Alexander Botts and the Earthworm Tractor: Botts Breaks Hollywood, Vol. 3
Alexander Botts and the Earthworm Tractor: Botts Breaks Hollywood, Vol. 3
ITEM 252AP
By William Hazlett Upson
The Golden Age of Hollywood was at its height in the 1930s and the world’s best tractor salesman was captivated by the glitz and glamour. In Botts Breaks Hollywood, the third installment of the Alexander Botts and the Earthworm Tractor series, the saga continues for our hero who, always ahead of his time, sees filmmaking as the future of tractor sales. In this collection of humorous short stories, Botts earns a promotion and is eager to share his enthusiasm for crawler tractors on the silver screen where his outrageous antics and blunders collide to capture the perfect shot!
Alexander Botts was created in 1927 by author William Hazlett Upson, and the stories are based on Upson’s work as a factory assembler and sales demonstrator for the Caterpillar Tractor Company. For almost half a century, Botts was beloved by The Saturday Evening Post readers in more than 100 short stories. This book includes the original illustrations that appeared with the stories and is part of a series that will be the first to present the collection in its entirety.
Paperback, 274 pgs., 6” x 9”; ISBN: 978-1642340730
Alexander Botts, fictional Sales Promotion Representative for the Earthworm Tractor Co., is back. Octane Press now offers Volume 3 of the promised series that will feature the more than 100 short stories originally published in The Saturday Evening Post magazine. This volume, again featuring delightful Tony Sarg illustrations, contains 12 short stories, dating from September 1932 through August 1935, set in California, Vermont, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Missouri, Maine, Connecticut, Illinois, and eventually in Hollywood, California. They provide the venues for author William Hazlett Upson to continue Botts’ marvelously humorous exploits.
Never one to doubt his own abilities, our intrepid hero has a brief encounter with the film industry in the volume’s first story. The final two adventures center around Bott’s eventual wholehearted embrace of movies to market tractors. Each wildly improbable plot ultimately vindicates the indefatigable Botts. For example, Botts ships Earthworm tractors and graders to a Hollywood studio for a movie the studio then decides not to make. An oil tank explodes, and Botts uses the equipment to create a barrier to prevent a river of burning oil from destroying the studio. The fire, however, endangers the Earthworm equipment. Intrigued? Get this delightful book to see how it all turns out.
Book Review by Robert Gabrick
