Kiss the Boys Goodbye 1941

Cindy Lou Bethany, Mary Martin, a young performer raised in the South and now a hopeful chorus girl in New York City, longs for a starring role in a big production. An audition to portray a Southern belle in that show becomes her big break, but it ends before she can show Don Ameche what she can do. The film also features Jean Porter in a brief appearance as the Girl Going to Audition (uncredited).

Backers Top Rumson Raymond Walburn and writer Bert Fisher Jerome Cowan want a newcomer, but the director Lloyd Lloyd feels more comfortable with his old standby, Myra Stanhope Barbara Jo Allen, even though she seems all wrong for this part. The producers travel South to cast the role, so Cindy Lou follows them there, looking up her Aunt Lily Lou Bethany Elizabeth Patterson and Uncle Jefferson Davis Bethany Minor Watson and scheming to show the New Yorkers what she can do.

Cindy Lou surprises everyone, not only with a musical number showing off her talents, but with a striptease thrown in that ends up with her diving into a swimming pool. Dick Rayburn Oscar Levant and others are delighted, but the director remains unamused, and Gwendolyn Abbott Virginia Dale quarrels with Cindy Lou, who proceeds to toss her into the pool, too. By the time the New York group returns, the director realizes that Cindy Lou is the exact actress he has been looking for, making her a star.