Too Many Girls (RKO 1940, Lucille Ball, Van Johnson)

Engaging Rodgers and Hart musical Too Many Girls is directed by Mr. Broadway himself, George Abbott. Heiress Lucille Ball escapes her many suitors by enrolling in a small New Mexico college where the coeds outnumber the men ten to one. Her bodyguards come in handy on the gridiron.

Film debuts for Van Johnson, Desi Arnaz, and Eddie Bracken. Lucy and Desi married soon after production.

Too Many Girls is the film version of a 1939 Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart musical comedy; both play and film were directed by George Abbott, a showbiz legend whose career lasted from 1913 until a few months before his death in 1995 at age 107.

Songs include ‘Love Never Went to College,’ ‘The Conga,’ ‘I Didn’t Know What Time It Was,’ and ‘You’re Nearer.’

production details
USA | RKO | 85 minutes | 1940
Director: George Abbott
Script: John Twist, George Marion Jr.,

cast
Grady Sutton as Football Coach
Shep Houghton as Chorus Boy
Desi Arnaz as Manuelito Lynch
Ann Miller as Pepe
Frances Langford as Eileen Eilers
Dan White as Faculty Extra
Homer Dickenson as Mr. Casey’s Butler
Lucille Ball as Consuelo ‘Connie’ Casey
Richard Carlson as Clint Kelly
Eddie Bracken as Jojo Jordan
Hal Le Roy as Al Terwilliger
Libby Bennett as Tallulah Lou
Harry Shannon as Mr. Casey
Douglas Walton as Beverly Waverly
Chester Clute as Lister
Tiny Person as Midge Martin
Ivy Scott as Mrs. Tewksbury
Byron Shores as Sheriff Andaluz
Michael Alvarez as Joe
Zita Baca as Coed
John Benton as Chorus Boy
Chief John Big Tree as Chief
Pamela Blake as Coed
Iron Eyes Cody as Indian
Peggy Drake as Coed
Fernando Milagros Vera as Coed
Tommy Graham as Hawker
Averell Harris as Detective
Harry James as Orchestra Leader
Ellen Johnson as Coed
Van Johnson as Chorus Boy
Janet Lavis as Coed
Mildred Law as Coed
Amarilla Morris as Coed
Jay Silverheels as Indian
Anna Mae Tessle as Coed
Dorothy Vernon as Faculty Extra
Sethma Williams as Marie