Stan and Ollie are salesmen attempting to sell a washing machine; they fail constantly after several near misses. One would-be sale has them carrying the machine up a large flight of steps, only to find out that a young lady wants them to post a letter for her. The boys later get into an argument knocking off each other's hats, which eventually involves scores of others. A police van eventually carts all those involved away except Stan and Ollie, who afterwards try to find their own headgear amongst the hundreds of others lying on the street.
Although the prominent Hollywood family prides itself on its illustrious family tree, young Winifred Hollywood exhibits a fondness for wild adventures that greatly disturbs her parents. When Winifred becomes engaged to bank official Harold Burton, his equally snobbish parents visit the Hollywood home and are shocked by the young woman's spirited outbursts and mischievous tricks, and the engagement is broken after she decides to perform bareback feats with a traveling circus.
To receive the $5,000 promised in her Uncle Stephen's will, Dulcie Culpepper must live with her Uncle John in New York for six months so that her father, a Confederate colonel, will be reconciled with his brother whose marriage to a Northern woman long ago caused a breach.
Dolly Dillard jumps at the conclusion that George Gordon is playing her false, as he affectionately greets his sister at the train when she comes to pay him a visit. Dolly, who is not acquainted with his sister, sends back her engagement ring. Sad and disconsolate, she saunters to the cliffs overlooking the seashore, trying to forget her imagined wrong. As she is climbing down the side of the rocky prominence, her foot slips and she falls into a narrow crevice. She finds herself helpless with a sprained ankle. Remembering George's returned match-case, she tears a piece of cloth from her skirt; writes with a burnt match a note, telling of her accident. She ties it around her shoe and throws it over the cliff to her collie dog Jean, who carries the missive to George, who at once, after summoning aid, goes to her rescue, accompanied by his sister.
Based on the David Belasco stage production of the Max Marcin play in which heavyweight-champion Jack Dempsey played the role of the fighter, Tiger: This "behind-the-scenes look of a heavyweight-championship fight" looks much like all of the other boxing films in which the Champ gets involved in a frame-up and is asked to take a dive.
The fathers of Isabel Channing and Howard Billings were good friends until they had a falling-out over a horse and swore to be enemies forever. Years later, Howard is seen returning from college and Isabel, who has lost her,is working hard to keep the old homestead (and stables) together. Thornhill is trying his best to cheat her out of everything. Howard takes a hand.
When Edith Graham returns from school to live with her father, Lieutenant Graham, at a Northwest Mounted Police post in Hudson's Bay, she finds herself courted by two suitors, Corporal John Emerson and Reginald Annesley, the latter of whom is a wealthy purchasing agent for the post. Annesley however is also involved with the half-breed Marie. When Marie tells him she is carrying his child Annesley kills her and attempts to frame Emerson. However, Edith is suspicious and sets out to find the truth.
Billy Emerson and Mildred Girard are secretly engaged to be married after Billy graduates from West Point and becomes a lieutenant. A very serious setback to their tentative understanding occurs when Mr. Girard loses heavily in a stock transaction that places himself under obligations to his friend Morley, whose son Paul, is anxious to marry Mildred.
"The Dawn of Freedom" is a stinging satire on the death of those ideals that prompted the founders of the United States.
The Twelfth Regiment is to leave for the front in the morning at seven, and Captain Steadwell, who has been missing for three days, has not yet appeared. Unless he is found and returned to the head of his company by seven the next morning, disgrace will fall on him and his fiancée, Ellen Ferguson. Ellen is also loved by the new assistant secretary of war, Richard Ralston, who does not know of her engagement, Worried by Steadwell's continued absence, Ellen appeals to Dick to find him. Dick sets out to locate him, and the trail leads to Gladys, an actress whose photo was on Steadwell's table.
Mr. Williams, a stern father and man of wealth, disinherits his son Hugh, for marrying Rose, a seamstress. Twenty years later, although Sose is practically supporting her sick husband, their little store is taken from them and they are obliged to move, with Martha, their daughter, to the tenement district.
Bertha Sloan loses her job as a sewing-machine girl and subsequently is employed as telephone girl with a lingerie manufacturing company. She soon falls in love with the assistant shipping clerk, Roy Davis, and is promoted to chief model for the firm, owing to the patronage of Morton, the wealthy and wicked manager. Bertha is about to take a position in Paris as designer when Morton lures her to his home.
Peggy Raymond, a country girl, comes to New York with plans for a career in art and is taken by mistake to a Fifth Avenue address where she meets Dick Merwin, the scion of a wealthy family, whom she mistakes for her cousin. Later, in Brooklyn, she finds that her relatives have moved, and Mabel Hines takes her in and gets her a job. By necessity, Peg is forced to demonstrate fat-reducing rollers in a shop window, where she is unfavorably viewed by Mrs. Schuyler and her husband. She is admired by Sam Billings, a wealthy old bachelor, and becomes involved with Maddox, who affects an interest in her paintings. But through a series of reversals and complications, Peg is made to realize that Dick is the worthier man.
The story of two feuding Irish immigrant families living in a tenement.
Fannie joins Johnny to perform a music-hall act which becomes a success, until two Broadway producers catch the act and offer Fannie a job on their latest show; however, they have no place for Johnny, so Fannie turns down the offer. (Film considered lost.)
William Bradberry, an absent-minded Egyptologist, turns from a henpecked husband to a dominating one who, unknown to his daughter Betty and wife, writes theatre musical comedy on the side. And saves his daughter from the unsavory millionaire, Victor Smith she almost marries before she marries the decent man Tommy Dawson. A lost film.
Rosalind Joy (Helen Foster) is an heiress who has inherited a South Seas island known as Pleasure Island. A hidden cache of gold is allegedly buried on the island, which has several haunted structures. Rosalind's uncle, Spring Gilbert (Al Ferguson), wants the gold for himself and declares he will stop at nothing, not even the death of his niece, to get it. Rosalind, meanwhile, is befriended by Jerry Fitzjames (Jack Dougherty), a playwright. Unfortunately, Jerry has only recently escaped from a psychiatric hospital. Although he swears to protect Rosalind, she doubts Jerry's sanity. The two lovers race against Uncle Gilbert (who has set several traps for them) to find the treasure. In the end, Rosalind and Jerry are aided by the "Phantom Rider," a spectral horseman.
A respectable Paris jeweller becomes engaged to a celebrated performer of the Montmartre cafes.
Richard Gordon is an aspiring composer who can't get arrested in his field of endeavor. Upon meeting nightclub singer Mary Talbot, Gordon is inspired to write his greatest melody. The song catches the ear of impresario George Monroe and before long Gordon has scaled the heights of fame and fortune. Mary despairs that she's been forgotten.
Peasant girl Vania is assaulted by a duke who murders her lover and sends her away to London.