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On
a pleasant day in Hollywood, California, Bill "Corky" Williamson, a
semi-retired tap dancer, is teaching his craft to a group of neighborhood
children when the mailman delivers a special edition of "Theatre World."
The magazine is celebrating "the magnificent contribution of the colored
race to the entertainment of the world during the past twenty-five years"
and features Bill on the cover. As Bill reads the various dedications
from his old friends, he reminisces about the early days of his career.
One such dedication from Noble Sissle inspires Bill to remember the hero's
welcome he and fellow members of Jim Europe's 15th New York Regiment band
received when they returned from France after World War I.
Bill and his best friend Gabe live it up in high
style in New York City, and Gabe pretends to be a rich talent manager in
order to impress his scatterbrained girl friend. At a hall set up as a
nightclub for the returning servicemen, Bill sees a beautiful woman and
discovers to his amazement that she is Selina Rogers, the sister of a close
friend who died in the war. After Selina and Bill dance together,
Selina is introduced as the evening's star and joins Jim Europe's band in a
song. Selina and Bill are attracted to each other, but her manager, Chick
Bailey, gets jealous and intervenes. Selina tries to convince Bill to
stay in New York and pursue a dancing career, but Bill says he has a job
waiting for him in Memphis and plans to stay there until he can make
something of himself.
In Memphis, Bill finds work on a riverboat, but
when he dances with a group of talented minstrels on board, they encourage
him to go down to Beale Street to secure a job as a dancer. One night
at Ada Brown's Beale Street café, where Bill has been hired as a waiter,
Bailey and Selina stop by looking for new talent to star in Bailey's new
show. After Bailey offers roles to Ada, a singer, Fats, a piano player
and the café's band, Selina begs him to take Bill, too. Bailey
reluctantly agrees and hires Bill as an extra tom-tom player in a dance
number.
One evening Bill, frustrated with his assigned
role, performs a complex stair-step dance on the drums while Bailey sings.
The crowd goes wild, and it takes several seconds before Bailey realizes
that they are applauding Bill. When he discovers Bill's ruse, he kicks
him out of the theater, but Bill punches Bailey and then has the last word
when Selina agrees to go with him for a sandwich in defiance of Bailey.
Back in the present, Bill is pleased to read a
dedication from former enemy Bailey, who pompously has written that he was
the first to recognize Bill's talent. Bill then wonders about his old
friend Gabe. As Bill is about to put on his own show, he runs into
Gabe, who is working as a bootblack in Harlem. Bill's show is in
danger of failing because the chorus girls, who have not been paid, are
threatening to quit before the first performance. To help Bill, Gabe
shows up at the theater pretending to be a rich impresario and tricks the
group into performing. When one of the performers, however, recognizes
Gabe as the man who has shined his shoes many times, the group once again
turns on him and Bill. Fortunately, Gabe's hired driver has just won
money at the races. He agrees to pay the performers' salaries, and the
show goes on.
Later, Bill, who has earlier married Selina,
asks her to move to a little house with him and raise children, but Selina
tells him that she must continue to work. She goes to Paris, where she
becomes a renowned star.
In the present, as Bill is relaxing on his front
porch with the neighborhood children, Cab Calloway stops by to pick him up
for a big party, which will honor the men who are going overseas to fight in
World War II. At the show, Bill reunites with a jive-talking Gabe, who
is now working for Cab, and sees Selina perform. Later, she tells him
that she wants to return to him and start a family. After several
performances by Cab, Gabe and others, Bill and Selina appear together and
all ends on a happy note. |
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