Am I the only one who noticed?

Nicely done, Andrew. I must have watched Penny Serenade about thirty times over these past 16 years or so (and more recently have been fast-forwarding throught those scenes during the night in which Julie and Roger bring the baby to the apartment because it's a little much), and had noticed the RCA record labels but hadn't considered them out of the oridinary.

If Julie and Roger marry on New Year's Day, 1932, then it must stand to reason that they meet around the spring of 1931, do the dancing and beach scene that summer and then advance to her New Year's Eve celebration.

“You Were Meant for Me” was introduced in Broadway Melody of 1929, so film audiences of 1941 would probably know this. If Julie tells Roger at the record shoppe that this 78 RPM is a new release, then one may assume that it's a 1931 cover version because its vocalist isn't identified, and he's not the same artist from the film.

But it's scratched — which is what drew Roger’s attention into the record shoppe in the first place. Would Julie have sold him this scratched disk? — evidently unless by strange coincidence his purchase skips in the same exact place.

One may assume, then that because the only time they share after their marriage happens on the train, that Julie arrives in Japan in the spring, at which time she suffers from the earthquake. When they arrive at Miss Oliver’s adoption agency, one may figure this to be around the fall of 1934.

Trina turns six around 1940, and, one year later, Julie and Roger are pondering events of her last Christmas program, which would place the climax in present-day 1941.

I agree that Beulah Bondi is very effective as Miss Oliver but also think that Edgar Buchannan, Irene Dunne and Cary Grant also deliver compelling performances. I would also like to have seen the return of Ann Doran (as Dottie) in the film.

Many years back, someone asked me why, if Julie and Roger foresake all else for the sake of Trina, she doesn't accompany him to the hearing. I figured that this was for Dramatic effect, for him to have his big scene, and then for her to add plenty of pathos afterwards.

Similarly, during the earthquake sequence, they are both helpless against nature, but at least the collection of records survive, as the one thing which they are both able to hold onto.


“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” —Charles Dickens

Yes, I did notice that, and notably the use of all the RCA Victor imagery in the music shop. I saw at least two 'Nipper' dog statues. Maybe RCA owned the rights to the tunes that Columbia wanted to use and agreed to a little mutual handwashing.

You're mistaken in thinking there was any corporate connection between The Columbia Broadcasting System and Columbia Pictures Corporation. They were totally separate entities. As it happened, I worked for both of them!

Since you love trivia, did you know?.....

The title of the painting that shows Nipper listening to the gramophone is: "His Late Master's Voice" not "His Master's Voice" as it later was renamed. The original title (which appears on some of the earlier marketing materials and record labels) was deemed too depresssing for the buying public. No one wants to think of something grizzly like a dead man's voice coming out of a machine. So the concept was changed to allow Nipper to hear the voice of a living person.

There were rumors that the original painting has the dog and machine sitting on a coffin, which is ridiculous. The original painting (and the logo) has both on a table with tablecloth.

"When you throw dirt, you lose ground" --old proverb