Arthur Baer (1886-1969) was a journalist, cartoonist and humourist, part of the Algonquin Round Table group and named as the greatest living humourist by Damon Runyon.
‘Bugs’ Baer had baseball connections (it was he who dubbed Babe Ruth ‘the Sultan of Swat’), which is probably why he was brought in to provide additional dialogue for They Learned About Women.
Russell Franks (1901-73) worked in the MGM sound department under Douglas Shearer. After acting as assistant on The Hollywood Revue of 1929, he was recording engineer onChasing Rainbows and Good News.
Reggie Montgomery (1906-??) co-write musical numbers for three MGM musicals–Chasing Rainbows, Children of Pleasure and Good News–and for the abandoned The March of Time.
Edward Ward (1896-1971) was a composer and musical director, seven-times Oscar nominated, though with no wins.
In 1930 he co-wrote a number for Chasing Rainbows, later composed music for Reckless, Maytime and The Firefly.
Ward also composed music used in the trailer for Broadway Melody of 1936.
Jacek Selig Jeleń (1892-1981) was born in what is now Poland but grew up in Buffalo, New York. First working as a reporter while writing songs on the side, he eventually partnered with Milton Ager, though working from time to time with other composers, including Sammy Fain and Lew Pollock. With the latter he wrote the immortal ‘My Yiddishe Momme’ in 1925 for Sophie Tucker.
Yellen and Ager moved to Hollywood in 1929 and wrote songs for Chasing Rainbows and They Learned About Women.
‘Happy Days Are Here Again’ was first heard in Chasing Rainbows’ before becoming the anthem of Roosevelt’s Democratic Party. It was used as incidental music in many other MGM pictures, including the musicals Going Hollywood,Here Comes The Band, Broadway Melody of 1938 and The Ice Follies of 1939.
Yellen also worked as a screenwriter.
Like many other Tin Pan Alley alumni, Milton Ager (1893-1979) started out as a song plugger before turning to composition himself. He eventually partnered with lyricist Jack Yellen, with whom he wrote a Broadway show in 1920. One of their biggest hits was ‘Ain’t She Sweet’ in 1927.
After moving to Hollywood, Ager and Yellen contributed songs to Chasing Rainbows, They Learned About Women. Later on, Ager wrote a number with Joseph McCarthy for Listen, Darling.
‘Happy Days Are Here Again’ was first heard in Chasing Rainbows’ before becoming the anthem of Roosevelt’s Democratic Party. It was used as incidental music in many other MGM pictures, including the musicals Going Hollywood,Here Comes The Band, Broadway Melody of 1938 and Ice Follies of 1939.
It says something about Hollywood that Ira Harry Morgan (1889-1959), the cinematographer who collaborated with Roland Totheroh on Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936) was ended up as the man who shot Adventures of Captain Africa: Mighty Jungle Avenger! (1955).
Fourteen years into a forty-year career, Morgan was cinematographer on Metro’s Chasing Rainbows.
John Kenyon Nicholson (1894-1986) was a playwright, and a number of his films were adapted for the cinema. He also contributed to the screenplays of a number of films, including the James Cagney vehicle, Taxi (1931).
In 1929 Nicholson provided dialogue for Chasing Rainbows.
Crew
| Charles Reisner | Director |
| Robert E Hopkins | Story |
| Bess Meredyth | Story and scenario |
| Al Boasberg | Scenario |
| Wells Root | Adaptation |
| Kenyon Nicholson | Dialogue |
| Charles F Reisner | Dialogue |
| William Axt | Composer (uncredited) |
| Milton Ager | Composer |
| Jack Yellen | Lyricist |
| Gus Edwards | Songwriter |
| Fred Fisher | Composer |
| Ed Ward | Composer |
| Reggie Montgomery | Lyricist |
| Ira Morgan | Cinematographer |
| George Hively | Editor |
| Cedric Gibbons | Art Director |
| Douglas Shearer | Sound Recording Engineer |
| Russell Franks | Sound Recording Engineer |
| Sammy Lee | Choreographer |
