Let's Make Music

Let's Make Music is a 1941 musical starring Bob Crosby and written by Nathanael West. The songs in Let's Make Music include the classic "Big Noise from Winnetka". In April 1940 Nathanael West, then a contract writer at RKO Pictures, was asked to work on a script, tentatively named Malvina Swings It, which writer Charles Roberts failed to complete satisfactorily. After working on the screenplay for almost ten nonconsecutive weeks, West had turned it into Let's Make Music, which hoped to benefit from Bob Crosby's popularity. The rewriting was so significant West received solo screenwriting credit. Newton High music teacher Malvina Adams (Risdon) is asked to retire since attendance in her classes keeps dropping each year. Trying to prove she's still got it, Adams composes a school fight song which finds its way into the hands of bandleader Bob Crosby (playing himself) who turns it into an overnight hit. Though her niece Abby (Rogers) protests, Malvina travels to New York to perform her...