The I Don’t Care Girl 1953

The story of vaudeville performer Eva Tanguay, Mitzi Gaynor, is told to two writers who plan to turn it into a script for Hollywood producer George Jessel.

Her former partner Eddie McCoy, David Wayne, recalls how they met. Recently widowed, he found Eva singing in a cafe and, after she was fired, offered her a job that would launch her climb from a waitress to a stage sensation. Eva quickly falls for singer Larry Woods, Bob Graham, though the poised piano player Charles Bennett, Oscar Levant, also has eyes for her. Eva feels flattered and envious in equal measure, and when she discovers that Larry is married, she decides to strike out on her own.

Bennett is tracked down by the writers and claims Eddie’s story isn’t true. Eva, meanwhile, remembers that she and Eddie first met while she was already singing in a cafe. Unable to get Eddie to sober up and rejoin their act, she makes a bold break and is discovered by Florenz Ziegfeld, Wilton Graff, who signs Eva to his legendary Follies.

As Eva rises, she learns that Larry’s marriage is strained, but hopes for a lead role in his new operetta, which seems set to go to Stella, Hazel Brooks, another talented performer. In a moment of spite, Eva hires someone to launch a tomato-tossing stunt at Larry on stage, not knowing that he will appear in uniform—the Army—since he has enlisted to fight in the war. The prank backfires in a painful moment for Eva, who wrestles with regret and loneliness for a while, but the course of love eventually bends back toward reconciliation when Larry reappears and wins her back.