The Big Broadcast is a 1932 American pre-Code musical comedy film directed by Frank Tuttle and starring Bing Crosby, Stuart Erwin, and Leila Hyams. Based on the play Wild Waves by William Ford Manley, the film is about a radio-singer who becomes a popular hit with audiences, but takes a disrespectful approach to his career. His repeated latenesses leads to the bankruptcy of the radio station, but his career is saved by a new friend who buys the station and gives him his job back. The film co-stars George Burns and Gracie Allen in supporting roles. The Big Broadcast was produced by Paramount Pictures and was the first in a series of four Big Broadcast movies. Plot Radio-singer Bing Hornsby (Bing Crosby) is not very serious about his career. His chronic tardiness and his soon-to-be marriage with the notorious Mona Lowe (Sharon Lynn) has become an issue at station WADX. After an unpleasant conversation with station manager George Burns, concerning dismissal and a lawsuit, the despondent singer visits a speakeasy. While there, Hornsby sees miserable Texas oilman Leslie McWhinney (Stuart Erwin), who does not recognize Bing Hornsby as a celebrity. Hornsby consoles Leslie, who expresses his heartbreak over a woman swindling him out of $100,000. Hornsby initially intends to comfort him, but he soon sees a newspaper article about Mona's betrayal. They both realize they have been wronged by their relationships. That night, Hornsby invites Leslie to his apartment, where the electricity goes out. They are both drunk, and Hornsby convinces Leslie to join him in suicide via gas poisoning. Leslie reluctantly goes along with the plan, sitting side by side in the kitchen. As they near death, they are haunted by a ghostly apparition of a skull and an accordion player who sings "Here Lies Love" (Arthur Tracy). Before they die, they are rescued by a doorman and Anita Rogers (Leila Hyams), secretary at station WADX and the former fiancée of Leslie. The next morning, Hornsby and Leslie wake up to find they are still alive. Anita admits to Leslie that she has fallen in love with Hornsby. Hornsby then invites Leslie to join them at WADX, saying he can find him a job around the radio station. Meanwhile, station manager George Burns is riddled by the addled conversation and hijinks of his stenographer, Gracie Allen. After multiple mishaps, he loses the radio station and repo men begin to