Two Tickets to Broadway is a 1951 American musical film directed by James V. Kern and starring Tony Martin, Janet Leigh, Gloria DeHaven and Ann Miller. It was filmed on the RKO Forty Acres backlot. The film was choreographed by Busby Berkeley.
Contents
Plot
Frustrated singers Hannah Holbrook, Joyce Campbell and S. F. "Foxy" Rogers return dejectedly to New York on a bus after their engagement in Vermont, arranged by small-time promoter Lew Conway, was a huge flop.
Nancy Peterson, another passenger on the bus, and Dan Carter mistakenly have each other's bags. Both are entertainers and become better acquainted after the mix-up.
Lew represents Dan and tries to convince him to accept the same gig that the girl singers had just left. Lew meets delicatessen owners Leo and Harry, who might have money to invest in his performers' careers. The agent asks an impersonator to pretend to be the producer of bandleader Bob Crosby's television program.
Everybody excitedly believes that Lew has booked them on the show. Lew repeatedly tries to meet with Crosby's actual producer but fails. He lies to the singers that Crosby will not book them because he is jealous of Dan's ability as a singer. Nancy is furious and barges into the television studio to berate Crosby and his producer, who have no idea what she is talking about.
Nancy boards a bus, headed back home. Crosby's producer says that he has been interested in Dan for quite a while and finds himself with a slot to fill on that night's show after Lew locks the scheduled performers in a closet. Nancy refuses to believe Lew that the gang is really is performing on tonight's show until she spots Dan singing on a television in a store window. She races back to New York just in time to join the others on the show.
Cast
Tony Martin as Dan Carter
Janet Leigh as Nancy Peterson
Gloria DeHaven as Hannah Holbrook
Eddie Bracken as Lew Conway
Ann Miller as Joyce Campbell
Barbara Lawrence as S. F. Rogers
Bob Crosby as himself
Charles Dale as Leo, Palace Deli
Joe Smith as Harry, Palace Deli
Taylor Holmes as Willard Glendon
Buddy Baer as Sailor on Bus
Kathleen O'Malley as Showgirl
Production
The roles of the two delicatessen owners played by the vaudeville comedy duo Smith and Dale were originally offered to Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, who declined because Laurel was ill.
Reception
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic A. H. Weiler wrote: "[T]he newcomer is merely conventional in plot, brisk in pace, heavily freighted with song and light in comedy. And, if its story line is not precisely ingenius, the cast is energetic in trying to keep things moving. Broadway, in short, has been exposed to the likes of 'Two Tickets· to Broadway' many times before. This time, the experience is just a mite more cheerful than usual."
The film recorded an estimated loss of $1,150,000.
Awards
Two Tickets to Broadway was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Recording (John O. Aalberg).