The Five Pennies 1959 Loring Red Nichols is a cornet playing country boy who goes to New York in the 1920s full of musical ambition and principles He gets a job playing in Wil Paradises band, but quits to pursue his dream of playing Dixieland jazz He forms the Five Pennies which features his wife, Bobbie, as vocalist At the peak of his fame, Red and Bobbies daughter, Dorothy, develops polio Red quits the music business to move to Los Angeles where the climate is better for Dorothy As Dorothy becomes a young teen, she learns of her fathers musical past, and he is persuaded to open a small nightclub which is failing until some noted names from his past come to help out