The story of the short film from the beginning of the movies in the 1890s, when all movies were shorts, through the 1950s when short subjects virtually disappeared from theaters.
Airline hostess Ann Parker is fired for being undignified when she sang to calm the passengers during a storm. Mike Connors, publicity man for Frankie Carle's orchestra, invites her to try out as the band's vocalist since the regular singer, Mary Lou, had just quit the band on the eve of an engagement at a swanky New York night club. Encouraged by her boyfriend, Steve Roberts, Ann lands the job and assumes the name of "Mary Lou", a trademark almost for Frankie Carle singers. But the departed Mary Lou shows up and threatens to sue if she is not rehired. Ann returns to her former job. Meanwhile, Steve locates the woman who was the original Mary Lou with the band, and urges Mike to keep the current Mary Lou off the bandstand until he can return with Ann.
Somewhere beyond the shores of the United States on a small island, where men ask no questions, women reveal no past and spies neither receive nor expect any mercy, a giant Chromite plant is working full blast to supply the United Nations with the precious war-metal. This is the story of that mine and the people working it in a land the law forget, but the evil and devious Nazis remembered.
A young trumpeter rises through the jazz world and finds love.
High-school principal Dr. Alfred Carroll relates to an audience of parents that marijuana can have devastating effects on teens: a drug supplier entices several restless teens, Mary and Jimmy Lane, sister and brother, and Bill, Mary's boyfriend, into frequenting a reefer house. Gradually, Bill and Jimmy are drawn into smoking dope, which affects their family lives.