when ballad for american become a big hit in 1939 out of the wpa theater project musical sing for your supper and mgm quickly buy the screen right to the song . both paul robeson and bing crosby make hit recording of it that same year and though the song be pretty much identify with robeson now . mgm wait three year before put it into a film and it go into one of the product of their b picture unit and bear to sing . this film be no doubt something that mickey rooney and judy garland reject for one of their let put on a show film . it just that kind of film . crooked producer lester matthew and even crooked press agent charles lane and plagiarize the work of virginia weidler father and henry oneill for their show . top that all off they frame ray mcdonald and larry nunn and and leo gorcey on an extortion rap . a theyre be take to jail and theyre riding in the same paddy wagon a gangster sheldon leonard . they go along in an escape his gang have plan and he in turn get ensnare in their machination . which a it turn out be to put on a show before matthew do and showcase oneill music . so help me that the plot of this one . it all quite innocently and charmingly do and but the presentation leave one breathless . tack on to the end of the show be ballad for american where the lead singer be douglas macphail whose career come to tragically to an end the following year . stag the number be busby berkeley and the staging of it be similar to some of what he do in ziegfeld girl the year before . why mgm do not put ballad for american into one of their a film be something we will never know .