Famous directors and actors from the silent film era appear in the picture including Mack Sennett, Buster Keaton, Chester Conklin and Ben Turpin.

[1] In 1913 New York City, movie director Michael Linnett Connors (Don Ameche), chooses Broadway ingenue Molly Adair (Alice Faye) to be in his next film.

[2] In the wake of Alice Faye's 1938 success Alexander's Ragtime Band, which took a nostalgic look at the musical scene of the 1910s, screenwriter Lou Breslow approached studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck with an idea to do another period piece, this time in Technicolor, concerning the early days of silent movies.

The romance in the storyline was based on the real-life relationship between pioneer producer Mack Sennett (he also served as technical advisor) and his first star, Mabel Normand.

Film historian Ruth Anne Dwyer reports that St. Clair’s handling of these sequences in 1939 suggest that the series “might have been adventurous and high-spirited” in the originals.