Plot

Starving playwright Judith Wells meets playboy writer of musicals George Macrae over a plate of stolen spaghetti. He persuades producer Sam Gordon to buy her ridiculous play "North Winds" just to improve his romantic chances, and even persuades her to sing in the sort of show she pretends to despise. But just when their romance is going well, Gordon's former flame Lulu reveals the ace up her sleeve.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

As the granddaughter of Edgar Allan Poe, Judy Poe Wells believes that she's destined to be a writer herself, specifically of serious plays. However, since she moved to New York from small-town Hannibal, she hasn't sold one play, arguably since she's not very good at it which she doesn't realize, with no sales meaning no money even for the basics. On one of his seemingly-regular drunken nights out, George Macrae, successful writer and director of light Broadway musicals, meets Judy, to who he is attracted. His latest show in production, "Sunny Days", is threatened by the diva attitude of the show's leading lady, Evelyn Moore, who believes she's more sophisticated than she really is. George doesn't tell Judy who he really is after she poo-poos light comedies as beneath her. George takes clandestine actions to help independent-minded Judy, who won't accept handouts. The one thing he does learn about her in the process is that she can sing, very well--something she generally does only for herself. George has to try to convince Judy to stop writing and pursue singing on the Broadway stage instead as her true destiny. On the personal front, a George and Judy happy ending is threatened by the lies including, but also above and beyond, that of his real identity--and his current girlfriend, actress Lulu Riley, who will do anything to keep him.—Huggo