Trocadero

Judy and Johnny are orphaned siblings being raised by Tony Rocadero, a Hollywood restaurateur who knows no limit in supporting his adopted children, even sending them both off to college. When Tony dies suddenly, one of them has to return home to keep the establishment open. The film opens with a present-day (present-day 1944) sequence of cameo appearances by 1940s Hollywood celebrities, then becomes a series of flashbacks explaining the history of the Hollywood Trocadero, usually in the form of musical numbers by the various types of big band, singing-dancing and stand-up acts which had kept the club going. Along the way, both Judy and Johnny find love and learn the difference between pretentious upper-class fronting and real-people sincerity. There's nothing that stands out about the film, but in 1944 watching it in a heated theater certainly beat sitting at home in the dark.