Ralph Martin is performing a patter song, which is interrupted by banging from backstage. Good naturedly, he explains to the audience that it is the Lorraines.
Kitty Lorraine and her husband Fred are preparing for his trapeze act, and inform a stagehand that next year there will be three of them visiting the theatre. Kitty has had to give up performing in the act.
Ralph introduces Fred and informs the audience that Kitty is pregnant. Kitty and Ralph watch Fred perform from the side of the stage. A blonde performer reminds Kitty the doctor told her not to come into the theatre, but Kitty says Fred could not do the act without her. Suddenly, Fred falls. He dies in Kitty’s arms.
Kitty Lorraine (Alice Brady) and her unnamed friend watch her husband Fred, who is about to fall to his death
Later, Ralph and the blonde visit Kitty and her new baby daughter. Kitty tells them she is going to live in Boston with Fred’s people. When they are alone, Ralph asks Kitty to join his act and go on a tour of Australia. He hints they might marry. Kitty is grateful, but declines. On the way out, Ralph gives the landlady money to pass on to Kitty.
Kitty and the baby, Shirley. arrive at the house of Fred’s parents. She meets them and his sister Ida for the first time. The parents are kind, while Ida seems stern, and Kitty admits to being nervous. The family explains that Fred’s stage career was a great sorrow to them. Kitty hopes to be able to make it as a single act if they will look after the baby. Mrs Lorraine tells her she can stay with them, if she will give up the stage. Kitty says she is not sure she could stand being idle and dependent. Mr Lorraine responds that she could get some other kind of job. Kitty is upset, telling them they are taking out their grudge on Fred against her, but she gives in.
Four years later, Kitty is working in the music section of a department store. [Any Little Girl, That’s a Nice Little Girl, Is the Right Little Girl for Me]. She is spotted performing by Ralph, who joins her in the song. Ralph tells her again she should join his act. The store manager fires Kitty, and Ralph invites her to dinner.
Outside the Lorraines’ house, Ralph tells Kitty he loves her, and kisses her. Ida opens the door and orders Kitty inside. They quarrel and Ida tells Kitty she must leave the house. Kitty wakes up Shirley and starts to dress her. Mrs Lorraine tells her touring theatres will be no life for Shirley. Kitty is persuaded to leave her daughter behind. She says a tearful goodbye to Shirley, asking that she never forget her.
Four years later, Kitty is putting on her makeup in a dressing room when a drunken Ralph is thrown through the door by an angry husband. Kitty makes it clear this is not the first time this has happened. Ralph attempts to put on his makeup, telling her the girl he is seeing is better than an old battleaxe. Ralph collapses, incapable of going on. The manager tells Kitty it is three times and out.
A Variety headline states that Kitty had divorced Ralph. She talks to her agent, who says it is unlikely he can find her any work, as she does not have what it takes to be a solo act. He tentatively offers her a job in his office, and she says she will do it for $30. She can save up to bring Shirley down.
Some years later, Kitty meets teenage Shirley at a New York railway station. Shirley is wearing glasses and dowdily dressed, so that Kitty barely recognizes her.
Teenage Shirley Lorraine (Margaret O’Sullivan) is welcome to New York by her mother
Later, Kitty is fitting a frilly new dress for a protesting Shirley. Kitty assures her mother knows best, and announces that she will be starting dancing lessons the next day, because she is going to be a big star. Shirley protests, but is soon attending a ballet class, while Kitty sits with the other mothers. The instructor, Mr Sterling, assures her Shirley will be ready for professional appearances in a few months.
Kitty quits her job, explaining that her daughter is 16 now and needs to find work. The agent protests that Shirley is too young and tells Kitty that she will not be thanked when Shirley realizes she is missing out on her childhood. Kitty tells him she plans to take her daughter to see Mark Thorne, whose variety act is the best training school for you dancers. She has huge ambitions for Shirley, “with no funny business en route”.
Next day, Kitty and Shirley arrive at the auditions, where every type of young variety performer is represented, with plenty of stage mothers present. Thorne is bored by the bad singers [When Irish Eyes are Smiling], contortionists and dancers [How’m I Doin’?], but sits up when Shirley dances [The Wedding of the Painted Doll]. He asks to see her in his office the next day.
The Thorne show goes on tour. Backstage one day, Kitty sees Francis Nolan hitting on Shirley, but her stare is enough to get rid of him. Later, however, he finds Shirley dressing. Initially resisting, Shirey gives in to his kissing. Kitty walks in on them and beats Francis out of the room with a stick. Behind the closed door, she is clearly beating Shirley.
The tour ends at the Palace in New York. Kitty gives tickets to her friends, on the condition they show loud appreciation for Shirley.
Shirley dances in the opening [Beautiful Girl], and gets enthusiastic applause. In the dressing room, Kitty tells her she is going to be the biggest hit in town. Shirley gets a telegram from New York’s biggest theatrical agent, offering her a part in a big new show. Mark Thorne refuses to let her out of her five-year contract, until Kitty tells him she has pictures of him with another performer which he would not want to get into the hands of the press. Thorne gives in to the blackmail.
Kitty paints Shirley’s toenails on the train to Boston
Variety announces Shirley has joined the new show. Kitty and Shirley are on a train for a Boston try-out, after five weeks’ rehearsal. Kitty cannot understand why Shirley wants to visit the house she grew up in; her grandma and Aunt Ida are dead. Kitty tells Shirley not to try too hard at the dress rehearsal, but to save it for opening night.
Shirley goes to the old house and meets Warren Foster, the new owner. He is a painter and has made it bright and cheerful. He finagles a lunch date for the next day. Back at the theatre, Shirley is told her mother is in hospital.
At the hospital, Shirley learns Kitty has to have her appendix removed, though her mother disputes it. She will be there for a couple of weeks. When Shirley leaves, Kitty is suspicious.
Next day, Shirley is on a picnic with Warren. She tells him that, for the first time in her life, she is completely free. Warren talks about love, and kisses her.
In the hospital, Kitty is sending Shirley instructions even as she wheeled to the operating theatre; only the anaesthetic makes her shut up.
One evening, in Warren’s garden, he tells Shirley he loves her. She reminds him the show leaves for New York in the morning.
Some time later, Kitty finds a letter for Shirley at the theatre. She reads it, bribes the doorman not to give any further letters to Shirley, and leaves for Boston.
Later, during a performance, Shirley finds Warren in her dressing room. He is angry, and tells her he has paid $10,000 for her. Shirley is confused, but Warren explains that Kitty has extorted the money from his mother. He will not believe that Shirley knew nothing about it. She throws him out and is distraught when called to the stage. [I’m Dancing on a Rainbow]. At the end of the number, Shirley accepts her applause through tears. In the dressing room, Kitty congratulates her on being a big hit. Shirley tells her mother what Warren had said. Kitty admits what she did, claiming Mrs Foster, like everyone in Boston, despised stage people. She only took the money to end the situation and says she will send it back. She could not let Shirley ruin her career. Kitty insists Warren would never have married her, saying that if he really cared for her, he would not have walked out. Kitty repeats that Shirley’s career is all that matters, and asks her to give it a year, promising to accept the result if Shirley remains unconvinced. Kitty wants Shirley to go to a party being given by Al Dexter, a local politician who may back her career.
Shirley and Kitty are welcomed to his party by Al Dexter (Alan Edwards)
At the party, Rico, Dexter’s campaign manager, discusses his campaign to get Shirley, and wishes he would back off until the real campaign is over. Kitty and Shirley arrive and Dexter toasts Shirley. When they are alone, Dexter tells Shirley she has the greatest city in the world at her feet. He is surprised that she is uninterested in success. They kiss.
Later, Rico reads a press report to Dexter’s backers, stating that the candidate is about to become a theatrical angel. The news is damaging his chances, so they decide to talk to Kitty.
Rico gives Kitty boat tickets, saying his show is more important than hers. He backs it up with threats about Shirley’s safety. If Kitty and Shirley get on the boat, she can have all the money she wants. The alternative will be tougher. Kitty demands $25,000.
After boarding the ship, Shirley is surrounded by reporters. She accidentally bumps into Lord Aylesworth, and the press decide to make a story of it. Kitty is impressed by the sight of a Lord.
Shirley tells Kitty she wants $10,000 of the money she ‘earned’ by running around with Dexter, so she can be independent for a while. Kitty agrees, then urges her to get acquainted with Aylesworth, who could do a lot for her in London. She leaves the two of them together.
Some time later, Kitty is on a beach in Antibes, watching Shirley swing over the water on a trapeze. She has a flashback of Fred falling.
Aylesworth tells Shirley he is mad about her. He asks if she could live the type of life his family lives, and she says yes. He then asks how her mother might fit into the picture, intimating that she would not fit . She explains that a stage mother is not a real mother, and she will not need a stage mother if she leaves the stage. She agrees to marry him.
Back at the hotel, Shirley tells Kitty she is marrying Aylesworth and that Kitty herself will have no further part to play. She tells her that Warren represented her one chance for happiness and she smashed it up. Aylesworth knows about her past and does not care, but he does not want Kitty around. Shirley tells Kitty that she has denied having a real mother. Distraught, Kitty says she has sacrificed everything for Shirley. Her mother’s tears break down Shirley’s hard veneer and she tells Kitty she loves her; she had thought Kitty was tougher and would be able to take the unvarnished truth. She begs for forgiveness. Kitty asks Shirley if she likes Aylesworth as much as Warren, and Shirley admits she does not. Kitty realizes her ambition for Shirley was selfish, but now wants only her happiness. In her room, she takes out letters to Shirley from Warren in which he apologizes for his behaviour. Then she hears Shirley on the phone, telling Aylesworth that Kitty is her mother and that she loves her and cannot go through with the marriage. Kitty gives her the letters, saying they were opened by some snooping old battleaxe.
At the heart of Broadway to Hollywood are two solid performances: a very good one by Frank Morgan and an excellent one by Alice Brady, essaying the first of her two show business mothers for MGM. The film as a whole, however, is underwhelming, especially as a musical, and the reason for that lies in its status as a hybrid of backstage drama and archival footage.
In 1929, producer Harry Rapf had an idea for a follow-up to his The Hollywood Revue of 1929. It was to be a lavish, three-part history of vaudeville. One section, the Old Timers, would showcase veteran vaudevillians, with the other parts presenting more contemporary performers. To that end, a range of great names from the past were filmed recreating past glories: Weber and Fields, Fay Templeton, Louis Mann, DeWolf Hopper, William Collier Sr, Josephine Sabel, Barney Fagan and Marie Dressler (the only one still in the public eye).
Filming proceeded well into 1930 but, having spent $750,000, the picture was summarily abandoned without having achieved even a rough-cut. MGM, like the other studios, had become aware that the American public was falling out of love with musicals, especially revues, and decided not to throw good money after bad.
Ted Jr (Jackie Cooper) and his mom, Lulu (Alice Brady)
There was a desire, however, to mitigate the loss by utilizing the March of Time footage elsewhere; which is where Broadway to Hollywood came in. MGM devised a multi-generational story about a vaudeville family, with a view to incorporating film shot for the abandoned project. This was not a bad idea in theory, but was badly let down by the execution.
For a start, the onstage sequences do not match the style and look of the dramatic scenes. It is almost entirely lacking in even medium shots, so most of the time the performers are unidentifiable. Weber and Fields are understood to be inside a stage horse costume during one sequence, but it could have been anybody. Fleeting is a generous way to describe the appearances of others.
Drunk Ted Jr is about to receive the ‘help’ of Fritz (Curly Howard) and Otto (Moe Howard)
Further dissonance is caused by the filmmakers decision to use shots of unnamed dancers as body doubles for the musical performances of actors like Russell Hardie and Madge Evans. Few MGM musicals, even from these early years, are so lacking in intimacy. Add in Moe and Curly Howard, almost unrecognizable as a disturbing pair of clowns, and you have the mess that is Broadway to Hollywood. And, if anyone was in doubt about where MGM stood on the matter, the people working in management in Hollywood are much kinder than those on Broadway.
John Waters (1893-1965) was one of the few people (men) to receive an Academy Award for Best Assistant Director; it was only presented for five years.
Waters joined the film industry as a young man, and many of his credits from the 1910s are thought to be missing. The earliest suggested by IMDb is The Shadow of a Doubt, produced by the Equitable Motion Pictures Corporation, which was based in New York.
In 1926, Famous Players-Lasky signed Waters as a director, and he made about a dozen pictures for them over the next couple of years, functioning as producer on at least one, Two Flaming Youths (1927).
Waters joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1928, and stayed for nearly thirty years. Pictures he worked on included Viva Villa! (1934), Ninotchka (1939, as second unit director) and The Desperate Hours (1955, as second unit director).
Waters was AD on Broadway to Hollywood and second unit director on Let Freedom Ring, The Big Store and Annie Get Your Gun.
Edwin Booth Willis (1893-1963) worked on the design of over 800 MGM pictures, in a career lasting a little over thirty years. He was nominated for Academy Awards 32 times, and won on eight occasions. In broad terms, Willis was an art director, but his specialism was set decoration and the bulk of his credits were in this capacity.
After working as an art director for Tiffany Pictures in the 1920s, Willis worked exclusively for Metro, obtaining three types of credit: Associate Art Director (AAD), Interior Decorations (ID) and Set Decorator (SD). He did early work as SD on Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925).
Willis worked on some of the studio’s major critical and commercial successes, including Queen Christina (1933, for ID), The Thin Man (1934, as AAD), Anna Karenina (1935, as AAD, Fritz Lang’s Fury (1936, as AAD), Camille (1936, as AAD), The Good Earth (1937, as AAD), Captains Courageous (1937, as AAD), Boys’ Town (1938, as AAD), The Women (1939), Ninotchka (1939, as SD), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), Waterloo Bridge (1940), Pride and Prejudice (1940), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Blossoms in the Dust (1941, winning an Oscar), Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1941), Woman of the Year (1942), Mrs Miniver (1942), Lassie Come Home (1943), Madame Curie (1943), Gaslight (1944, winning an Oscar), John Ford’s They Were Expendable (1944), The Yearling (1946, winning an Oscar), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), State of the Union (1948), Act of Violence (1948), Intruder in the Dust (1949), Little Women (1949, winning an Oscar), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The Red Badge of Courage (1951), The Bad and the Beautiful 1952, winning an Oscar), Julius Caesar (1953, winning an Oscar), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956, winning an Oscar), Forbidden Planet (1956) and Lust for Life (1956).
Willis had a particularly extensive collaboration with Vincente Minnelli, decorating most of his musical and non-musical pictures
Edwin B Willis contributed to 153 musicals, around 70 per cent of MGM’s total output. It could be argued that this makes him the single most influential figure on the look of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical. The pictures were:
Stanwood Rogers (1898-1963) was an art director who did most of his work at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. As a consequence, he rarely received full credit for the films he designed. He was cited as associate art director under Cedric Gibbons, even where he was himself responsible for the look of the film.
There is little information available about Rogers prior to his first MGM picture, Midnight Mary (1933). He was rarely assigned to the studio’s big pictures, making it all the more likely that he was the creator of most of the art design for those he did work on.
Rogers worked on four of the Marx Brothers’ MGM musicals, A Day at the Races, Go West, At the Circus and The Big Store, in addition to five others: Broadway to Hollywood, Stage Mother (on both of which he did receive full credit), Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry, Love Finds Andy Hardy and Free and Easy.
Benjamin Lewis (1894-1970) was a film editor who spent the whole of his career, forty-three years, working for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
He started out working as an assistant editor on Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), and obtained his first full credit a year later on The Devil’s Circus (1926), directed by Benjamin Christiansen during his sojourn in Hollywood.
Lewis edited some of MGM’s most prestigious pictures, as well as being a frequent editor on the money-making Andy Hardy series. He worked on Trader Horn (1931), Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), Dinner at Eight (1933) and The Good Earth (1937, uncredited).
In 1951, Lewis was given the unpleasant task of editing John Huston’s cut of The Red Badge of Courage down to 69 minutes.
Lewis worked on seven MGM musicals, across a thirty-four-year period: Broadway to Hollywood, Love Finds Andy Hardy, Strike Up the Band, Rio Rita, For Me and My Gal, Three Little Words and The Fastest Guitar Alive.
Ben Lewis’s brother was the venerated ‘B’ picture director, Joseph H Lewis.
Albert S Goodhart (1905-55) was a composer whose best-known song gained its fame from being featured in one of the world’s favourite musicals. In 1932, he collaborated with Arthur Freed on ‘Fit as a Fiddle’, which Freed later used to great effect in Singin’ in the Rain.
Goodhart worked in the UK for a few years in the mid-30s, where he received a commission for another iconic song. He co-wrote, with Sammy Lerner and Al Hoffman, ‘No One Can Like the Drummer Man’ for the film Young and Innocent (1937). Director Alfred Hitchcock used the number for the big reveal of the villain in the picture’s denouement.
Music for Broadway to Hollywood was Goodhart’s other contribution to Metro’s musical output.
Norbert F Brodine (1896-1970) had a forty-four year career as a cinematographer, working predominantly with Loretta Young in television for the last few years, for which he won an Emmy. He was credited on more than 130 pictures.
Having worked as an army photographer during the First World War, Brodine started out in Hollywood as a stills photographer, before shooting his first film for Goldwyn Pictures in 1919.
Brodine worked prolifically throughout the 1920s and 30s, including repeatedly for Hal Roach. He shot Libeled Lady (1936) for MGM, as well as Topper (1937), Topper Takes a Trip (1938) and Topper Returns (1941).
But Brodine did his best work after joining Twentieth Century-Fox in 1943: The House on 92nd Street (1945), 13 Rue Madeleine, Kiss of Death (both 1947) and The Desert Fox (1949) for Henry Hathaway; I Was a Male War Bride (1949) for Howard Hawks; and Thieves’ Highway (1949) for Jules Dassin.
Brodine shot three MGM musicals: Broadway to Hollywood, Nobody’s Baby and Swiss Miss. In addition, he was the cinematographer on the French-language version of A Lady’s Morals, titled Jenny Lind and filmed on the same sets as the original in 1931.
