George Ade

The County Chairman

Based on George Ade's play which, in part, was based on an incident in a 1902 election in Wyoming, with women's-right-to-vote playing a large role. Here, Jim Hackler, local party-boss in a Wyoming county, has to decide to do what's right and lose the election, or what's wrong and win it.

Maybe It's Love

A very young Joan Bennett tops the cast as Nan Sheffield, the daughter of a college president. The nominal leading man is Tommy Nelson, the black-sheep son of a wealthy alumnus. Though Nelson is an ace football player, President Sheffield refuses to enroll the boy because of his bad reputation, whereupon Tommy's father withdraws his financial backing and bars his son from ever setting foot on Sheffield's campus. Falling in love with Nan, Tommy signs up with the college under an assumed name, giving up his wastrel ways to lead the football team to victory. Joe E. Brown steals the show as Speed Hanson, a goofy gridiron star who emits a loud and long yell whenever scoring a touchdown (this was, in fact, the first film in which Brown's famous "Yeeeeowww" was heard -- but certainly not the last).

Just Out of College

In order to win the hand of the girl he loves, Ed Swinger creates a phony business to fool her father.

The Slim Princess

Kalora is the "slim princess of Morevana," a land in which fat is prized. This distresses her family, who must marry off Kalora, before her rotund younger sister Papova may wed. To remedy this situation, Kalora's father, the governor general, throws a garden party and disguises his slim daughter in an inflated rubber suit. All goes well until the suit ruptures, deflating Kalora to her normal size....

The Fable of the 'Good Fairy'

Once there was a broad girl who had nothing to do except the two-by-four midget known as her husband, so she decided to help the poor. She thought it was a big help to the lowly and uncultured to see what a real razmataz lady was like, so when she was all hooked up behind, she galloped forth to do things to the poor.

Young as You Feel

Lemuel Morehouse, the owner of a profitable meatpacking company in Chicago, bemoans the fact that neither of his two sons have the time nor inclination to eat with him. Billy is obsessed with culture, while Tom is a physical fitness nut. At the office, Lemuel is exasperated when Billy arrives for work at four in the afternoon and cannot stay because of a party he is giving that night to unveil a statue he bought for $20,000. Lemuel then finds Tom meeting with his golf committee rather than working. When the boys argue that business is only a means to an end, and that happiness and enjoyment of life are desired goals, Lemuel counters their contentions by declaring that what they really need are wives and tells them that Dorothy and Rose Gregson, the daughters of an old friend, will soon be visiting.

The Fable of 'How Uncle Brewster Was Too Shifty For the Tempter'

Aunt Mahaley knew Uncle Brewster was sporty, and when he went to the city to pay off his mortgage she warned him about being too free with his coin. He visited Roger Talbot, holder of the mortgage, who handed him two cigars. Uncle Brewster was dying for a smoke, but he remembered what Aunt Mahaley told him about cutting down expenses, and traded the cigars for a couple of boiled eggs saving the price of lunch. At a fruit exhibit he filled his carpet bag, saving supper money. Before leaving the hotel he packed away everything in sight, so when he returned to Aunt Mahaley he was minus railroad fare but plus many towels and hotel souvenirs.

The Fable of 'The Author and the Dear Public and the Plate of Mush'

Ernest Coppie, an author, was trying to grind out something that could be sold for enough coin to buy himself a good square meal. He dashed off some sentimental guff called, "When Willie Came to Say Good-Night," and it was punk. He threw it in the wastebasket but when his friend came in he discovered it and set out to sell it. He finally found a magazine editor who gave him a check for $500, and it was like picking money off a bush. The author, who was an old bachelor and a kid hater, was tickled to death to get the dough, but when letters came in congratulating him on his excellent poem and sympathizing with him, he was bored to death.

The Slim Princess

Gloom overcasts the palace of Count Selim Nalagaski, governor general of Morovenia, Turkey. All efforts to make the count's elder daughter, the Princess Kalora, fat, synonymous with beauty in that country, have failed. Popova, the Princess's tutor, devises a terrible revenge because the count called him a Christian dog. He feeds the princess pickles to keep her thin.

Freshman Love

A star rower is forced to join a good school under a pseudonym because his wealthy dad doesn't like schools that have high academic standards.

The Fable of The Adult Girl Who Got Busy

Clara was no longer a Spring Chicken, and when she passed the Thirty Mark, she began to worry for fear that she could never Rope In a Bread Earner, so she got busy. There was one chap in particular who looked awfully good to her, but the younger girls were hot on his trail, and did their utmost to keep Clara out of his way. Finally Clara got rid of her competitors in the Man Hunt when they all went to a summer resort. She was surrounded by Suitors, and Mr. Gibbs was very much in evidence. The afternoons that followed were a repetition of the first day, while the girls up at the lake were making a fuss over some little Freshman.

The Fable of the Good People Who Rallied to the Support of the Church

The loyal women of the congregation decided to pull off a festival and raise some coin for the support of the church.

Woman-Proof

At sight of a woman, he got a ticket for speeding.

The Fable of 'The Long Range Lover and the Lollypalooze'

Blackstone Cooley, a studious young lawyer, could not see the girls for dust. One day while walking down the street he ran squat into a dame who looked like a million dollars to him. At last he realized he had spotted the queen of the human race. From that time on he tried in every possible way to learn her name and address, but nary a soul did he know who could arrange an introduction. He worried himself sick, and his doctor ordered him away to a summer resort. Still she was constantly on his mind. One day she blew in at the summer hotel, and after two years of waiting he met her. That was plenty, her line of gab queered her from the start. Next day Mr. Cooley beat it for home. Moral: Many who look the limit do not listen very well.

Old Home Week

Tom Clark, the part owner of a luckless gas station in New York, returns to his place of birth for Old Home Week, posing as the millionaire president of the Amalgamated Oil Co. He is chosen as the orator for the homecoming banquet and given complete financial control over an oil well drilled in the town by Coleman and Barton, a pair of oily swindlers. Tom discovers that the well is a fake and has it connected secretly with the local reservoir. A wire from Tom's partner is intercepted, and Tom is exposed as a fraud. Coleman and Barton are about to leave town when Tom fakes a gusher and quickly sells the well back to the swindlers at a profit. The swindlers realize that they have been outsmarted, and their anger convinces the townspeople that Tom has acted in the best interests of the community. Tom is again the toast of the town, feted by its inhabitants and rewarded with the kisses of his sweetheart.

Two Pop-Up Fables

"The Fable of the Girl Who Shifted the System" is about a girl called Ethel, who was very chatty but never could make a hit with the fellows. She talked too much about herself. At the parties she would talk herself blue in the face, but one by one the boys would get up and leave her. In despair she went to a wise married woman who told her she had the wrong system, that she should talk about the men. "The Fable of the Sarcastic Husband and the Lady Shopper" is about a "lady" who spent the entire day shopping at top speed, then brought home a small spool of thread.

Father and the Boys

Wealthy stockbroker Lemuel Morewood wants his sons, Billy and Tom, to learn the business and marry Emily Donelson and Frances Berkeley, respectively. Billy, however, is infatuated with Mrs. Bruce Guilford, a leader of the "smart set," while Tom loves boxing. At a dinner for which Lemuel hires Bessie Brayton, an orphan from the West, to entertain, Lemuel responds to Bessie's taunts about being old-fashioned by winning a lot of money gambling with Major Bellamy Didsworth, who tries to swindle Bessie, and leaves with her to spend it.

Hifaluting Tillie and Her Plain Parents

When Tillie left her country home for the seminary, she was just a plain Gawk, but when she returned a year later, she was a Glorious Butterfly.

The College Widow

Following another instance of the perennial defeat of the Atwater College football team, President Witherspoon is told that unless better athletes can be induced to come to Atwater, he will be asked to resign. Acting upon the suggestion of Professor Jelicoe, Jane, the professor's beautiful daughter, uses her personal charm to draw noted football stars from neighboring schools by a series of ruses at a vacationing spot. Billy Bolton, son of a financial magnate, falls for Jane and to prove himself registers under another name and works his way through school, attaining scholastic and athletic honors. Through the jealousy of another girl, Billy learns of Jane's trickery and persuades the athletes not to play;

Back Home and Broke

When Tom Redding's wealthy father dies and it turns out that all he left Tom was a mountain of debts, all of his "friends" desert him--except young Mary Austin. Determined to get out from all his debt, Tom heads west and eventually strikes it rich with an oil well. Now wealthy, he hatches a plan to get even with his "friends" in his hometown--by pretending to return home broke but having a colleague secretly buy up as much property in town as he can.

Three Boiled Down Fables

#1: The Household Comedian; #2: Why Essie's Friends Got the Fresh Air; #3: The Prevailing Craze.

Our Leading Citizen

Story of a war hero who preferred fishing to politics.

The Fable of the Bush League Lover Who Failed to Qualify

Rube Homer Splivins imitates the actions of a famous matinee idol in order to woo his lady love.

The Fable of the City Grafter and the Unprotected Rubes

"Sure-thing" Steve and his pals searched the map for prospective country towns in which they could bunco the inhabitants. They decided the town of Simpville would fall for a fake auction sale.