It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.
This week’s musical:
Carolina Blues (1944) – Musical #378
Studio:
Columbia Pictures
Director:
Leigh Jason
Starring:
Themselves: Kay Kyser, Georgia Carroll, Harry Babbitt, Ish Kabibble, Sully Mason
Also starring: Ann Miller, Victor Moore, Jeff Donnell, Howard Freeman, Ruby Dandridge (uncredited), Frank Orth (uncredited), Doodles Weaver (uncredited)
Specialty Acts: Harold Nicholas, the Cristiani Family, the Layson Brothers, the Four Step Brothers, the Golden Gate Quartette
Plot:
Kay Kyser and his band (all playing themselves) return home to the United States from a tour overseas. All of them are exhausted and ready for a vacation, but Kyser’s publicist (Donnell) signed the band up for a bond tour. Kyser agrees to do a performance if it can raise money for a destroyer named for his hometown of Rocky Mount, N.C. Another problem is that Kyser’s lead girl singer, Georgia Carroll (herself), is leaving the band to get married. When Kyser and his band play at a shipyard, the plant’s manager, Phineas Carver (Moore), hopes his daughter Julie (Miller) can be the band’s next singer.
This week’s musical: