They Learned About Women

In the summer, they belt the ol' horsehide. In the winter, they belt out songs. They're Jerry Burke and Jack Glennon, stars on the baseball field and the vaudeville circuit. Real-life vaudevillians Gus Van and Joe Schenck, whose piano act carried them to fame in the Ziegfeld Follies footlights and on early-radio airwaves, headline this spirited 1930 musical that combines World Series heroics with the quest for romance (The Broadway Melody's Bessie Love plays the female lead). The film's baseball-vaudeville scenario stepped up to the plate again in 1949 with Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly and Esther Williams in Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Batter -- and curtain -- up, musicals fans!