Starring Jack Oakie, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Wendy Barrie, Henry Wadsworth, C. Henry
Gordon, Benny Baker, Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman, Mary Boland, Charles Ruggles, David Holt,
Virginia Weidler, Guy Standing, Akim Tamiroff, Samuel S. Hinds, Dorothy Dandridge, Glenn
Miller, Chester Conklin, Gail Patrick
Directed by Norman Taurog

Print: black/white
Runtime: 97 min.
Genre: musical
Print Quality: B

After a false start in 1932, Paramount's Big Broadcast series was jump-started in late 1935
with The Big Broadcast of 1936. The wisp of a storyline involves two-bit radio station owner
Spud (Jack Oakie), who doubles as the station's sole announcer while his comic partner
Smiley (Henry Wadsworth) serves as the house crooner. On the verge of bankruptcy, Spud
is receptive to the wacky notions of George Burns and Gracie Allen, who've just invented a
television device which can pick up and transmit any signal, any time, anywhere. Among the
variety artists captured on cathode by George and Gracie's invention are Bing Crosby, Ethel
Merman, Amos 'N' Andy (Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll in blackface), Bill "Bojangles"
Robinson, the Vienna Boys Choir, bandleaders Ray Noble and Ina Ray Hutton, and a
knockabout vaudeville act called Willie, West and McGinty, who spend most of the film's
running time trying to simultaneously build and demolish a house. The plot evolves into a dry
run for the later Hope-Crosby "Road" pictures, with Spud and Smiley ending up on the
intrigue-ridden island governed by zany countess Ysobel de Nargila (Lyda Roberti).