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On
Christmas Eve in New York, the performing trio of singer Jim Hardy, dancer
Ted Hanover, and singer and dancer Lila Dixon, split up when Lila chooses to
marry Ted and continue performing rather than marry fiancée Jim, who plans
to quit performing to run a farm.
After a year of struggling with farm work in Connecticut, and
several weeks of recuperation in a sanitarium, Jim decides on a less
exhausting occupation and opens Holiday Inn, a country-style inn which
features live entertainment and is only open on holidays. As a way of
stopping Linda Mason, an ambitious performer who works selling flowers, from
pestering him, Ted's agent, Danny Reed, sends Linda to Connecticut to
audition for Jim. The two are attracted to each other and Jim offers
her a job.
On New Year's Eve, after Lila jilts Ted so that she can marry
a Texas millionaire, Ted travels to Holiday Inn to drown his sorrows.
He arrives drunk, but immediately engages in a dance with Linda. The
patrons all think that she is Ted's new dance partner and applaud as Ted
collapses in a drunken stupor. In the morning, Ted cannot remember
much about Linda but becomes determined to find her and make her his new
dance partner. Jim does everything he can to thwart Ted's plans
because he has fallen in love with Linda.
Although Linda performs at the inn on Lincoln's birthday, Ted
does not recognize her because Jim makes her wear blackface make-up for her
number. Ted does find her on Valentine's Day, however, and insists
that they perform together for Washington's birthday. Ted mercilessly
pursues Linda to draw her away from Jim, and stays on at the inn through the
next few holidays.
When Jim overhears that Ted has brought two Hollywood film
producers to see the Fourth of July show, he secretly asks his driver, Gus,
who is picking Linda up at the train station, to make sure that she does not
arrive in time for the show, and then invites Lila, who did not marry after
all, to perform. Gus drives the car into a pond and, when Linda
hitches a ride on the road, she is picked up by Lila. Unaware of
Linda's identity, Lila tells Linda her story, and on the pretense of taking
a shortcut, Linda makes sure Lila drives into the pond as well. Both
women show up too late for the performance, but the producers offer to buy
the idea of Holiday Inn to use as the basis of a musical. Having
earned the enmity of all his friends because of his deception, Jim
reluctantly agrees to the idea, but insists on remaining in Connecticut to
write the music while Ted and Linda go to Hollywood.
On Thanksgiving Day, when a lonely and dispirited Jim reads
that Ted and Linda are engaged, his concerned housekeeper, Mamie, convinces
him not to give up and to pursue Linda honestly. Jim arrives in
Hollywood on Christmas Eve, just before Ted and Linda's wedding.
Despite Ted and Danny's efforts, he manages to sneak onto a soundstage which
has been set up like his Holiday Inn. A as Linda performs "White
Christmas," the first song they ever sang together, Jim sings along and the
two are happily reunited. Finally, on New Year's Eve, the two couples,
Jim and Linda and Ted and Lila, perform together at Holiday Inn. |
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