Waikiki Wedding is a 1937 musical film

Musical film

The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...

 directed by Frank Tuttle

Frank Tuttle

Frank Tuttle was a Hollywood film director and writer who directed films from 1922 to 1959 ....

 and starring Bing Crosby

Bing Crosby

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....

. Bing plays the part of Tony Marvin, a PR

Public relations

Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....

 man charged with extolling the virtues of Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

. The female lead is Shirley Ross.

Martha Raye

Martha Raye

Martha Raye was an American comic actress and standards singer who performed in movies, and later on television....

, along with Bob Burns, are the "comic relief". The female lead, played by Shirley Ross

Shirley Ross

Shirley Ross was an American actress and singer.Ross was born Bernice Gaunt in Omaha, Nebraska but her family relocated to California when she was a child. She studied at Hollywood High School and the University of California and auditioned successfully for Gus Arnheim's band during her second...

 is a local beauty queen who makes unhelpful comments about the islands. The film was made by Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

 as a rival to the Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...

 and Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....

 films then being made by RKO Radio. The songs included Sweet is the Word for You, In a Little Hula Heaven, Blue Hawaii, Okolehao and Nani Ona Pua. Amongst the supporting cast was a young Anthony Quinn

Anthony Quinn

Antonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca , more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer...

.

The film is best remembered for the song Sweet Leilani

Sweet Leilani

"Sweet Leilani" is a song from the 1937 film, Waikiki Wedding. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and was popularized by Bing Crosby who recorded it in 1935....

with words and music by Harry Owens

Harry Owens

Harry Owens was an American composer, bandleader and songwriter.-Biography:Harry Robert Owens was born April 18, 1902, in O'Neill, Nebraska. He learned how to play a cornet in a small band on an Indian reservation in Montana.-Early years:He worked the vaudeville circuit by age 14. Owens studied...

, which won the Oscar for Best Song in 1937

1937 in music

-Events:*January 21 – Paul Sacher conducts the world première of Béla Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta in Basel*June 2 – The incomplete version of Alban Berg's opera Lulu is premièred in Zürich *June 8 – Première of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana in Frankfurt, Germany.*November 30 –...

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