Peggy Ryan Trailers
Pleasure Palace TrailerAll Ashore TrailerThere's a Girl in My Heart Trailer
A vastly talented musical performer, Peggy Ryan found stardom dancing alongside partner Donald O'Connor as Universal's answer to Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. Paired up in many a low-budget WWII-era musical, she was best known for her dancing feet, but she was no slouch in the singing department and her buoyant personality added plenty of zest to the escapist fare she appeared in.
Christened Margaret O'Rene Ryan, Peggy was, as they say, born in a trunk in 1924 to a pair of vaudeville dancers ("The Merry Dancing Ryans") and, by age two, the pint-sized scene-stealer was already selling her heart out on stage alongside her parents. No glamor girl, Peggy had a very plaintive face, prominent nose and gangly figure, similar to a Virginia Weidler, so she was wise enough to play it up for laughs. Discovered by George Murphy, the young girl earned a part in Universal's enjoyable tune fest Top of the Town(1937), where the little Irish charmer managed to steal a dance alongside Murphy. Other movies beckoned, sometimes in teary dramas such as The Women Men Marry (1937) and The Grapes of Wrath (1940). With the movie What's Cookin'? (1942), she teamed with O'Connor for the first time. The two were a sensation and sparked many musical programmers with their clowning, mugging, intricate dance steps, and indefatigable style. The jitterbugging twosome romped through Private Buckaroo (1942), Give Out, Sisters(1942), Get Hep to Love (1942), Top Man (1943), The Merry Monahans (1944), Chip Off the Old Block (1944) and Bowery to Broadway (1944) during their peak. During this period she married James Cross and had a son, James Michael Cross, who later died in a 1987 car accident.
Peggy began to freelance in post-war years and found employment with other studios. She was paired up with dancer Ray McDonald for the films Shamrock Hill (1949) and All Ashore (1953) and began seeing him off screen as well. They eventually married, had a child named Kerry, and toured together across the U.S. in a nightclub act for a few years until their marriage folded. She decided to retire from films following her third marriage to Hawaiian announcer/emcee/columnist Eddie Sherman. She choreographed book shows here and there ("The Music Man", "Funny Girl"), but basically settled down in Hawaii. In later years, she came out of semi-retirement to appear in a small recurring part as the Governor of Hawaii's secretary, Millie, on TV's popular Hawaii Five-O (1968) in 1968. She remained a sporadic presence throughout the run of the show. After teaching tap dancing for decades on the sly, Peggy moved to Las Vegas with her family. A trouper to the end, she formed a group of middle-aged dancers called "The TNT's" and performed in and about town. In 2003, she suffered her first mini-stroke, dying a year later in what was reported to be complications from multiple strokes on October 30, 2004.
Most Popular Peggy Ryan Trailers
Total trailers found: 32
20 February 1942
J. P. Courtney wants to update the music on the radio program he sponsors, but his wife, Agatha Courtney, is the final authority and addicted to the classics and won't allow him to replace Professor Bistell and his symphonic orchestra.
07 April 1939
This is the story of the historic 1938 flight of Douglas 'Wrong Way' Corrigan. Mr. Corrigan starred in this film, which chronicled his infamous flight.
10 September 1937
A newsman with a no-good wife exposes a religious racket with a newswoman who loves him.
26 April 1938
The scene is set at Billy Rose's Casa Manana Revue, filmed at the Fort Worth Frontier Fiesta (1937), an enormous production created as part of the Texas Centennial civic celebrations.
03 November 1944
Two Bowery vaudevillians find success in producing shows on Broadway, but when one of them suddenly departs to work for a beautiful woman, a feud erupts.
13 July 1945
Radio's miracle show is on the screen.
01 February 1944
The son of a strict Navy officer falls for the daughter of a musical-comedy star.
27 October 1944
The president of a settlement-house group puts on a benefit variety show.
01 February 1949
A young girl holds a special place in her heart for a place called Shamrock HIll, and she tries to stop it from having a television station built on it.
12 June 1942
A rebellious young inductee has trouble toeing the line until he meets a retired officer's lovely daughter.
15 September 1944
The film concerns a family vaudeville troupe headed by patriarch Pete Monahan. Because of his love affair with the bottle, Pete manages to get himself and his family blacklisted from every major vaude house in the country.
02 October 1942
Orphan prodigy singer runs away from her oppressive aunt and tricks a rural couple into adopting her.
14 September 1945
Singer/Dancer Peggy Ryan neither sings nor dances in this comedy in which she plays a secretary, whose life has no romance because she devotes all of her time to her attractive older sister.
15 March 1940
Tom Joad returns to his home after a jail sentence to find his family kicked out of their farm due to foreclosure.
01 June 1945
A vaudeville performer returns from the dead to help his wife and daughter, who are being dominated by a greedy banker.
04 May 1945
A famous stage actor hopes to land the lead role in a big new Broadway musical, but he's unaware his teenage son has already been given the part.
28 May 1943
Students at the Davis School of the Theatre are assigned "Antigone" as their class play, but they conspire to do a swing musical instead.
03 March 1953
Three sailors finally get some shore leave, and go in search of fun and girls.
11 July 1939
This comedy is set in New York and centers upon a singing Irish cop who causes quite a sensation among two producers when he sings at the annual Policeman's Ball.
02 February 1945
Molly, her brother, Slats, and his pal, Oliver, are taxi dancers at the Miramar Ballroom. As a publicity stunt, Slats plants an article about Molly claiming her ambition is to earn enough money to attend staid, all-girl Bixby College.
19 December 1949
A Gay-Nineties musical set in NYC's Bowery and East-Side explores the life of its inhabitants---an Irish policeman and his tap-dancing daughter and music-hall wife; a German professor of music and his singing daughter; and an Italian café-owner, a kindly priest, a struggling young doctor and a saloon-keeper.
29 May 1942
A poor girl falls for a wealthy young man. He invites her to his gala birthday party, but she doesn't have the right kind of dress to wear, so her family and friends band together to raise money to get her the proper dress.
05 May 1944
During World War II, all the studios put out "all-star" vehicles which featured virtually every star on the lot--often playing themselves--in musical numbers and comedy skits, and were meant as morale-boosters to both the troops overseas and the civilians at home.
01 June 1944
18-year-old Angela, reared in a New England town by her Aunt Betsy, receives an inheritance which she uses to go to New York, ostensibly for voice training, but she is pursuing Major Hilary Jarret, an Army surgeon with whom she has become infatuated.
22 October 1980
Story of a professional gambler, connoisseur, gourmet and sportsman who sets out to help a Las Vegas hotel-casino owner from losing his controlling interest to a business syndicate but finds his reputation is on the line when he runs into a mystery lady who seems to operate on both sides of the law.
24 December 1942
By popular consensus, Allan Jones' best Universal mini-musical of the 1940s was the timely When Johnny Comes Marching Home.
17 September 1943
In this WW II musical, a young man suddenly finds himself in charge of his family when his father is called to war.
01 September 1942
The Andrews Sisters headline this musical. They play the lead act at a popular nightclub. The trouble begins when they hire a few students from a financially foundering dance school for their newest production.
06 March 1942
A West Coast version of "Stage Door", set at a Hollywood boarding house for young women hoping for movie careers.
05 July 1940
Sailor is going to marry his girlfriend when he returns, but she becomes foster mother to baby whose parents are accidentally killed.
17 April 1937
In this musical set in swingin' Manhattan, an heiress plans a ballet in the famous Moonbeam ballroom located atop a 100-story skyscraper.
