Joe Davis Sr. performs in a big nightclub called Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe in the Paramount Hotel in Manhattan. He is visited by his son Joe Jr. who is a medical student. Joe Jr. tells his father that he wants to be in show business, much to his father's disapproval. Nevertheless, Joe Sr. gives his son a job at his club where Joe Jr. then becomes smitten with Bonnie Collins, the club's headlining act.
Joe Sr. is spending so much time worrying about his son that he starts to neglect his own girlfriend Claire. Claire promises to give Bonnie a mink coat if she pretends to like and go out with Joe Jr., so that Joe Sr. will pay more attention to her. Things take a complicated turn when Bonnie actually does fall in love with Joe Jr. and they get married, again much to his father's disapproval.
Diamond Horseshoe is a remake of two previous films derived from the same story, The Barker (1928) and Hoop-La (1933). Grable played the role previously played by Dorothy Mackaill in The Barker and Clara Bow in Hoop-La. All are based on the 1928 play The Barker by Kenyon Nicholson.
In the chorus line, an 18-year old Julie London makes an unbilled appearance in her first or second major studio film. During a production number, the bizarre double-talk comic and screeching singer Willie Solar (1891-1956) has a rare onscreen cameo as a filmed record of his stage act.
Reception
The film was very successful when it was released, but because of its high cost struggled to make a profit.[1] Grable's other picture that year The Dolly Sisters was one of Fox's highest-grossing films of 1945.
References
^ abcMemo from Darryl F. Zanuck to all producers at 20th Century Fox, 13 June 1946, Memo from Darryl F. Zanuck, Grove Press, 1993, pp. 108–109
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