My Gal Sal is a 1942 American musical film distributed by 20th Century Fox and starring Rita Hayworth and Victor Mature.

Some of the songs portrayed as Dresser's work were actually written by him, but several others were created in the 1890s style for the film by the Hollywood songwriting team of Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin.

[3] Sally Elliott, a musical star meets up with Indiana boy Paul Dresser, a runaway who after a brief stopover with a medicine show arrives in the Gay Nineties era of New York City.

After being run out of town and left for dead for mistakenly being associated with a conman, he is found by Colonel Truckee - a travelling snake oil salesman - and his medicine show.

She breaks their engagement and refuses to sing his music ever again, until Paul sends a man with a song dedicated to her under a pen name which she performs with great success.

Zanuck initially had the script and the lead role of Sally Elliott tailor-made to fit the talents of Fox's biggest female star at the time, Alice Faye.

Zanuck thereafter had the script rewritten and redirected to showcase Irene Dunne, but her busy film schedule meant holding up production on My Gal Sal for eighteen months.

Zanuck subsequently approached the legendary famous diva of early silent and talkies film star Mae West with the role, but she too turned it down.

Cohn, on the other hand, was hoping to buy My Gal Sal from Fox and cast Hayworth in the part upon the film's transfer to Columbia.

Zanuck, however, rebuffed at selling the film, but instead offered Hayworth an exclusive two-movie contract to star in My Gal Sal and Tales of Manhattan (1942).