Cheers for Miss Bishop

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Cheers for Miss Bishop is a 1941 American

Miss Ella Bishop (Martha Scott) is a teacher at Midwestern University. The story is told in flashback and takes place over many years, from the 1880s to the 1930s, showing her from her freshman year to her retirement as an old woman. At the beginning, she lives with her mother and her vixenish cousin Amy (Mary Anderson); she remembers when her father had a farm near the town. Ella is an inhibited girl whose frustration grows as she approaches womanhood. She dreams of becoming a teacher. When she graduates from Midwestern University, she is thrilled when its president, Professor Corcoran (Edmund Gwenn), offers her a position on the faculty.

Ella becomes engaged to lawyer Delbert Thompson (

Through all the years, Ella is supported by her friend Sam Peters (William Gargan), a local grocer who loves her. Another source of support is Professor Corcoran, who persuades her to stay when she considers leaving. His death is a blow to Ella.

As Ella reaches old age, she reflects back and realizes she allowed the years to go by without achieving what she believes to be true fulfillment. When the new president pressures her to finally retire, she agrees. However, the years have not been without glory; and her moment of triumph arrives when her numerous, now-famous students from over the years return to a testimonial dinner at the school to honor their beloved Miss Bishop.

Cast

• Martha Scott as Ella Bishop
• William Gargan as Sam Peters
• Edmund Gwenn as Professor Corcoran
• Sterling Holloway as Chris Jensen
• Dorothy Peterson as Mrs. Bishop
• Sidney Blackmer as John Stevens
• Mary Anderson as Amy Saunders
• Donald Douglas
  as Delbert Thompson
• Marsha Hunt as Hope Thompson
• John Archer as Richard Clark (as Ralph Bowman)
• Lois Ranson as Gretchen Clark
• Rosemary De Camp
  as Minna Fields
• Knox Manning as Anton Radcheck
• John Arledge as 'Snapper' MacRae
• Jack Mulhall as Professor Carter
• Howard C. Hickman as Professor Lancaster (as Howard Hickman)
• Helen MacKellar as Miss Patton
• William Farnum as Judge Peters
• Anna Mills as Mrs. Peters
• John Hamilton as President Watts
• Pierre Watkin as President Crowder
• Charles Judels as Cecco
• Sue Moore as Stena
• Rand Brooks as 'Buzz' Wheelwright
• Mary Field as Mary, the Dressmaker

Technology

Scholars such as David Bordwell have noted Cheers for Miss Bishop as one of the first films to incorporate autobiographical voiceover in its use of the flashback.^[2] The film begins with Sam and Ella in their older ages, leading Ella into flashbacks of her life, each marked with autobiographical voice-overs, from her graduation at Midwestern University in the 1880s to her retirement in the 1930s. The director uses fading transitions to symbolize the change in time. The makeup director, Don L. Cash, ably aged the actors distinctly through decades. Another technology the cinematographer used was dollies, to capture moving motion and to zoom out of scenes.

Adaptations

Cheers for Miss Bishop was adapted as a radio play on the March 17, 1941, broadcast of