Start Cheering

Start Cheering is a 1938 American musical film directed by Albert S. Rogell and starring Jimmy Durante, Charles Starrett, Joan Perry, and Walter Connolly. It is best remembered today for guest appearances throughout the film by The Three Stooges (Curly Howard, Moe Howard, and Larry Fine), who were Columbia Pictures' short subject headliners at the time, as campus firemen.[1] The film's choreography was by Danny Dare.

Start Cheering
Directed byAlbert S. Rogell
Written byEugene Solow
Richard Wormser
Philip Rapp
Corey Ford
Produced byNat Perrin
StarringJimmy Durante
Charles Starrett
Joan Perry
Walter Connolly
Broderick Crawford
Professor Quiz
The Three Stooges
Louis Prima
Chaz Chase
Hal Le Roy
CinematographyJoseph Walker
Edited byGene Havlick
Music byMorris Stoloff
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • March 3, 1938 (1938-03-03) (U.S.)
Running time
78 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Premise

Film star Ted Crosley (Charles Starrett) is fed up with Hollywood and quits the movies to enroll in college under an assumed name. While Ted struggles to fit in on campus and tries out for the football team, his frustrated manager Sam Lewis (Walter Connolly) and Lewis's sidekick Willie Gumbatz (Jimmy Durante) try to have him expelled from the college so he can resume his Hollywood career. Radio's Professor Quiz (Craig E. Earle) is teaching a special course on campus, giving Lewis the idea to promote Crosley's campus activities on network radio. Bandleader Johnny Green is also on campus, lending musical accompaniment to the many songs.

Production

Production began in October 1937 under the title Freshman Follies. One of the original songs, "Start Cheering," became the new film title. Many members of Columbia's stock company played incidental roles, and some of them appear twice in different roles and costumes.

Charles Starrett was established as Columbia's cowboy star, and petitioned his employers to cast him in modern-day stories. Start Cheering was Starrett's only opportunity along these lines; Columbia returned him to westerns, and he remained with Columbia until his retirement in 1952.

The ingenue in Start Cheering, Joan Perry, made such an impression on Columbia president Harry Cohn that he proposed marriage to her. They were wed until Cohn's death in 1958.

Specialty performer Chaz Chase does his vaudeville act periodically during the film: he eats everything on his person: pages from books, flowers, buttons, etc.

Cast

See also

References
  1. threestooges.net


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