Cheers for Miss Bishop

Cheers for Miss Bishop
Directed by	Tay Garnett
Produced by	Richard A. Rowland
Written by	Bess Streeter Aldrich (novel) Stephen Vincent Benet Sheridan Gibney Adelaide Heilbron
Starring	Martha Scott William Gargan Edmund Gwenn Marsha Hunt Rosemary DeCamp
Music by	Edward Ward
Cinematography	Hal Mohr
Editing by	William F. Claxton
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	February 21, 1941 (1941-02-21)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941) is a film based on the novel Miss Bishop by Bess Streeter Aldrich. It was directed by Tay Garnett and stars Martha Scott in the title role. The other cast members include William Gargan, Edmund Gwenn, Sterling Holloway, Dorothy Peterson, Marsha Hunt, Don Douglas, and Sidney Blackmer. This film marked the debut of Rosemary DeCamp.

Plot

Miss Ella Bishop is a teacher at a small town Midwestern college. 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; she remembers when her father had a farm near the town. Ella is an inhibited girl whose frustration grows as she approaches womanhood. Her ambition to teach causes her to lose her only opportunity for true love, and her life becomes one of missed chances and wrong choices.

She is engaged to lawyer Delbert Thompson; but she learns, to her distress, that Amy is pregnant by him. Delbert and Amy run off together; but Amy dies in childbirth, leaving Ella to care for Amy's daughter Hope. Hope grows up and marries Richard, and they move away and have a daughter named Gretchen. Ella also has a fling with another teacher, the unhappily married John Stevens, but she eventually breaks off the relationship; later, she is distressed to learn that John has been killed.

Through all the years, Ella is supported by her friend Sam Peters, a local grocer. Another source of support is Professor Corcoran, the college president who hires her as a teacher and 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. 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 honour their beloved Miss Bishop.

Adaptations to Other Media

Cheers for Miss Bishop was adapted as a radio play on the March 17, 1941 broadcast of Lux Radio Theater with Martha Scott and William Gargan reprising their film roles and on the November 6, 1946 broadcast of Academy Award Theater starring Olivia de Havilland.

External links

• Cheers for Miss Bishop at the Internet Movie Database
• Cheers for Miss Bishop is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]