Once in a Lifetime 1932

Following the sensational triumph of The Jazz Singer, the first all-talking picture, a sharp downturn in bookings forces three song-and-dance vaudeville performers to rethink their futures. The lineup of performers—Jerry Hyland, May Daniels, and George Lewis—face a canceled engagement and a bold, uncertain path ahead. Jerry, convinced that talkies are the future, dreams of breaking into Hollywood’s fledgling movie industry long before others catch on. May, ever practical and inventive, conceives a plan to open a school of elocution to teach actors how to speak on film. On their journey toward a new horizon, May meets an old friend, Helen Hobart, a powerful and widely read columnist who offers to connect them with Herman Glogauer, the head of a major studio. Meanwhile, George finds himself drawn to another passenger, the aspiring young actress Susan Walker, setting the stage for romance amid the expanding film world.

The movie world they encounter proves to be a colorful, eccentric landscape where ambition collides with showmanship and opportunity seems as unpredictable as a box office hit. George Lewis shocks everyone when he is unexpectedly appointed by Herman Glogauer as supervisor of production, a role that gives him the power to advance Susan Walker’s career. Despite appearances of incompetence, or perhaps because of it, his debut project turns into a critical and commercial smash, thrusting Susan into stardom and cementing the team’s foothold in Hollywood.

As success mounts, a smooth-talking salesman persuades George Lewis to purchase a vast fleet of 2000 airplanes, a decision that leads to Herman Glogauer firing him. Yet this bold move has an odd, transformative effect: air-themed films begin to surge in popularity, and George finds himself unexpectedly poised at the center of a rapidly evolving niche. With studios eager to acquire airplanes from Glogauer at any cost, George is reevaluated as a genius once again, proving that a single audacious gamble can redefine an industry and alter the fortunes of everyone around him.