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Meet the People

1944 film by Charles Reisner

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ12126131 ↗
Source-derived summary

Meet the People (1944) is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical comedy film made, and set, during World War II, and starring Lucille Ball and Dick Powell and featuring Virginia O'Brien, Bert Lahr, Rags Ragland and June Allyson. The film takes its title from a successful Los Angeles musical revue, which ran on Broadway from December 25, 1940, to May 10, 1941. Vaughn Monroe and his orchestra, Spike Jones and his City Slickers, and Virginia O'Brien were also in the original stage cast. O'Brien sings the hit song "Say That We're Sweethearts Again".

Plot

Welder William "Swanee" Swanson works at a shipyard in Morganville, Delaware. One day he sees the brightly shining Broadway star Julie Hampton speak in front of a crowd of workers at the yard, and he instantly falls in love with her.

Luckily enough, Julie has promised to go on a date with the man who sells the most war bonds within a certain time limit. Swanee lies to Julie and tells her that he has $7,500 in pledges. He also tells the workers that Julie will kiss every worker who makes additional pledges to him. The crowd goes wild with excitement, and Swanee easily wins the prize.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Meet the People” as 1944 film by Charles Reisner. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Meet, People and film.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1944, 1940, 1941—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1944-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Meet, People and film providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Meet the People”, the useful work is to connect “1944 film by Charles Reisner” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12126131. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1944, 1940 and 1941.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Meet the People”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Meet the People primary sources, Meet the People archive and Meet research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Meet the People”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Meet the People” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.