After several months of hard times, pianist Eddie Layton is offered the job of bandleader at Olmstead University. His first meeting is discouraging, as the young people are a happy group with very basic musical skills. But Eddie doesn't give up, he wants to motivate his students and his enthusiasm pays off. With the help of French teacher and band sponsor Miss Cooper and billionaire Elmo De Lavallard, who buys new instruments and brightly coloured uniforms, Eddie is proud to lead these musicians who play their hearts out for him.

Free to Be…You and Me, a project of the Ms. Foundation for Women, is a record album, and illustrated book first released in November 1972, featuring songs and stories from many current celebrities of the day (credited as "Marlo Thomas and Friends") such as Alan Alda, Rosey Grier, Cicely Tyson, Carol Channing, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross, among others. An ABC Afterschool Special using poetry, songs, and sketches, followed two years later in March 1974. The basic concept is to encourage a post-60's gender neutrality, while saluting values such as individuality, tolerance, and happiness with one's identity. A major thematic message is that anyone, whether a boy or a girl, can achieve anything.

1974 film directed by Mel Brooks