Movie

Saw a sort of goofy movie recently on TCM about a salesman trying to sell "Earthworm" tractors. It was made in 1936 and I think they used Caterpillar tractors in the movie. Anyone else see this?

yes we saw the same movie. it stared joey brown. the way hi was draging that house around town was nut. Bob

I don't think I've seen the movie, but it was based on a series in the Saturday Evening Post about a fictional tractor salesman named "Alexander Botts". My dad loved the Botts stories, which he said were written by a former Caterpillar mechanic who based the Botts character on the various salesmen he had known. The Botts stories were written as a series of letters and telegrams between Botts and his unfortunate employer. If you can find a copy of one of the various collections of these stories, by all means read it! It looks like one of these books is back in print.
The Fabulous Saga of Alexander Botts and the Earthworm Tractor.

I have never seen the movie but read many of the short stories in in either 'The Saturday Evening Post' or 'Colliers' magazines back in the forties and fifties.

I found this bit from the biography of William Hazlett Upson, author of the Botts stories:

"William Hazlett Upson (1891-1975) was born at Glen Ridge, New Jersey on September 6, 1891, the son of William Ford and Grace (Hazlett) Upson. In 1909 he graduated from the Glen Ridge High School, worked on a cattle ranch in California for a year, and entered Cornell in 1910. Upson graduated from Cornell's agricultural course in 1914 and worked on farms in New York State and Virginia until 1916, when he enlisted in the Army. He was assigned to the D Battery of the 13th Field Artillery, 4th Division as a private. In 1918, Upson took part in the Marne-Aisne, St. Mihiel, and Argonne offensives and entered Germany as part of the Army of Occupation.

"After his discharge in 1919, Upson was hired by the Holt Manufacturing Company (which later became the Caterpillar Tractor Company) of Dallas, Texas, as a service mechanic. He traveled often, making deliveries, putting on demonstrations, and doing repair work. It was during a period of convalescence in 1922 that Upson wrote his first short stories. In 1924 he left his job with the Caterpillar Tractor Company in Peoria, Illinois, and began his career as an author. As was the case with his army experiences, his short career with Holt and Caterpillar formed Upson’s life-long interest in tractors and served as the background material for many of this stories.

"W.H. Upson’s first published story was “Scared” which appeared in the November 10, 1923 issue of Collier’s. The same year he married Marjory Alexander Wright, the daughter of Professor and Mrs. Charles Baker Wright of Middlebury, Vermont. The Upsons lived in Peoria, Illinois and Connecticut before settling in Middlebury, Vermont in 1928. By this time Upson had published over 30 stories and articles, most of them in the Saturday Evening Post. Between 1924 and 1967 Upson wrote more than 100 stories for the Post, many of which featured Upson’s most famous character, Alexander Botts, a tractor salesman for the Earthworm Tractor Company.

"Botts first appeared in the Post’s April 16, 1927 issue. Alexander Botts was destined to become a folk hero to a generation of Americans over the next thirty years. He was described as “an indomitable (though sometimes deluded) fellow American well acquainted with the sweet uses of adversity and adept at the fine art of plucking victory from the jaws of defeat.” His experiences were typical of many people’s all over the country ; he was hired and fired, fell in love, argued about his taxes, joined the army in 1942 and crossed a picket line. William Hazlett Upson’s characters, like those of Normal Rockwell, who did over 250 cover illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post, were drawn from real life experiences. The celebrated the ups and downs of life with a mixture of honesty, perseverance. bumbling, and laughter. Rockwell, Upson, and the Saturday Evening Post itself, reached out to Americans through a fundamental genre tradition that was extremely popular in the first half of the 20th century."
Upson biography

Stars Joe E. Brown. Good movie. Interesting stunts with Cat crawlers. Relabeled as "Earthworm" for the movie.
Here

Yep. Kinda goofy, as was the fashion at the time. Neat to see though, just for the old tractors that were still shiny new. I think it was an RD8, which had just come out. There was a scene at the factory with new machines in the background running on greased floor doing burn in. IH did the same at that time.

The tractor is a Caterpillar Seventy-five [2E].

Thanks for the great info on the author of the Alexander Botts stories. I read them religiously in the Post when I was younger and ran across one of the books a while back...brought back some great memories.

Stan

I saw it on the guide. Wish I had watched it now. Maybe it will be on again soon

Thanks to Bus Driver for his "click here " connection, watched the whole movie and had a few laughs.

Ayuh, them Earthworm tractors were really something! They were always beating up on the "Behemoths" (prolly a subtle dig at the IH's of the day) LOL