Plot
Peter Jones (Jack Mulhall), a small-town hotel clerk from Chillicothe, Ohio, dreams not of tending keys and ledgers, but of conquering Broadway as a theatrical producer. When a fast-talking showman named Jack McLure (William Demarest) checks into the hotel, Peter sees his big chance. He convinces his doting grandmother to mortgage the family inn, raising $25,000 to follow his fantasy to New York.
In the big city, McLure and his producing partner Joe Lehman (Sam Hardy) are in dire straits. Their backer—a bootlegger—has just been pinched by the police, leaving them with a dud of a play, no money to open it, and mounting debts. Lehman’s wife, the overbearing and talentless Fanny Lehman (Gertrude Astor), offers to bankroll them—on the outrageous condition that she star in the leading role. Knowing this would doom the show, the partners place their last hope in their real lead, Mary Martin (Greta Nissen), a talented and striking young actress with a real chance of winning over an audience.
Into this chaos strolls Peter Jones, eager and earnest. The partners at first mistake him for a tourist and brush him off. But Peter checks into the Astor Hotel, where fate throws him into the path of Mary Martin. She finds him amusing and charming in his small-town sincerity, unaware that he's arrived with real money and ambitions.
When the producers discover Peter's bankroll, they scramble to part him from it. As unpaid actors and creditors clamor at the office door, Peter teeters—hesitant to write the check. But under pressure and persuasion, he signs away the full $25,000 to finance the show.
Mary is devastated when she learns of Peter’s investment. She knows the show is terrible, the script thin, and Fanny Lehman's performance a disaster waiting to happen. During the out-of-town tryout, her worst fears are confirmed: the audience groans, boos, and walks out. Furious at Mary, Lehman threatens to fire her.
But Peter surprises everyone by offering $10,000 for the partners’ entire interest in the play. Staggered by his apparent naïveté, they gleefully accept. With no funds left, Peter turns once again to his grandmother, who takes out a second mortgage on the hotel to cover the cost.
Meanwhile, Peter and Mary have fallen genuinely in love. Mary, wracked with guilt over what’s happened, hopes for a miracle—that somehow, some way, the flop might land with New York audiences.
A miracle indeed arrives! When the play opens in Manhattan, the sophisticated crowd reads it as deliberate satire. Its sheer awfulness is mistaken for biting comedy, and the production becomes a sensational hit. The theater is swamped with requests for tickets.
Just as success seems secure, a plagiarism suit threatens to shut down the show. At this tense moment, Joe and Fanny Lehman return, tails between their legs, suddenly eager to buy back the property they abandoned. Peter, grinning, agrees—at a tidy profit.
Now with a bankroll, a Broadway hit behind him, and Mary at his side, Peter Jones returns triumphantly to Chillicothe. He’s not just the boy who dreamed big—he’s the man who beat the city slickers at their own game, and now plans to settle into the hotel business… with grandma and the girl of his dreams.
