Beat the Band

Ann Rogers is a lovely young opera student who would rather croon a mellow swing tune. Handsome Damon Dillingham is her classical voice instructor, although he's really the former leader of a swell big band, and he needs Ann's tuition money to reunite his group for a nightclub gig that follows appearances by Gene Krupa and his band. Can Ann and Damon reveal their true selves, work through misunderstandings and mixed-up feelings, and find romantic and musical bliss?

The Broadway musical Beat the Band was boiled down to B-picture terms in this RKO Radio programmer. The plot concerns Damon (Philip Terry), a bandleader who finds himself financially embarrassed when he returns from WW2. In order to earn enough money to reassemble his orchestra, Damon poses as a famed Italian voice teacher. His first pupil is would-be songstress Ann (Frances Langford), whose family fortune figures prominently in Damon's comeback scheme. Ralph Edwards, emcee of the then-popular radio series "Truth or Consquences," provides comic relief as Damon's crooked business manager. The musical highlights include a "hot" arrangement performed in a boiler room by the Gene Krupa Orchestra.