Stand Up and Cheer!

Stand Up and Cheer! is a 1934 American Pre-Code musical film directed by Hamilton MacFadden. The screenplay by Lew Brown and Ralph Spence was based upon a story idea by Will Rogers and Philip Klein. The film is about efforts undertaken during the Great Depression to boost the morale of the country. It is essentially a vehicle for a string of vaudeville acts and a few musical numbers. The film is best known for providing the first big breakthrough role for legendary child actress Shirley Temple. A little known bit player before the film, by the end of the year, she appeared in 10 movies, including 4 starring roles in major feature-length films. Plot The President of the United States decides that the true cause of the Great Depression (raging when the film was released) is a loss of "optimism" as a result of a plot by financiers and bankers who are getting rich from the Depression. The President then appoints Lawrence Cromwell as secretary for the newly created Department of Amusement. Cromwell creates an army of entertainers and sends them out across the country. Much of the action centers around Cromwell auditioning acts in his office (with interruptions from janitor "George Bernard Shaw", played by Stepin Fetchit). At the end, as a musical production number breaks forth, Cromwell looks out of his office window and sees the Depression literally, instantaneously lift. Cast Warner Baxter as Lawrence Cromwell Madge Evans as Mary Adams Shirley Temple as Shirley Dugan James Dunn as Jimmy Dugan Nigel Bruce as Eustis Dinwiddle Ralph Morgan as Secretary to President Stepin Fetchit as "George Bernard Shaw" Tess Gardella as Aunt Jemima Scotty Beckett as Auditioning Boy John Boles as himself Dick Foran as himself (billed as Nick) Production During production, the film was known as "Fox Follies". Perhaps the most memorable scene in the movie was the song and dance number by James Dunn and Shirley Temple titled "Baby Take a Bow". Temple, who was signed to a $150/week contract initially guaranteed for just two weeks while the film was in full production, did not have enough time to learn the dance routine for the film and instead used a routine she learned from Meglin's. Dunn then learned the routine from her. In recording the sound track for the song, her voice accidentally cracked on the last note, but the producers actually liked it and kept it in. Before filming the dance routine, she slipped and fell while walking in, cutting her head.