STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 April 1939, Page 2

STATE THEATRE

“A MAN TO BE REMEMBERED.” The oustanding attraction tonight at thd State Theatre will be that masterpiece of the screen, “A Man to Remember,” featuring Edward Ellis as Dr. John Abbott. While Westport pays its farewell respects to Dr. Abbott, his three creditors, Granville Bates, Harlan Briggs and Frank M. Thomas, and Lawyer Charles Halton, are probing Abbott’s will. Halton opens the doctor’s strong' box containing papers which form a vivid account of Ellis’s career in Westport. A promissory note, twenty years old, recalls his arrival with his eight-year-old son, when he borrowed 300 dollars to establish himself. Soon after, a fatal childbirth earned, him the baby girl which her father, John Wray, abandoned. Abbott raises the girl as his own together with his son. A young woman, the girl, Anne Shirley, grows interested in Bates’s son, William Henry; and Abbott’s son, Lee Bowman, grows into a graduate physician. Abbott, seeking a hospital for Westport, is refused by the county board. When William, drunk, accidentally shoots Anne in her arm, Abbott summons his wealthy father and offers to overlook reporting the shooting to the police if the father donates a hospital. Bates agrees but has Abbott barred from the institution. John Wray, Anne’s father, gives Abbott 3000 dollars for his care of Anne. Dr. Abbott now discovers four cases of infantile paralysis and appeals to the county board to cancel the forthcoming fair to avert an epidemic. Refused, he personally warns the townsfolk and gives free antiseptic treatment. While the board plans legal action against Abbott, an epidemic sweeps through adjoining towns, but Westport escapes, save for the original four cases. And in Lawyer Halton’s office the trio of creditors come to a final letter containing Wray’s 3000 dollars to repay Abbott’s debts.