[1] In 1921, Hellinger began working as a waiter and cashier at a Greenwich Village nightclub in order to meet theatre people.

In July 1925, he was assigned About Town, a Sunday column his editors intended him to fill with news and gossip about Broadway theatre.

He numbered such personalities as Walter Winchell, Florenz Ziegfeld, Texas Guinan, Dutch Schultz, and Legs Diamond among his friends.

In his onscreen foreword to the film, he wrote: It may come to pass that, at some distant date, we will be confronted with another period similar to the one depicted in this photoplay.

This film is a memory - and I am grateful for it.Hellinger began worked as a producer on B pictures such as The Adventures of Jane Arden (1939), Women in the Wind (1939), Hell's Kitchen (1939) and The Cowboy Quarterback (1939).

Hellinger went over to 20th Century Fox to make two films: Rise and Shine (1942), a musical, and Moontide (1942) with Jean Gabin, Lupino, Thomas Mitchell and Claude Rains.

Due to a congenital heart condition, Hellinger repeatedly was rejected for active service during World War II.

[2] Back at Warners, he produced the all-star musical revue Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) and made Between Two Worlds (1944), The Doughgirls (1944), and The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945).

He followed it with Swell Guy (1946) with Sonny Tufts, The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947) with Bogart back at Warners, Brute Force, and The Naked City, which he also narrated.

And he made quite a local reputation framing his fancies in flowery billets doux which stirred the hearts and the humors of readers of the tabloid press.