Country Music Holiday (1958)

One of those where some of the actors play a character with the same name, but no one is playing 'Self," although Zsa Zsa Gabor comes close. Verne Brand, a G. I. from Tennessee with a good singing voice, is talked into going to New York City after he and his buddies, Al Fisher and Lou Marks, are discharged from the U. S. Army. There, they talk former-bookie-turned-record-company-head "Sunny" Moon into signing Verne. Moon and his vice-president, 'Rocky" Graziano, give Verne a publicity build-up by getting his name into the newspaper gossip columns, and movie-star Zsa Zsa Gabor shows some interest in Verne. This causes Verne's home-town sweetheart, Marietta (played by June Carter long before she became June Carter Cash), to come to the big city and check the situation out. Verne, a hot-discovery, is signed to appear on Art Ford's television variety-program, as a battle for ratings between Ford and Lew Parker, on another network. Ford, of course, sweeps the Neilsen's with Verne as a guest and Verne is now on his way to being a big success. He decides to return to Tennessee with Marietta (the future Mrs. Johnny Cash), and Moon opens a recording studio in Tennessee.