Thanks for the Memory (film)

Thanks for the Memory
Lobby card featuring stars Bob Hope and Shirley Ross in a posed production still
Directed by	George Archainbaud
Written by	Lynn Starling Frances Goodrich (play) Albert Hackett (play)
Produced by	Mel Shauer
Starring	Bob Hope Shirley Ross Charles Butterworth Otto Kruger Hedda Hopper
Cinematography	Karl Struss
Edited by	Alma Macrorie
Music by	Charles Bradshaw (uncredited)
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	November 18, 1938 (1938-November-18)
Running time	75 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

Thanks for the Memory is a 1938 film directed by George Archainbaud and starring Bob Hope and Shirley Ross. The picture was adapted from the play by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich. The film is a remake of Up Pops the Devil (1931) starring Carole Lombard and Norman Foster. The titular song, "Thanks for the Memory", remained Bob Hope's theme song for the rest of his long and successful career.

Plot

Bob Hope is an out of work writer who stays home and plays house husband while his wife goes to work for her former fiancé and Hope's publisher who is still carrying a torch for her.

Cast

• Bob Hope as Steve Merrick
• Shirley Ross as Anne Merrick
• Charles Butterworth as Biney
• Otto Kruger as Gil Morrell
• Hedda Hopper as Polly Griscom
• Laura Hope Crews as Mrs. Kent
• Emma Dunn as Mrs. Platt
• Roscoe Karns as George Kent
• Eddie "Rochester" Anderson as Janitor
• Edward Gargan as Flanahan
• Jack Norton as Bert Monroe
• Patricia Wilder as Luella
• William Collier Sr. as Mr. Platt
• June Brewster as Frances

History

The film represented Paramount Pictures' attempt to capitalize on the overwhelmingly positive response to the Oscar-winning song, "Thanks for the Memory,"[1] as performed by Hope and Ross in The Big Broadcast of 1938, released by the studio earlier the same year.[2] The film plot, based on a 1930 stage play Up Pops the Devil by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett[3][4] (previously filmed by Paramount in 1931, with Norman Foster and Carole Lombard) deals with an out-of-work writer who stays home and plays house husband while his wife goes to work for her former fiancé.[5] The film features another popular song, "Two Sleepy People", which is again performed by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross and is often regarded as the companion to its predecessor, "Thanks for the Memory".

References

1. The Big Broadcast of 1938 (film), "Awards" at IMDb
2. "Song Inspires Film". The Age. January 7, 1939. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
3. Monahan, Kaspar. "Two Screen Comedies on Warner Bill: Bob Hope and Shirley Ross Shine in Adaptation of Stage Hit". The Pittsburgh Press. January 14, 1949. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
4. "Up Pops the Devil". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
5. "Bob Hope Stars as 'Househusband'". The Spokane Daily Chronicle. January 3, 1939. Retrieved 2014-02-07.

External links

• Thanks for the Memory at IMDb
• ​Up Pops the Devil​ at the Internet Broadway Database (source material)