Universal Weekly (1924-1936)

40 Universal Weekly Vol. 24, No. 15 A PAQE OF SYNOPSES "STRINGS OF STEEL" Ten-Episode Adventure Picture Stm-ring WILLIAM DESMOND Directed by HENKY MACRAE Story by Pliilip Dutton Hurn and Oscar I>Dnd CAST Ned Brown WUIiam Desmond Gloria Van Norton ... .Eileen Sedgwifk Peter Allen Albert J. Smith Hogan Arthur Morrison Willie Gray George Ovey ' Theodore N. Vail Ted Duncan Alexander Graham Bell Alphonse Martel Bowery Belle Grace Canard No. 1 "The Voice on the Wire." ALEXANDER GRAHAM \ BELL invents the telephone. Ned Brown, a young engineer in the employ of the Excelsior Talking Telephone Co., bitter rival of the Bell Company, is in love with Gloria Norton, the central operator. He is working on the design of a new transmitting device which he shows her. Peter Allsn, Ned's superior, has been accepting money from Jim Hogan, an underworld political power who is ambitious to control the telephone interests, with the understanding that he is to undermine the Excelsior Company at Hogan's bidding. Gloria proudly shows Allen Ned's design. Allen, who is a great boaster and hates to see anyone but himself in the limelight, tells her that Ned stole the drawings from him to make a hit with her. He snatches the drawings from her and Ned, who has overheard knocks him down, but Allen's henchmen jump on Ned. Gloria grabs the drawings and flees to the roof, pursued by Allen. She hangs from a wire over the street, threatening to drop if he comes closer. Ned arrives and knocks out Allen, then goes hand over hand to Gloria's aid. Under the weight of the two the wire breaks and they fall. "THE RESCUE" Two-Reel Mustang Picture Featuring BEN CORBETT and PEE WEE HOLMES THE town of Piperock holds a beauty contest at the movie theatre, the winner to go to Universal City to be a star. In viewing the western picture shown in connection with the contest Magpie Simpkins and Dirtyshirt Jones become worked up when they see the villain tie the heroine to the railroad tracks. Susie Harper, winner of the contest, is accompanied to Universal City by Carrie Waite. Magpie and Dirtyshirt make the pilgrimage to Hollywood on horseback and steal into the studio and break up the scene in which Susie is starring. Thrown off the set, they make their way to another one. Here they see a frantic mother wailing for her lost child. Outside they see the same scoundrel who tied the girl to the railroad track put a child into an automobile and drive off. He happens to be the father of the movie child who has just finished his day's work. Thinking him a kidnapper, they follow him home, snatch up the child and race back to the studio where they return the child to the "Mother." The studio police handle them roughly and throw them out. Susie and Carrie, disliking to see their friends handled this way, quit their jobs and go back home. "THERE SHE GOES" Two-.Reel Stern Brothers Comedy Featuring WANDA WILEY A NEWSPAPER reporter calls on a photographer to get a picture of Chicago Sal. Wanda, who has just been photographed, accidentally exchanges her picture for that of the gun woman and it is published on the front page. As she walks down the main street the town is terrorized. Ambitious to be a dancer, she goes in a stage door to get an engagement. She gets into the dressing room of the leading woman by mistake. The star, in a fury at being seen without her blonde wig, throws her out. She lands in the arms of the manager and asks him for a job, handing him a photograph of Chicago Sal, with her pedigree of crime typed on the border. He calls the police, who chase her all over the city, finally taking her to the station where, for the first time, she gets a look at the picture of the gun woman that she has been carrying. She escapes from the police, returns to the theatre and tears off the blonde wig of the leading woman revealing Chicago Sal and winning for herself a reward and newspaper headlines that send her flying on the way to stardom. "LOVE'S LABOR LOST" One-Reel Blue Bird Comedy Featuring NEELY EDWARDS NEELY and his young wife are hectored by the omnipresent mother-in-law who breaks the phonograph records when they try to do the Charleston. Neely declares war and rushes from the house when the mother-in-law breaks a ukelele over his head. The old shrew shows the wife a photo of a Follies beauty that she found in Neely's pocket and the two go out to catch him red handed with the other woman. Neely stops at a florist to buy his wife some flowers. A woman standing near is distracted when her pet monkey loses his toy balloon. Neely "THE SCRAPPING KID" Blue Streak Western Starring ART ACORD Directed by CLIFFORD SMITH Story by E. Richard Schayre CAST Bill Bradley Art Acord Betsy Brent Velma Connor Mike Brent Jimmy Bowdwin Cliff Barrows Edmund Cobb Sheriff Bolton Dudley C. Hendricks (Footage: 4,699.) BILL BRADLEY, who owns a small house and a one horse corral in the hills, saves the live of Betsy Brent, who looks to be about twelve, and her baby brother Mike, from a forest fire in which their mother has perished. He takes care of the two orphans until news spreads that Betsy is really eighteen. A committee of citizens, headed by Cliff Barrows, whose father holds a mortgage against Bill's little home and who rubs his hands in the pleasure of anticipating an early foreclosure, calls on Bill and protests against the unrighteousness of keeping a young lady in a bachelor's house. The sheriff's wife offers the girl and her little brother a home, and Bill is left sadly alone, much to the gratification of Cliff Barrows, who makes the most of the situation by calling on the girl, resplendent in flashy riding togs, and trying to make her believe that Bill, who has failed to keep a Sunday appointment with her, is not worthy of her notice. Bill, however, has been forcibly held in his own house by a trio of outlaws who have found it convenient to avail themselves of his food and shelter for three days preceding their flight across the border. Betsy, believing that Bill is sick, rides to his house and is kidnapped by the outlaws who compel her to accompany them to a cave where their loot is hidden. Bill, downed by a blow from the departing desperados, slowly opens his eyes and sees them as they disappear with the girl over the ridge. His dog carries a note to the sheriff while Bill pursues and overtakes the outlaws. He battles the three of them and prevents their escape until the arrival of the posse. A reward of $5,000 for their capture pays off the menacing mortgage and sets him up in married life with Betsy. takes after the balloon, and after many thrilling adventures, returns, but as he starts to hand it to the lady he slips on a banana peel and explodes it. She faints in his arms just as wife and mother come up and accuse him. The woman comes to life and flees before the wrath of the mother-in-law, who drags Neely home by the ear.