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Overview
Brief Synopsis
A millionaire courts a working-class woman.
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Synopsis
Joan Thayer, the hard-working secretary to construction company president Bill Harrison, comes from a large, poor family. Joan and Bill are in love with each other, but Joan is reluctant to accept Bill's marriage proposal because he comes from a wealthy family, and she is afraid that he will one day start to think that he has married beneath him. When she invites Bill to her home for dinner, her kind but eccentric family do everything wrong, prompting an embarrased Joan to send Bill a note saying that they shouldn't see each other for a while. To prove to Joan that her family's poverty does not matter to him, Bill decides to move in with them, delighting Ma Thayer, but annoying Joan. Bill sleeps on the Thayers' old couch and soon becomes part of the family, much to Joan's continued displeasure. On Sunday morning, Bill takes them to his yacht, the Hilda , and they meet Sally, Bill's sister. Henry Thayer, Joan's cousin, is a radical thinker who professes a philosophy of "share the wealth." Because Henry is unable to find work, Bill secretly gets him a job with a company he owns in Brazil. Henry is suspicious when he is offered the job, and then, when the family goes to a party at Bills's and Henry finds out that Bill knows his new boss, Henry decides not to take the job. He then leaves the party, followed by all of the Thayers except Joan's younger sister Helen, who is trying to better herself in society. The next day, Sally tells the Thayers that Bill has announced that he is going to give all of his money away to worthy causes, and she plans to take him to court to prove his incompetence. The same day, Pa Thayer and Joan's brother Frank are fired from the hardware store in which they work, even though Pa has been there for fifty years. Bill seems to disregard Pa's misfortune and tells everyone that he wants to open a hospital for the small wage earner. The Thayers can't understand what has happened to Bill, but it is soon revealed that Bill and Sally were playing a trick on them to show that the Thayers were more concerned with his money than he. Bill then drives the family to their new home and tells Pa that he will be his partner in a hardware business. He also announces that he and Joan and going to be married the next day, that Henry is going to take the job in Brazil, and that Ma will be sole owner of the Hilda .
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