Summary
Lige, a rural everyman captivated by the mythic allure of Hollywood's cinematic riches, embarks on a quixotic quest for stardom. His journey begins with an immediate, surreal detour: a misadventure with helium-inflated tires transforms his humble flivver into an impromptu airship, grounding him only after a chaotic aerial ballet. Upon reaching the fabled studios, Lige confronts the impenetrable fortress of moviemaking, a realm guarded by a gatekeeper more formidable than any dragon. His persistent, if clumsy, attempts to breach this barrier lead to a series of slapstick rejections, until a fortuitous, if painful, swap lands him squarely in the midst of a violent mob scene. Navigating the labyrinthine studio backlots, he stumbles into further comedic chaos alongside vaudeville stalwart Lloyd Hamilton, eventually securing a menial role as a property boy. His first task—distributing prop gunpowder on a battlefield set—culminates in an explosive, studio-wide conflagration, forcing Lige into a desperate escape aboard a stunt plane. This final, unwitting flight carries him back over his ancestral home, where he crash-lands, a bewildered prodigal son, just as his father's earnest prayers for his return reach their peak.
When Lige, a simple country lad, hears about the bill money movie actors make in Hollywood, there is nothing that can hold him back from a life on the screen so he cranks up the old family flivver and sets out for the land of movie opportunities. Before he has gone very far one of the tires goes flat and he pulls up to a service station to get some free air, but through a mistake he hooks up with a pipe line from tanks filled with helium gas. The tires on his car assume balloon-like proportions and the old flivver takes a notion to ride among the clouds. Lige has a tough time until he discovers the cause of the flivver's antics and then he pries off the tires and comes back to earth. Arriving in Hollywood he hunts up a studio but finds that it is easier to get into the mint than into a modern movie factory. The gateman is so tough that he even keeps his shadow outside and Lige is kicked out so often he feels like a football. Just as he is about to give up, he trades places with an actor and enters the studio where he is promptly beaten up as part of a big mob scene. Lige wanders among the stages and when he gets mixed up with Lloyd Hamilton there are many funny things happen to him. He finally is hired as a property boy and is given a can of powder to distribute on a movie battlefield, but he leaves a trail through the studio and when the powder is touched off it blows up everything in its path. To escape from the angry studio people. Lige takes refuge in an airplane which is to be shot down by anti-aircraft guns. When he gets high enough the guns start and the plane is soon riddled. Lige retains his hold on the wings and soars over his old home into which he drops just as his father is praying for his safe return.
