AFI|Catalog

The working title of this film was Trombone from Heaven. While performers Frances Langford and Leo Carrillo received top-billing in the film's opening credits, their appearences in Follow the Band are merely cameos. According to LAEx, Broadway musical comedy performer Michael Moore was to make his feature film debut in this picture, but his participation in the released film has not been confirmed. ...

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The working title of this film was Trombone from Heaven. While performers Frances Langford and Leo Carrillo received top-billing in the film's opening credits, their appearences in Follow the Band are merely cameos. According to LAEx, Broadway musical comedy performer Michael Moore was to make his feature film debut in this picture, but his participation in the released film has not been confirmed.

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Woody Bredell

Dir of photog

Based on the short story "Trombone from Heaven" by Richard English in Collier's (26 Aug 1939).

"My Melancholy Baby," words by George A. Norton, music by Ernie Burnett; "What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For," words and music by Joseph McCarthy, Howard Johnson and James V. Monaco; "Ain't Misbehavin'," words by Andy Razaf, music by Fats Waller and Harry Brooks; "Rosie the Riveter," words and music by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb; "My Devotion," words and music by Roc Hillman and Johnny Napton; "Swingin' the Blues" and "Spellbound," words by Everett Carter, music by Milton Rosen; "Hilo Hattie," words and music by Harold Adamson and Johnny Noble; "The Army Air Corps Song," words and music by Robert Crawford; "Tail O' Me Coat," Irish traditional.

Alternate Title:

Trombone from Heaven

Release Date:

14 May 1943

Production Date:

4 Feb--late Feb 1943

Copyright Info

Physical Properties:

Marvin Howe is a hired hand at the Clover Leaf Dairy Farm in Rutledge, Vermont, who, much to the consternation of the dairy's owner, "Pop" Turnbull, spends most of his time practicing the trombone, not doing his chores. After Marvin and Pop's daughter Juanita announce their engagement, Tate Winters, Marvin's rival for Juanita's affections, convinces Pop to send Marvin to New York City to get Pop's dairy a membership in the National Dairymen's Association, knowing that Pop has been refused one repeatedly, as he raises goats, not cows. In New York, Jeremiah K. Barton, president of the Dairymen's Association, orders his secretary, Lucille Rose, to give Marvin "the brush off," but when she tells the farm boy that Barton will be in conference for a week, Marvin takes a room at a boardinghouse owned by a Mrs. Forbes. The landlady's son Skinnay offers Marvin a membership in his jazz band after hearing him play his trombone. Skinnay's friend Dolly O'Brien then convinces Marvin to take a job with the band at O'Brien's Rendevous, a nightclub owned by her uncle, Big Mike O'Brien. Marvin becomes a national sensation known as "The Hot Toot" when he knocks out "zoot suiter" gang leader Alphonse, who attempts to destroy the nightclub after being fired by Big Mike. Pop then takes Juanita to New York to show her how "the big city" has changed Marvin, and when she is misled to believe that Dolly is Marvin's new girl friend, Juanita breaks their engagement and goes back to Rutledge. At the same time, Barton and his associate, Peterson, offer Big Mike a national radio contract for Skinnay's band. Marvin ...

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Marvin Howe is a hired hand at the Clover Leaf Dairy Farm in Rutledge, Vermont, who, much to the consternation of the dairy's owner, "Pop" Turnbull, spends most of his time practicing the trombone, not doing his chores. After Marvin and Pop's daughter Juanita announce their engagement, Tate Winters, Marvin's rival for Juanita's affections, convinces Pop to send Marvin to New York City to get Pop's dairy a membership in the National Dairymen's Association, knowing that Pop has been refused one repeatedly, as he raises goats, not cows. In New York, Jeremiah K. Barton, president of the Dairymen's Association, orders his secretary, Lucille Rose, to give Marvin "the brush off," but when she tells the farm boy that Barton will be in conference for a week, Marvin takes a room at a boardinghouse owned by a Mrs. Forbes. The landlady's son Skinnay offers Marvin a membership in his jazz band after hearing him play his trombone. Skinnay's friend Dolly O'Brien then convinces Marvin to take a job with the band at O'Brien's Rendevous, a nightclub owned by her uncle, Big Mike O'Brien. Marvin becomes a national sensation known as "The Hot Toot" when he knocks out "zoot suiter" gang leader Alphonse, who attempts to destroy the nightclub after being fired by Big Mike. Pop then takes Juanita to New York to show her how "the big city" has changed Marvin, and when she is misled to believe that Dolly is Marvin's new girl friend, Juanita breaks their engagement and goes back to Rutledge. At the same time, Barton and his associate, Peterson, offer Big Mike a national radio contract for Skinnay's band. Marvin is so heartbroken, however, that he quits the band and returns to Rutledge as Juanita and Tate are about to be married. The band follows him there, and Dolly tells all to the bride-to-be. Marvin and Juanita are reunited just in time for the band to perform on its first coast-to-coast radio broadcast.

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