Plot
Conrad Birdie (Jesse Pearson), a popular rock and roll star, receives an Army draft notice, devastating his teenage fans across the nation. Albert Peterson (Dick Van Dyke) is an unsuccessful songwriter, the family business, although he has a doctorate in biochemistry. He schemes with his secretary and long-suffering girlfriend Rosie DeLeon (Janet Leigh) to have Birdie sing a song Albert will write, but Birdie's conscription puts a halt to the plan. Rosie, however, convinces Ed Sullivan to have Birdie sing a song Albert will write called "One Last Kiss" on The Ed Sullivan Show, and then kiss a randomly chosen high school girl goodbye before going off to the Army. Once that is a success, Albert will feel free to marry Rosie, despite his meddlesome mother Mae's (Maureen Stapleton) long history of ensuring nothing will come between her and her beloved son.
Sweet Apple, Ohio, is chosen as the location for Birdie's farewell performance. The random lucky girl chosen is Kim MacAfee (Ann-Margret), who is thrilled. Kim already has a high school sweetheart, Hugo Peabody (Bobby Rydell), who is not so thrilled. The teenagers of Sweet Apple, blissfully unaware of their town's impending fame, are spending the "Telephone Hour" catching up on the latest gossip: Kim and Hugo have just gotten pinned. Kim feels grown up, and declares "How Lovely to be a Woman".
On the day Birdie arrives in town, the teenage girls sing their anthem to him, "We Love You Conrad", but the boys despise him for their girls' love for him ("We Hate You Conrad!"). Sweet Apple becomes a very popular place, but some of the local adults are unhappy with the sudden celebrity, especially after Conrad shows off his hip-thrusting moves while his "Honestly Sincere" causes every female to faint. Under pressure from the town's notable citizens, Mr. McAfee is unwilling to allow his daughter to kiss Conrad on television, but Albert placates him by telling him that their "whole family" will be on Sullivan's TV show ("Hymn for a Sunday Evening"). Albert reveals to Mr. McAfee that he is actually a biochemist who has developed a miracle supplement for domestic animals that will make a hen lay 3 eggs a day; they test it on the family's pet tortoise, which speeds off out the door. McAfee, a fertilizer salesman, sees a great future for himself in partnership with Albert marketing this pill.
Hugo feels threatened by Conrad; Kim reassures him that he is the "One Boy" for her. Rosie, meanwhile, feels like Albert does not appreciate her, so Albert persuades her to "Put on a Happy Face". Albert's mother shows up, distressed to find Albert and Rosie together. Harry (Paul Lynde), Kim's father, is also agitated, not liking the way Conrad is taking over his house. They lament what is wrong with these "Kids" today.
During rehearsal for the broadcast, an impatient Conrad kisses Kim and she faints. Hugo is hurt, so he and Kim break up. Albert is told that, for unknown reasons, the Russian ballet has switched to a different dance that needs extra time, therefore eliminating his song and the farewell kiss to Kim. Their plans for the future could be ruined. Rosie, fed up with Albert and his mother, dances and flirts with a room full of men at a Shriners convention ("Sultans' Ballet"). Albert rescues her from the crazed Shriners. Albert, of course, does request to have the ballet shortened to at least four minutes so there will be enough time for Conrad Birdie to sing his song, but the arrogant Ballet manager, probably unable to understand the importance of the song's inclusion, initially refuses to have it shortened, believing that cutting time would mean "artistic sabotage" to such a classic piece of work.
However, Rosie slips one of Albert's pills into the milk of the orchestra's conductor to speed up the ballet, which not only amuses the audience, but also offends the Russians. There is a last-minute scramble to fill air time, and Birdie does get to appear on the show and sing "One Last Kiss". Hugo interrupts the actual kiss by running onstage and knocking out Birdie on live TV.
Kim and Hugo reunite. Albert is free to marry now ("Rosie") and his mother agrees, revealing that she is now married to a widower she met the previous evening. All the couples (including Mae and her new husband) live happily ever after. Kim, now wiser, bids Conrad a fond goodbye in "Bye Bye Birdie (Reprise)".
Read more about this topic: Bye Bye Birdie (film)
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“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)