Barbara Jo Allen

Barbara Jo Allen

Born: September 2, 1906
Died: September 14, 1974
in New York City, New York, USA
From Wikipedia

Barbara Jo Allen (September 2, 1906 – September 14, 1974) was an actress also known as Vera Vague, the spinster character she created and portrayed on radio and in films during the 1940s and 1950s. She based the character on a woman she had seen delivering a PTA literature lecture in a confused manner. As Vague, she popularized the catch phrase "You dear boy!"

Allen's acting ability first surfaced in school plays. Following her high school graduation, she went to Paris to study at the Sorbonne. Concentrating on language, she became proficient in French, Spanish, German and Italian. After the death of her parents, she moved to Los Angeles where she lived with her uncle.

In 1937, she debuted on network radio drama as Beth Holly on NBC's One Man's Family, followed by roles on Death Valley Days, I Love a Mystery and other radio series. According to Allen, her Vera Vague character was “sort of a frustrated female, dumb, always ambitious and overzealous… a spouting Bureau of Misinformation.” After Vera was introduced in 1939 on NBC Matinee, she became a regular with Bob Hope beginning in 1941.

Allen appeared in at least 60 movies and TV series between 1938 and 1963, often credited as Vera Vague rather than her own name. The character she created was so popular that she eventually adopted the character name as her professional name. From 1943 to 1952, as Vera, she made more than a dozen comedy two-reel short subjects for Columbia Pictures.

In 1948, she did less acting and instead opened her own commercial orchid business, while also serving as the Honorary Mayor of Woodland Hills, California. In 1953, as Vera, she hosted her own television series, Follow the Leader, a CBS audience participation show. In 1958, she appeared as Mabel, the boss of the flight attendants, in Jeannie Carson's syndicated version of her situation comedy Hey, Jeannie! The program aired only six episodes in syndication.

Allen's first marriage was to actor Barton Yarborough. They had one child together. In 1946, the couple co-starred in the two-reel comedy short, Hiss and Yell, nominated for an Academy Award as Best Short Subject. In 1931-32, Allen married Charles H. Crosby. In 1943, she married Bob Hope's producer, Norman Morrell. They had one child and were married for three decades, until her 1974 death in Santa Barbara, California.

Movies for Barbara Jo Allen...

Disney’s Coyote Tales
Title: Disney’s Coyote Tales
Character: Goliath II’s Mother (voice)
Released: November 11, 1991
Type: Movie
Through redubbed footage of The Coyote's Lament, the coyote's relationship with man and dog is shown from the coyote's point of view, as seen in various Disney cartoons.
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The Sword in the Stone
Title: The Sword in the Stone
Character: Scullery Maid (voice) (uncredited)
Released: December 25, 1963
Type: Movie
Wart is a young boy who aspires to be a knight's squire. On a hunting trip he falls in on Merlin, a powerful but amnesiac wizard who has plans for him beyond mere squiredom. He starts by trying to give him an education, believing that once one has an education, one can go anywhere. Needless to say, it doesn't quite work out that way.
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Title: Surfside 6
Released: October 6, 1960
Type: TV
Surfside 6 was an ABC television series which aired from 1960 to 1962. The show centered on a Miami Beach detective agency set on a houseboat and featured Troy Donahue as Sandy Winfield II; Van Williams as Kenny Madison; and Lee Patterson as Dave Thorne. Diane McBain co-starred as socialite Daphne Dutton, whose yacht was berthed next to their houseboat. Margarita Sierra also had a supporting role as Cha Cha O'Brien, an entertainer who worked at The Boom Boom Room, a popular Miami Beach hangout at the Fontainebleau Hotel, directly across the street from Surfside 6. Surfside 6 was in fact a real address in Miami Beach, where an unrelated houseboat was moored at the time; it can also be seen in the sweeping aerial establishing shot of the Fontainebleu in 1964's Goldfinger.
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Goliath II
Title: Goliath II
Character: Goliath II's Mother
Released: January 21, 1960
Type: Movie
Goliath II is a 6-inch-tall elephant (son of the huge Goliath). He's a big disappointment to his father, but mom is proud of Goliath II anyway. Goliath II is constantly getting into trouble because he's so small. In particular, the tiger Raja looks for every opportunity to try a bite-size taste of elephant. After one incident where he ran away and his mother scolded him, he runs away. After he's rescued, the rest of the elephants are terrified of a mouse, but Goliath II stands his ground.
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Born to Be Loved
Title: Born to Be Loved
Character: Irene Hoffman
Released: June 1, 1959
Type: Movie
Director Hugo Haas reprises the theme of romantic love in this routine yet innocent story of matchmaking. The setting is an overcrowded tenement building in which the residents seem to live beyond the reach of muggers or drug dealers or trigger-happy gangs because they mingle and mix in the halls as they energetically interact with each other.
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Sleeping Beauty
Title: Sleeping Beauty
Character: Fauna (voice)
Released: February 17, 1959
Type: Movie
A beautiful princess born in a faraway kingdom is destined by a terrible curse to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a deep sleep that can only be awakened by true love's first kiss. Determined to protect her, her parents ask three fairies to raise her in hiding. But the evil Maleficent is just as determined to seal the princess's fate.
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Title: Maverick
Character: Celia Mallaver
Released: September 22, 1957
Type: TV
Maverick is an American Western television series with comedic overtones created by Roy Huggins. The show ran from September 22, 1957 to July 8, 1962 on ABC and stars James Garner as Bret Maverick, an adroitly articulate cardsharp. Eight episodes into the first season, he was joined by Jack Kelly as his brother Bart, and from that point on, Garner and Kelly alternated leads from week to week, sometimes teaming up for the occasional two-brother episode. The Mavericks were poker players from Texas who traveled all over the American Old West and on Mississippi riverboats, constantly getting into and out of life-threatening trouble of one sort or another, usually involving money, women, or both. They would typically find themselves weighing a financial windfall against a moral dilemma. More often than not, their consciences trumped their wallets since both Mavericks were intensely ethical. When Garner left the series after the third season due to a legal dispute, Roger Moore was added to the cast as their cousin Beau Maverick. Robert Colbert appeared later in the fourth season as a third Maverick brother, Brent Maverick. No more than two of the series leads ever appeared together in the same episode, and usually only one.
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The Opposite Sex
Title: The Opposite Sex
Character: Dolly DeHaven
Released: November 15, 1956
Type: Movie
Former radio singer Kay learns from her gossipy friends that her husband, Steve, has had an affair with chorus girl Crystal. Devastated, Kay tries to ignore the information, but when Crystal performs one of her musical numbers at a charity benefit, she breaks down and goes to Reno to file for divorce. However, when she hears that gold-digging Crystal is making Steve unhappy, Kay resolves to get her husband back. The Opposite Sex is a remake of the 1939 comedy The Women.
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Mohawk
Title: Mohawk
Character: Aunt Agatha
Released: April 1, 1956
Type: Movie
An artist working in a remote army post is juggling the storekeeper's daughter, his fiancée newly arrived from the east, and the Indian Chief's daughter. But when a vengeful settler manages to get the army and the braves at each other's throats his troubles really begin.
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Columbia Laff Hour
Title: Columbia Laff Hour
Character: Vera Vague (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 1956
Type: Movie
A Columbia Pictures feature, featuring 4 unedited shorts, released between 1947-1956, featuring Shemp Howard.
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Title: The George Gobel Show
Character: Self
Released: October 2, 1954
Type: TV
The George Gobel Show is an American television series hosted George Gobel that aired on NBC from 1954 to 1960.
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Title: General Electric Theater
Character: Mrs. Parkinson
Released: February 1, 1953
Type: TV
General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.
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Happy Go Wacky
Title: Happy Go Wacky
Character: Vera Vague
Released: February 7, 1952
Type: Movie
Nurse Vera is hired by a patient to help him get rid of some unwelcome relatives living at his house.
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She Took a Powder
Title: She Took a Powder
Character: Vera Vague
Released: August 11, 1951
Type: Movie
Vera's fiancee tries to cure her of her hypochondria.
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Nursie Behave
Title: Nursie Behave
Character: Vera Vague
Released: May 11, 1950
Type: Movie
Vera Vague, in the All-StarComedy works for the district attorney, and when his two-timing fiancee and her boyfriend try some trickery, Vera steps in with some effective wrestling holds.
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Square Dance Katy
Title: Square Dance Katy
Character: Gypsy Jones
Released: March 25, 1950
Type: Movie
In this musical, an ambitious young singer and her band leave their small hometown to head for the Big Apple in hopes of finding fame and fortune.
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Wha' Happen?
Title: Wha' Happen?
Character: Vera
Released: November 10, 1949
Type: Movie
Suffering from amnesia, Vera thinks she's responsible for a burglary.
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Clunked in the Clink
Title: Clunked in the Clink
Character: Vera Vague
Released: July 13, 1949
Type: Movie
Vera's husband thinks she ahs been killed in a plane crash, unaware she has been arrested for speeding on the way to the airport.
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Miss in a Mess
Title: Miss in a Mess
Character: Vera Vague
Released: January 13, 1949
Type: Movie
Vera Vague marries a man who is the twin-image of an escaped ax-murderer. The key word here is "escaped", as that guarantees that Vera will get involved with the ax-murderer thinking he is her husband.
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Cupid Goes Nuts
Title: Cupid Goes Nuts
Character: Vera Vague / Prudy Vague
Released: May 1, 1947
Type: Movie
Vera plays twin sisters of opposite personalities.
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Reno-Vated
Title: Reno-Vated
Character: Vera Butts
Released: November 21, 1946
Type: Movie
After Vera divorces her husband, she marries her lawyer.
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Earl Carroll Sketchbook
Title: Earl Carroll Sketchbook
Character: Sherry Lane
Released: August 22, 1946
Type: Movie
An aspiring singer and her lover, a songwriter who has desperately resorted to writing radio jingles, have many conflicts on their road to success...
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Headin' for a Weddin'
Title: Headin' for a Weddin'
Character: Vera Vague
Released: August 15, 1946
Type: Movie
Vera and Claire vie for the affections of a handsome millionaire cowboy.
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Hiss and Yell
Title: Hiss and Yell
Character: Vera Vague
Released: February 14, 1946
Type: Movie
Vera thinks she's witnessed a man decapitating his wife. Actually, she's only seen magician Bluebeard the Great rehearsing his act. Still convinced that the magician is a killer, Vera goes through all sorts of comic agony when she is forced to share the same train compartment with Bluebeard (who doesn't help matters when he offers her a sandwich consisting of "scrambled brains and tongue").
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Calling All Fibbers
Title: Calling All Fibbers
Character: Vera Vague
Released: November 29, 1945
Type: Movie
Vera pretends to have been injured in an auto accident in order to get out of two conflicting engagements.
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Snafu
Title: Snafu
Character: Madge Stevens
Released: November 22, 1945
Type: Movie
A 14-year-old boy lies about his age and enlists in the United State Marine Corps without his family's consent or knowledge. He is sent into battle in the Pacific war-zone, decorated, and spotted in a newsreel by his family. The family asks the War Department to discharge him and send him home.
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The Jury Goes Round 'n' Round
Title: The Jury Goes Round 'n' Round
Character: Vera Vague
Released: June 1, 1945
Type: Movie
Vera is one of many of a group of jurors who must work together to come up with a decision whether or not a man is guilty of murder.
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She Snoops to Conquer
Title: She Snoops to Conquer
Character: Vera
Released: December 30, 1944
Type: Movie
Vera Vague (Barbara Jo Allen) is a reporter aiming to march her editor boss down the aisle. He agrees to marry her if she can uncover a key spy. She nets a whole ring of spies.
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Lake Placid Serenade
Title: Lake Placid Serenade
Character: Countess
Released: December 23, 1944
Type: Movie
On a peaceful, pre-war winter in Czechoslovakia, the genial godfather, Jaroslav Haschek, of Vera Hascheck, presents the young girl with her first pair of ice skates. Soon, she astonished the warm-hearted people of her village with her skill, and she is acclaimed a marvel-on-ice.
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Girl Rush
Title: Girl Rush
Character: Suzie Banks
Released: October 21, 1944
Type: Movie
During the California Gold Rush, two down-on-their-luck vaudevillians attempt to become wealthy by bringing a girlie show to an all-male western mining town.
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Strife of the Party
Title: Strife of the Party
Character: Vera Clayton
Released: October 13, 1944
Type: Movie
Vera Vague (Barbara Jo Allen) locks herself in her garage and has to be freed by her neighbor. Later, she discovers that the wife of her husband's boss has lost a necklace, and Vera suspects the neighbor.
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Rosie the Riveter
Title: Rosie the Riveter
Character: Vera Watson
Released: April 8, 1944
Type: Movie
In this romantic wartime comedy, four female defense plant workers share a house with four male workers. The situation is on the up and up as the men and women work different shifts and they are only making do because there is a housing shortage. Unfortunately, they soon begin to fight about who gets the house during certain hours. Romance ensues.
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Moon Over Las Vegas
Title: Moon Over Las Vegas
Character: Auntie
Released: April 1, 1944
Type: Movie
A beautiful woman goes to Las Vegas in a scheme to make her husbnd jealous, but once she gets there she becomes involved with another man.
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Henry Aldrich Plays Cupid
Title: Henry Aldrich Plays Cupid
Character: Mrs. Terwilliger ("Blue Eyes")
Released: April 1, 1944
Type: Movie
High-school student Henry Aldrich hopes to improve his grades by finding a sweetheart for his unmarried teacher.
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Cowboy Canteen
Title: Cowboy Canteen
Character: Vera Vague
Released: February 9, 1944
Type: Movie
Song and comedy revue, featuring Western talents, along with a theatrical troupe taking their vacation on the Lazy B Ranch run by Steve Bradley. Steve is about to enter the army and he and Tex Coulter compete for the love of Connie Grey.
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Doctor, Feel My Pulse
Title: Doctor, Feel My Pulse
Character: Vera Vague
Released: January 22, 1944
Type: Movie
Vera, a hypochondriac, mistakes an escaped lunatic for a physician who can help "cure" her.
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You Dear Boy!
Title: You Dear Boy!
Character: Vera
Released: November 4, 1943
Type: Movie
Vera pretends to be insane in order to get out of a prearranged marriage.
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Get Going
Title: Get Going
Character: Matilda Jones
Released: June 21, 1943
Type: Movie
Judy King, newly arrived in Washington, applies for a secretary job with a government agency and while being interviewed by Bob Carlton, an agent with the bureau, jokingly hints she may be a spy. While investigating her, he clears Judy and falls in love with her... and then uncovers a real Nazi spy ring.
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Swing Your Partner
Title: Swing Your Partner
Character: Vera Vague
Released: May 20, 1943
Type: Movie
Caroline Bird, the crotchety and stingy owner of Bird Milk Products, is not amused when her employees at the Dairyville factory, the oldest plant in the company, broadcast a special radio program in honor of her birthday. Employees Lulubelle, Scotty and Vera Vague, fed up with the terrible working conditions at Dairyville, cut into the broadcast, and Lulubelle asserts that Caroline is a "big hunk of cheese." Lane, the factory manager, cannot find the culprit, and so Caroline goes with her secretary, Dale Evans, to Dairyville.
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Ice Capades Revue
Title: Ice Capades Revue
Character: Aunt Nellie
Released: December 24, 1942
Type: Movie
Promoter Ann Porter decides to start her own Ice Show despite the efforts of ex-racketeer Duke Baldwin who owns a rival show. Jeff Stewart, a rich, suave young Broadwayite, falls in love with Ann and aids her in her fight against Baldwin.
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Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
Title: Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
Character: Tabitha Hazy
Released: October 1, 1942
Type: Movie
In the shanty town called the Cabbage Patch, Mrs. Wiggs scrabbles for survival with her brood of children and hopes for the return of her husband, who left many years before.
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Priorities on Parade
Title: Priorities on Parade
Character: Mariposa Ginsbotham
Released: July 23, 1942
Type: Movie
Band leader Johnny Draper auditions his band, the Dixie Pixies, at the Eagle Aircraft Co., hoping to be hired to play for the workers in the plant. However, personnel manager E. V. Hartley can only offer them regular jobs, and when Johnny inspires the Dixie Pixies to work in the plant, lead singer and dancer Donna D'Arcy leaves the band for a singing job at the Club Martel in downtown Los Angeles.
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Larceny, Inc.
Title: Larceny, Inc.
Character: Mademoiselle Gloria
Released: April 24, 1942
Type: Movie
Three ex-cons buy a luggage shop to tunnel into the bank vault next door. But despite all they can do, the shop prospers...
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Design for Scandal
Title: Design for Scandal
Character: Janie
Released: December 1, 1941
Type: Movie
A newsman (Walter Pidgeon) falls in love on Cape Cod with the judge (Rosalind Russell) his angry boss (Edward Arnold) expects him to discredit.
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Buy Me That Town
Title: Buy Me That Town
Character: Henriette Teagarden
Released: October 3, 1941
Type: Movie
A gangster and his mob buy a small-town in this warm comedy. They, tired of trying to make it as big city hoods, buy the town to use as a hideout. The leader of the gang begins to have a change of heart after he begins falling for a local girl.
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Ice-Capades
Title: Ice-Capades
Character: Vera Vague
Released: August 19, 1941
Type: Movie
Bob Clemens is a cameraman for newsreels. Assigned to shoot the Swiss ice skater Karen Vadja, he arrives too late, so decides to film a woman skating on a different New York rink and pass her off as Karen. The scheme backfires when promoter Larry Herman takes a look at Bob's film and decides to make the skater a star. Unfortunately, it's actually amateur (and illegal immigrant) Marie Bergin in the newsreel footage, not the great figure skater from Switzerland. Chaos ensues as Bob tries to straighten everybody out.
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Kiss the Boys Goodbye
Title: Kiss the Boys Goodbye
Character: Myra Stanhope
Released: August 1, 1941
Type: Movie
New York chorus girl Cindy Lou Bethany becomes frustrated when she prepares for an audition for a Broadway musical, but the auditions close and her roommate, Gwen Abbott, is hired to be secretary to Top Rumson, the show's financial backer. Gwen tells Cindy that the director, Lloyd Lloyd, and composer, Dick Rayburn, have been sent to the South on a talent search for a classic Southern belle type to star in the show, although their shows usually feature Myra Stanhope, an actress whose style is hopelessly inappropriate for this show. Desperate for work, Cindy returns to her aunt Lily Lou and uncle Jefferson Davis Bethany's home in the South and schemes to get Lloyd and Rayburn to audition her.
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The Mad Doctor
Title: The Mad Doctor
Character: Louise Watkins (as Barbara Allen [Vera Vague])
Released: December 20, 1940
Type: Movie
A reporter sleuths the mystery behind an oft-married Viennese doctor whose wives met mysterious fates.
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Melody and Moonlight
Title: Melody and Moonlight
Character: Adelaide Barnett
Released: October 10, 1940
Type: Movie
Jane Frazee made her starring film debut in the Republic B-plus musical Melody and Moonlight. The plot is motivated by the show-biz aspirations of bellboy Danny O'Brien (Johnny Downs). With the help of a wealthy chiropodist (Jerry Colonna), O'Brien not only gets to star on a big-time radio show, but also sprinkles stardust upon his sweetheart Kay Barnett (Jane Frazee)-who, unbeknownst to everyone but the audience, is the daughter of the show's sponsor.
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Melody Ranch
Title: Melody Ranch
Character: Veronica Whipple
Released: September 15, 1940
Type: Movie
His Arizona hometown of Torpedo invites Gene back to be the honorary sheriff of the Frontier Days Celebration.
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Sing, Dance, Plenty Hot
Title: Sing, Dance, Plenty Hot
Character: Susan
Released: August 10, 1940
Type: Movie
In this musical, a con man makes a good living by promoting bogus charity shows. He gets the communities all revved up and then skips town with all their money. But then he meets three earnest people wanting to garner financial support for an orphanage. This time the con man's loyal assistant finally catches on to the wicked scam and turns him in to the police. Meanwhile, the newly reformed assistant and one of the charity workers fall in loves.
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Broadway Melody of 1940
Title: Broadway Melody of 1940
Character: Ms. Konk (uncredited)
Released: February 9, 1940
Type: Movie
Johnny Brett and King Shaw are an unsuccessful dance team in New York. A producer discovers Brett as the new partner for Clare Bennett, but Brett, who thinks he is one of the people they lent money to, gives him the name of his partner.
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Village Barn Dance
Title: Village Barn Dance
Character: Vera Vague
Released: January 30, 1940
Type: Movie
Dan Martin, an unemployed college graduate, drifts into the town of Lyndale, only to learn that the town and everything in it are dominated by Minerva Withers, a tight-fisted, old skinflint whose welcome does not extend to tramps.
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Kennedy the Great
Title: Kennedy the Great
Character: Mrs. John Potter
Released: December 8, 1939
Type: Movie
A short film about a family man who realizes he's a bore at social gatherings so he purchases a trunk full of magic tricks hoping to soon be the life of the party.
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The Women
Title: The Women
Character: Receptionist (uncredited)
Released: September 1, 1939
Type: Movie
A happily married woman lets her catty friends talk her into divorce when her husband strays.
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Moving Vanities
Title: Moving Vanities
Character: Mrs. Errol
Released: May 5, 1939
Type: Movie
Leon Errol moves because of a rent increase.