# Can you help identify this movie?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-help-identify-this-movie/808231>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 5, 2018, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-help-identify-this-movie/808231 "2018-02-05T17:35:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-help-identify-this-movie/808231/1 "2018-02-05T17:35:15Z")

</div>

This question arises from reading the nonfiction book _Sons of Sinbad_ by Alan Villiers.

In early 1939 he was at Zanzibar, where he saw a Hollywood movie based on a Broadway play (and presumably produced at least a year or so earlier). Here’s his description:

> [@](#):
>
> The film dealt with a New York stenographer and her efforts to escape, at least temporarily, from the monotony of her life and her work by spending a holiday in a vacation camp - a noisy commercialized, completely vulgar and largely insane place which, apparently, was patronized mainly by large numbers of oversexed and repressed young women, and a few inane men.

Anyone recognize this?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-help-identify-this-movie/808231/2 "2018-02-05T17:58:03Z")

</div>

I don’t know but the “sexy stenographer” was a popular character in the early 20th century, as the profession was almost entirely women and the job required not only that they could type well, but also be attractive and mostly mute. During the 1930s the “sexy stenographer” was slowly but completely replaced by the “sexy secretary,” so it’s likely this film is from the 20s or very early 30s.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-help-identify-this-movie/808231/3 "2018-02-05T18:11:23Z")

</div>

[Having Wonderful Time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Having_Wonderful_Time)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-help-identify-this-movie/808231/4 "2018-02-05T19:05:45Z")

</div>

> [@x-ray\_vision](#):
>
> [Having Wonderful Time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Having_Wonderful_Time)

I think you’ve nailed it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-help-identify-this-movie/808231/5 "2018-02-05T19:57:41Z")

</div>

> [@x-ray\_vision](#):
>
> [Having Wonderful Time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Having_Wonderful_Time)

I saw this on TCM a year or two ago. Lucille Ball was just gorgeous and had a lovely voice completely unlike the one heard on television more than a decade later.