Ding Dong Williams

Hollywood's Sunrise Studios is producing a film about a heartbroken composer who creates a modern rhapsody. The head of the music department, Hugo Meyerhold (Felix Bressart), and his young secretary Angela Jones (Marcy McGuire) engage jive clarinetist Ding Dong Williams (Glenn Vernon). However, Ding Dong's musical skills are limited to improvisation; he can't read or write music and just plays music the way he feels at the moment. Angela tries various schemes to induce Ding Dong to play something sad and soulful, including a fake romance with the studio's cowboy star, but all of her attempts fail. Ding Dong, dressed down by the studio boss and disillusioned by life in Hollywood, watches Meyerhold conducting pianist Richard Korbel and the studio orchestra playing Chopin's Fantaisie Impromptu. At the rear of the recording stage, the melancholy Ding Dong thoughtlessly begins to play a blue counterpoint to the orchestra. Angela sees this and has the director position a microphone above Ding Dong. The counterpoint melody is exactly what the studio boss wants, and all ends happily.

• Glen Vernon as Ding Dong Williams
• Marcy McGuire as Miss Angela Jones
• Felix Bressart as Hugo Meyerhold
• Anne Jeffreys as Vanessa Page
• James Warren as Steve Moore
• William B. Davidson as Mr. Saul Dana
• Tommy Noonan as Zang
• Cliff Nazarro as Zing
• Ruth Lee as Laura Cooper
• Jason Robards, Sr. as Director Kenmore
• Bob Nolan as himself
• Sons of the Pioneers as themselves
• Tanis Chandler as Nightclub Hostess
• Robert Clarke as Nightclub Bandleader
• Constantin Bakaleinikoff as himself
• Richard Korbel as Piano Specialty

Ding Dong Williams was based on a series of stories by Richard English, published in Collier's magazine, chronicling the comic adventures of a young musician. The musical-comedy script was assigned to Brenda Weisberg, who excelled in teenage stories (she initiated Universal's Little Tough Guys series and wrote for Columbia's Rusty series) and M. Coates Webster, a specialist in stories for "B" musicals.

Ding Dong Williams was filmed in 1945 as a vehicle for RKO's promising young star Glenn Vernon. The studio had cast Vernon opposite its resident rambunctious teenager Marcy McGuire in the B comedy Sing Your Way Home, and hoped to create in Vernon and McGuire a musical-comedy team like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. The working title of the new picture was originally Strictly Ding Dong (the title of one of Richard English's books), then Meet Ding Dong Williams, and the 62-minute B comedy was supposed to be the first in a new series. Meanwhile, the studio had set the Leon Errol comedy Riverboat Rhythm as the next Vernon-McGuire picture. However, the temperamental McGuire saw the Errol script and resented the size of her role. She voiced her objections to her bosses, insisting that she be cast in leading musical roles. RKO responded by dismissing McGuire and canceling any plans for a series. The studio allowed talk of the new team to fade into memory, and kept the unreleased Ding Dong Williams on the shelf. Because the series idea was abandoned, the Meet Ding Dong Williams title was shortened, and Ding Dong Williams was finally released in April 1946 to favorable reviews in Motion Picture Herald, Motion Picture Daily and Variety.

Although Ding Dong Williams never became a series, it did inspire a spinoff series. In Ding Dong Williams James Warren played a slow-witted movie cowboy with a palomino horse called Star Dust. RKO had been making Zane Grey westerns with Robert Mitchum in the leading roles, but with Mitchum advancing to dramatic features, Ding Dong Williams producer Herman Schlom remembered how well Warren had photographed in western gear. Warren took over the Zane Grey series, and because Ding Dong Williams was still awaiting release, film audiences became familiar with Warren and Star Dust well before they had viewed Ding Dong Williams.

• Ding Dong Williams at IMDb
• Ding Dong Williams at AllMovie
• Ding Dong Williams at the TCM Movie Database
• Ding Dong Williams at the American Film Institute Catalog