BROADWAY BILL

December 27, 1934

• A Columbia Motion Picture
• Directed by Frank Capra
• Produced by Harry Cohn

• Written by Robert Riskin, based on the short story “Strictly Confidential” by Mark Hellinger 

Lucille Ball played a telephone operator, uncredited. Also in the film were future “I Love Lucy” cast members Charles Lane, Irving Bacon, and Bess Flowers.

Synopsis ~ Warner Baxter plays the carefree heir of a wealthy, highly-respected family. Baxter’s cold but socially correct wife Helen Vinson forces her husband into the family business, but Baxter would rather spend his time at the racetrack. He buys a nag named Broadway Bill and tries to build the horse into a winner, if he doesn’t bankrupt himself first. 

Only Baxter’s sister-in-law Myrna Loy and black stable hand Clarence Muse have faith in Broadway Bill. The horse wins a crucial race, but dies suddenly at the finish line. Baxter is comforted and given encouragement by Loy, who is now his sweetheart, Vinson having long since washed her hands of her “irresponsible” husband.

TRIVIA

• This was Lucille Ball’s 16th film. She was a blonde in the film, playing a busy telephone operator. 
• Columbia Pictures bought the rights to the story “Broadway Bill” by theatrical impresario Mark Hellinger for $8,000. 

• The film had its world premiere on Thanksgiving Day, November 30, 1934, at Radio City Music Hall in NYC and opened wide in the rest of the country on December 27, 1934. 
• Director, Frank Capra disliked the final product, and in an effort to make it more to his liking, he remade the film in 1950 as Riding High.
• After Paramount Pictures bought the rights to this film, the studio pulled it from circulation to avoid competition with Frank Capra’s remake Riding High (1950). The film remained unseen until it was re-released in the 1990s. 

  Modern prints carry the Paramount logo before the opening credits and after the closing credits.

• Raymond Walburn (Pettigrew) and Clarence Muse (Whitey), Douglass Dumbrille, Ward Bond, Frankie Darro, and Charles Lane all played the same roles in the remake, Riding High (1950), although some of their respective character names are different.
• Clara Blandick and Margaret Hamilton appeared together later in The Wizard of Oz (1939).

Coincidentally, Hartford’s Loewe’s ran the film on a double bill with Redhead – although it had nothing to do with Lucille Ball, who was a blonde at the time of making Broadway Bill. 

Also on December 27, 1934, and also dealing with horses, the above item says that Lucille Ball was an ardent polo enthusiast!  Oh, really?