Love in Bloom 1935

Colonel Downey, a carnival owner, goes bankrupt and lands in jail, J. C. Nugent stepping into the role. His daughter-in-law Gracie Downey, Gracie Allen, decides to travel to New York City to find George’s sister Violet and ask for financial aid. George, George Burns, goes along with Gracie, and together they discover Violet Downey, Dixie Lee, dining with songwriter Larry Deane, Joe Morrison, unaware that Vi and Larry don’t have a dollar to their name between them. The trio sets off on a cross-country journey aboard a lively musical calliope truck, turning every highway stop into a small carnival of its own and drawing curious looks from passersby wherever they go.

In a bustling moment of coincidence, Vi and Larry each land jobs at Pop Heinrich’s music store, where Violet proves to be a natural at sales, her singing-like chatter charming customers while Larry lends his musical accompaniment to her pitches. Violet manages to recover her belongings from the apartment where she had been locked out, yet she entrusts the remainder of her money to George to bail out her father from jail. As plans for a wedding between Larry and Violet take shape, the specter of Violet’s drunken father casts a shadow over the proceedings, yet life persists and the couple remains hopeful.

The wedding day finally arrives, but the drama escalates when Violet’s drunken father bursts into the church, attempting to halt the ceremony and confuse the procession with a misbegotten intention. Violet flees the church in shame, and, feeling defeated, returns to the carnival world she once fled. Yet success continues to follow Larry, one of his songs, My Heart is An Open Book, rising to global acclaim and turning into a surprising catalyst for fortune. With the song’s success, Larry uses his earnings to become one of the carnival’s new owners, and in a quiet, earned reconciliation, he and Violet find their way back to each other amid the bustling, music-filled chaos of the road they’ve traveled together.