"Mad About Music"

Norman Taurog's "Mad About Music" (Universal, 1938) begins with a premiere of Gwen Taylor's new film at Grauman's Chinese. We get this shot of the readerboard east of the theatre with searchlights sweeping across the building and illuminating the cars in the parking lot behind the sign.

Taylor, played by Gail Patrick, is a glamorous star who's keeping secret the fact that she has a fourteen year old daughter away at a boarding school in Switzerland. Deanna Durbin plays the daughter and she's soon seen singing and bicycling through the hills of Universal's backlot version of Switzerland. 

 

A wider view, using some footage from an actual premiere.  

 

 

 

As the crowd exits, Sid Grauman comes up and tells Gail "You were marvelous tonight. Never more glamorous. One of the greatest performances I've seen in the Chinese Theatre. You know, I've reserved a slab of concrete. May I have your footprints?" William Frawley, on the right, plays her manager.

See the Los Angeles Theatres pages about Grauman's Chinese for a history of the building along with hundreds of photos.

The hidden daughter has little communication with her mother. But Deanna has been writing letters to herself, ostensibly from her imaginary explorer father, so that she has something to read to her friends at school. Herbert Marshall comes to the Swiss town on a bit of a vacation and gets pressed into service by Deanna to pretend he's her father. Also featured are Arthur Treacher, Marcia Mae Jones, Helen Parrish and Jackie Moran. The cinematography was by Joseph A. Valentine.    

No, the film never makes it back to the Chinese for another premiere.  But Gail Patrick and Herbert Marshall end up together so Deanna finally has a father, even if he's not a famous explorer.

On IMDb: "Mad About Music"