Babes on Swing Street

Barber Joe Costello prefers to let his teenage daughter Trudy shave his customers while he plays the accordion. One day, Trudy’s wealthy heiress friend, Carol Curtis, arrives at the Costello barber show and announces that Mr. Ansel of the Randall Institute of Music has agreed to audition the local kids for his private school. After the audition, Ansel agrees to offer the group ten scholarships, but informs the talented youngsters that there is still a minimum fee of twenty dollars per month. While the youngsters try to devise ways to raise the needed tuition money, Carol’s snobbish spinster aunt Martha sets up trust funds for both her absentminded brother Malcolm and Carol from the family’s vast real estate holdings. Meanwhile, teenagers Billy Harper and Corny Panatowski come up with the idea of opening a nightclub to raise the tuition money, and Carol offers to help them find a hall in which to house it. Learning of the youngsters’ plights, Malcolm suggests that they convert the empty Curtis Hall into a nightclub, something he had been considering doing himself with band leader Freddie Slack. Knowing that his sister would never agree to such an idea, Malcolm convinces Martha that he needs the empty building as a studio for his oil painting. After a great deal of hard work, “Chez Enfants” prepares for its grand opening, but Carol is upset by the return of blonde bombshell Fern Wallace, her rival for Billy’s affections. Martha then discovers Malcolm’s scheme the day before the club’s grand opening and orders the building evacuated. Afterward, Fern falsely accuses Carol of deliberately closing the show, and convinces Billy of as much. The next day, Malcolm pretends to be suicidal, so Martha agrees to reopen the club. When she discovers her brother’s latest deception, however, she attempts to close it once again. Martha’s plans are thwarted by the absentminded Malcolm, who learns that he is now fifty-two years old and, according to his parent’s will, has already inherited the hall. The club is a big success, and Martha receives many mistaken congratulations from society friends who are in attendance. Malcolm is then granted his full inheritance, and Carol and Billy are finally united.