Miss Ella Bishop is a teacher at Midwestern University. The story is told in flashback and takes place over many years, from the 1880s to the 1930s, showing her from her freshman year to her retirement as an old woman. At the beginning, she lives with her mother and her vixenish cousin Amy ; she remembers when her father had a farm near the town. Ella is an inhibited girl whose frustration grows as she approaches womanhood. She dreams of becoming a teacher. When she graduates from Midwestern University, she is thrilled when its president, Professor Corcoran, offers her a position on the faculty. Ella becomes engaged to lawyer Delbert Thompson, but Delbert is led astray by Amy and eventually has to marry her, despite loving Ella. The couple move away. After Amy becomes pregnant, Delbert abandons her. Amy dies in childbirth, leaving Ella to care for Amy's daughter Hope. Hope grows up and marries Richard, and they move away and have a daughter named Gretchen. Ella also has a fling with another teacher, the unhappily married John Stevens, but John's wife cannot give him a divorce for religious reasons, forcing Ella to break off the relationship. Later, she is distressed to learn that John has been killed. Through all the years, Ella is supported by her friend Sam Peters, a local grocer who loves her. Another source of support is Professor Corcoran, who persuades her to stay when she considers leaving. His death is a blow to Ella. As Ella reaches old age, she reflects back and realizes she allowed the years to go by without achieving what she believes to be true fulfillment. When the new president pressures her to finally retire, she agrees. However, the years have not been without glory; and her moment of triumph arrives when her numerous, now-famous students from over the years return to a testimonial dinner at the school to honor their beloved Miss Bishop.
During the 1940s, Cheers for Miss Bishop is noted as one of the first films to incorporate autobiographical voiceover in its use of the flashback. The film begins with Sam and Ella in their older ages leading Ella into a flashback of her life starting with her graduation from Midwestern University. Then the film switches between the 1880s to 1930s with occasional autobiographical voice-overs of Ella in the 1930s speaking about the current scene. This film was one of the first to explore the use of voice-overs to narrate the story. In addition to the voice-overs, the film uses fading transitions that look hypnotic to symbolize the change in time. The makeup director, Don L. Cash, was able to age the actors using makeup making the change in time more distinguishable. Another technology the director used was dollies to capture moving motion and to zoom out of scenes.
Cheers for Miss Bishop earned Edward Ward an Academy Award nomination for Best Scoring of a Dramatic Film. He was also nominated for scoring two other 1941 films, Tanks a Million and All-American Co-Ed. Ward earned seven Oscar nominations between 1939 and 1944, including one for the score of Phantom of the Opera.
