mike. Buzz does his best throughout the voyage to announce the progress of the race and introduce a series of musical acts for the pleasure of the passengers and OBC's radio audience.

Meanwhile, Dorothy is romanced by First Officer and inventor of *Gigantic's* enormous radio power plant Robert Hayes, just as Buzz and Joan get sentimental about their broken marriage.

## Songs

* "This Little Ripple Had Rhythm", instrumental piece performed Shep Fields and his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra, with integrated cartoon segments
* "Don't Tell a Secret to a Rose" and the Spanish lyrics to "Zuni Zuni" (called "I Love You" in the film) sung by Tito Guízar, with Guízar playing Spanish guitar on "Zuni Zuni"
* "You Took the Words Right out of My Heart" sung by Dorothy Lamour and Leif Erickson
* "Brunnhilde's Battle Cry" (from Richard Wagner's *Die Walkure*, Act 2 Scene 1) performed by Metropolitan Opera soprano Madame Kirsten Flagstad with an orchestra conducted by Wilfrid Pelletier
* Comedy performance by Bob Hope, Ben Blue, and Patricia Wilder; "Way Down South in Dixie" sung a cappella by Patricia Wilder
* "You Took the Words Right out of My Heart (reprise)" sung by Dorothy Lamour
* "Thanks for the Memory" sung by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross
* "Mama, That Moon Is Here Again" song and slapstick dance performed by Martha Raye and dancers
* "The Waltz Lives On" sung by Bob Hope, Shirley Ross and chorus, includes a section from "Truckin' (They're Going Hollywood in Harlem)" sung by Martha Raye, and musical sections from "At a Georgia Camp Meeting" and "Charleston"

## Cast

* W.C. Fields as T. Frothingill Bellows and S. B. Bellows
* Martha Raye as Martha Bellows
* Dorothy Lamour as Dorothy Wyndham
* Shirley Ross as Cleo Fielding
* Lynne Overman as Scoop McPhail
* Bob Hope as Buzz Fielding
* Ben Blue as Mike
* Leif Erickson as Bob Hayes
* John Serry, Sr. as Himself
* Russell Hicks as Captain Stafford
* Billy Daniels, Leonid Kinskey, Bernard Punsly, Irving Bacon, James Craig
* Specialty numbers by Kirsten Flagstad, Tito Guízar, Shep Fields and his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra