The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.

When all Broadway shows are shut down during the Depression, a trio of desperate showgirls scheme to bilk a repugnant high society man of his money to keep their show going.

Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.

An ex-gang member tries to resist his old cohorts' criminal influence after he suddenly becomes a Hollywood movie star.

A swindler scams a newspaper reporter-photographer and then, not realizing where the man is employed, applies for a job at his newspaper.

"In the Gay Nineties New York had grown up into bustles and balloon Sleeves ... but The Bowery had grown younger, louder and more rowdy until it was known as the 'Livest Mile on the face of the globe' ... the cradle of men who were later to be famous.

New York singer and nightclub owner Lady Lou has more male friends than can be imagined. One is a vicious escaped criminal on the way to see 'his' girl, unaware she hasn't exactly been faithful in his absence. Help is at hand in the form of young Captain Cummings, a local temperance league leader.

Generational saga tracing the events in the lives of the midwest pioneering Nordholm family, as seen through the eyes of businessman Orin Nordholm Jr., who ages from a youth to an elderly grandfather.

Big Steve Halloway, gambler and proprietor of New York's Horseshoe Cabaret, is in desperate need of money. He arranges for his fellow bookies, especially Sorrowful Jones, to each pay him $1,000 for his racehorse, Dream Prince, to lose. With all bets being placed at the window, Sorrowful encounters a gambler, having lost $500, wanting to place his bet but unable to come up with $20. Instead, he places his little girl, Marthy Jane, as security, or in bookie's terms a "marker". "Marky", as she comes to be known, winds up under the care of Sorrowful Jones and his lady friend, singer Bangles Carson.

Kitty Lorraine has one purpose in life: turning her daughter Shirley into a star. Kitty controls every aspect of the girl's nascent career -- even blackmailing a stage manager so that Shirley can take a more prestigious gig. But Kitty goes too far when she breaks up her daughter's budding relationship with sweet artist Warren Foster. Heartbroken, Shirley sets off on a series of disastrous but profitable relationships.

After he inherits some money, Harold Bissonette ("pronounced bis-on-ay") decides to give up the grocery business, move to California and run an orange grove. Despite his family's objections and the news that the land he bought is worthless, Bissonette packs up and drives out to California with his nagging wife Amelia and children.

One woman faces many trials on the road to romance after unwittingly marrying a bigamist, then a carnival barker, and then falling for a young engineer.

Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.

Owen, a small time bookie, decides to open an insurance business as it involves lesser risk. His first client is Colonel Youngblood who insures his daughter, Marilyn, against marriage.

Sam Bisbee is an inventor whose works (e.g., a keyhole finder for drunks) have brought him only poverty. His daughter is in love with the son of the town snob. Events conspire to ruin his bullet-proof tire just as success seems near. Another of his inventions prohibits him from committing suicide, so Sam decides to go on living.

World War I, October 1918. The more than 500 men of the 77th Infantry Division of the United States Army, who have been recruited in New York City and trained in Yaphank, are sent to France, to help break down the German defenses located in the Argonne forest…

An unemployed loafer who spends his time playing pool decides he's ready to look for a job so he can secure his girlfriend's parents' approval for their marriage.

Edward Campbell, known as Checkers, is a racetrack tout. Determined to reform himself, he foreswears gambling, but must take it up once more in order to save someone he loves from disaster.

An aspiring writer and her boyfriend, a professional agitator head off to the Big Apple in search of good fortune. Unfortunately, the agitator soon finds himself in trouble with the cops. Meanwhile the writer attempts to become a Greenwich Village Bohemian type. She and her new friends are all starving for their art until a kindly gent offers them financial assistant. They refuse on principle. Tragedy pays a call when the writer learns that her boyfriend has been untrue.

Molly O, a young girl abandoned by her wealthy painter father, David King, after her mother's death; she endures an orphanage and a cruel boardinghouse before her father, remorseful and famous, unknowingly adopts the impostor niece of the orphanage matron instead, leading to Molly's return as a maid in his home, ultimately revealing her true identity and reuniting them. Version destroyed by fire.