 Based on the Marie Baumer play "Penny Arcade", directed by  William Keighley (qv), which debuted on Broadway on March 11,  1930. It flopped, running just three weeks, enabling  Al Jolson (qv) to pick up the screen rights for $20,000.00 and  resold it to Warner Brothers at a tidy profit with a proviso that  James Cagney and Joan Blondell (qv) be cast in their original  roles.