Wake Up and Live | |
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Directed by | Sidney Lanfield |
Written by | Story: Curtis Kenyon Screenplay: Harry Tugend Jack Yellen |
Based on | Wake Up and Live by Dorothea Brande |
Produced by | Darryl F. Zanuck |
Starring | Walter Winchell Ben Bernie Alice Faye |
Cinematography | Edward Cronjager |
Music by | Mack Gordon Louis Silvers |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 91 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Wake Up and Live is a 1937 Fox musical film directed by Sidney Lanfield and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, starring Jack Haley and Alice Faye plus Walter Winchell and Ben Bernie as themselves.
The film tells the story of a man attempting to overcome his fear of singing into microphones in a manner loosely based upon the principles of the 1936 best-selling self-help book Wake Up and Live! by Dorothea Brande. It also traded on the comedic rivalry Winchell and Bernie had played up throughout the 1930s in newspaper columns and on their radio shows, though they were in fact good friends.
Later in 1937, Wake Up and Live was followed by Love and Hisses - not a direct sequel as such, but another film featuring Winchell and Bernie playing themselves.
In 1944, Wake Up and Live was adapted for radio as an episode of Lux Radio Theatre . The Lux production starred Frank Sinatra, Bob Crosby, Marilyn Maxwell and James Dunn.
Eddie Kane (Jack Haley) comes to town to make it as a singer in a vaudeville duet act with Jean Roberts (Grace Bradley). Unfortunately, he fails an audition at a radio station because he turns out to suffer from "mic fright." Jean goes off to perform on her own, and Eddie obtains work as an usher at the same radio station instead. While at work, Eddie overhears a motivational radio show called Wake Up and Live hosted by Alice Huntley (Alice Faye). He decides to befriend the host and apply the Wake Up and Live techniques to conquer his fear of microphones.
One day, while alone in a studio, Eddie sings into what he thinks is a dead mic as a means of practice and inadvertently goes out live over the air. Audiences across America are charmed by his voice yet nobody knows who he is. A media sensation follows as all attempt to identify the "Phantom Troubadour." Rival radio announcers Walter Winchell and Ben Bernie (playing themselves) get involved, each attempting to outdo each other by being the first to unmask the "Phantom." Eddie himself follows along with interest, not realising that it is him.
Meanwhile, Alice realises what is going on and begins to manipulate the situation for profit. She tells the radio station she knows who he is and will set up broadcasts of his voice from her apartment for money, but will not disclose his identity; she also does not tell Eddie the truth of the situation, and manufactures several convoluted situations in which he is made to sing into a microphone he thinks is off but is in fact live to air. An increasingly complex farce follows before the truth finally comes to light, and Alice and Eddie end up falling in love along the way.
Music by Harry Revel, lyrics by Mack Gordon
Songs that were supposed to feature Haley were dubbed by Buddy Clark. [2]
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1937.
Walter Winchell was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and columnist for New York tabloids. He rose to national celebrity in the 1930s with Hearst newspaper chain syndication and a popular radio program. He was known for an innovative style of gossipy staccato news briefs, jokes, and Jazz Age slang. Biographer Neal Gabler claimed that his popularity and influence "turned journalism into a form of entertainment".
Alice Faye was an American actress and singer. A musical star of 20th Century-Fox in the 1930s and 1940s, Faye starred in such films as On the Avenue (1937) and Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938). She is often associated with the Academy Award–winning standard "You'll Never Know", which she introduced in the 1943 musical film Hello, Frisco, Hello.
The CooCoo Nut Grove is a 1936 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies short animated film, set in the famed Cocoanut Grove of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. This is a caricature cartoon, with recreations of celebrities from the time. The cartoon was directed by Friz Freleng, with animation by Robert McKimson and Sandy Walker, caricature design by T. Hee, and musical score by Carl Stalling. The short was released on November 28, 1936.
Nobody Lives Forever is a 1946 American crime film noir directed by Jean Negulesco and based on the novel I Wasn't Born Yesterday by W. R. Burnett. It stars John Garfield and Geraldine Fitzgerald and features Walter Brennan, Faye Emerson, George Coulouris and George Tobias.
Benjamin Anzelevitz, known professionally as Ben Bernie, was an American jazz violinist, bandleader, and radio personality, often introduced as "The Old Maestro". He was noted for his showmanship and memorable bits of snappy dialogue, being part of the first generation of "stars" of American popular music, alongside other artists such as Paul Whiteman, Ted Lewis and Al Jolson.
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a 1938 American musical comedy film directed by Allan Dwan, and written by Don Ettlinger, Karl Tunberg, Ben Markson and William M. Conselman, the third adaptation of Kate Douglas Wiggin's 1903 novel of the same name.
Every Night at Eight is a 1935 American comedy musical film starring George Raft and Alice Faye and made by Walter Wanger Productions Inc. and Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Raoul Walsh and produced by Walter Wanger from a screenplay by C. Graham Baker, Bert Hanlon and Gene Towne based on the story Three On a Mike by Stanley Garvey.
Alexander's Ragtime Band is a 1938 American musical film released by 20th Century Fox that takes its name from the 1911 Irving Berlin song "Alexander's Ragtime Band" to tell a story of a society boy who scandalizes his family by pursuing a career in ragtime instead of "serious" music. The film generally traces the history of jazz music from the popularization of Ragtime in the early years of the 20th century to the acceptance of swing as an art form in the late 1930s using music composed by Berlin. The story spans more than two decades from the 1911 release of its name-sake song to some point in time after the 1933 release of "Heat Wave", presumably 1938.
Week-End in Havana is a 1941 American Technicolor musical film directed by Walter Lang and starring Alice Faye, John Payne and Carmen Miranda. The film was produced and distributed by Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox. It was the second of three pictures the two stars made together and the second Faye film to have a Latin American theme, typical of Fox musicals of the early 1940s. Faye was pregnant during filming. It is also known by the alternative titles A Week-End in Havana and That Week-End in Havana.
Now I'll Tell is a 1934 American Pre-Code drama film directed by Edwin J. Burke starring Spencer Tracy, Helen Twelvetrees, and Alice Faye. It was produced by Fox Film shortly before the company's merger with Twentieth Century Pictures. It marked the final screen appearance of former silent star Alice Calhoun.
On the Avenue is a 1937 American musical film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Dick Powell, Madeleine Carroll, Alice Faye, George Barbier, and The Ritz Brothers. Many of the songs were composed by Irving Berlin. Many of the plot details were used in Let's Make Love. Initially, the movie was called Out Front.
You Can't Have Everything is a 1937 Fox musical film directed by Norman Taurog and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. The film stars Alice Faye and Don Ameche, and was the film debut for Gypsy Rose Lee credited as Louise Hovick part of her birth name.
Poor Little Rich Girl, advertised as The Poor Little Rich Girl, is a 1936 American musical film directed by Irving Cummings and starring Shirley Temple, Alice Faye and Jack Haley. The screenplay by Sam Hellman, Gladys Lehman, and Harry Tugend was based on stories by Eleanor Gates and Ralph Spence, and the 1917 Mary Pickford vehicle of the same name. The film focuses on a child (Temple) neglected by her rich and busy father. She meets two vaudeville performers and becomes a radio singing star. The film received a lukewarm critical reception from The New York Times.
The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos is a 1937 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin. The short was released on December 4, 1937.
The Great American Broadcast is a 1941 American musical comedy film directed by Archie Mayo and starring Jack Oakie, Alice Faye and John Payne. It was produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Faye Windass is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, portrayed by Ellie Leach. She was introduced as a potential adoptive child for Anna and Eddie Windass in the episode aired on 24 January 2011. Faye's early storylines have included being adopted by Anna and Eddie, being the victim and perpetrator of bullying, contacting her birth father Tim Metcalfe and accusing Anna of abusing her. Her later storylines include her falling pregnant at the age of 13 and keeping it secret from her family. Faye's struggling to bond with her daughter, Miley results in her giving her up to Jackson Hodge, Miley's dad. Other storylines involve her relationships with Seb Franklin and Craig Tinker, being imprisoned after attacking Adam Barlow after a case of mistaken identity, being sexually assaulted and being diagnosed with premature menopause. In April 2023, it was announced that Leach had quit the role of Faye after 12 years, with her final scenes airing on 24 May 2023.
Sing, Baby, Sing is a 1936 American musical comedy film directed by Sidney Lanfield and starring Alice Faye, Adolphe Menjou and Gregory Ratoff. It was produced and distributed by Twentieth Century Fox. Richard A. Whiting and Walter Bullock received an Academy Award nomination in Best Original Song at the 9th Academy Awards for their song "When Did You Leave Heaven".
Love and Hisses is a 1937 American musical comedy film directed by Sidney Lanfield and starring Walter Winchell, Ben Bernie and Simone Simon. It is the sequel to the film Wake Up and Live. Twentieth Century Fox's Darryl F. Zanuck wanted to continue the series with further films, but Winchell chose to return to New York to concentrate on his newspaper and radio work.
"Never in a Million Years" is a song written by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel for the 1937 musical film Wake Up and Live when it was sung by Jack Haley. It had its biggest chart success by Bing Crosby featuring Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra. Crosby recorded it on February 28, 1937 and it reached #2 on the US pop chart the same year.