“Undaunted by the fact that he had never visited California, Moss Hart relied on his conversant knowledge of movies and avid reading of Variety to write Once in a Lifetime, a Broadway satire examining power, glory and procedure in Hollywood. Once in a Lifetime centers around three dubiously-talented refugees from the dying vaudeville circuit (Jack Oakie, Aline MacMahon and Russell Hopton) headed for Hollywood. The fortuitous coming of sound provides the perfect scheme--the trio will offer their services as ‘voice' experts, despite their ignorance of the field. Letters of introduction in hand, they manage to get inside the studio. There they encounter a bombastic producer, a contract screenwriter who has yet to receive an assignment, some bubble-headed beauties and other characters who force the frustrated, would-be writer to conclude that Hollywood is a ship run by fools. The foolish Oakie repeats this observation to the hot-headed mogul who reacts by promoting Oakie to a producer. Oakie's first project, a remake of a 1910 Biograph one-reeler, is a studio disaster (the sets are only partially lit and the producer's nutcracking habit accidently turns up on the soundtrack). The critics love it and their reviews are raves! It seems that Oakie's bunglings always turn out right so the studio head gives the work crew the green light when they arrive one day to raze the studio--as per Oakie's orders.
“Obscured for nearly 40 years until the American Film Institute's restoration efforts brought it back to light in the early seventies, Once in a Lifetime is considered one of the first, funniest and most incisive looks at Hollywood. The storyline and much of the caustic humor in Hart and Kaufman's version have been retained. Universal's embellishments include some ‘classic' Hollywood sets and performances--notably by Oakie, MacMahon, Gregory Ratoff, Zasu Pitts, and Louise Fazenda.” Laura Thielen