Skinner’s Big Idea

Back in the late teens, Bryant Washburn starred in a successful series based on the “Skinner” stories by Henry Irving Dodge. After the success of Reginald Denny’s Skinner’s Dress Suit (1926), Washburn returned to the fold with Skinner’s Big Idea in 1928. As before, the star plays Skinner, a young businessman on the way up. Now a partner in his business firm, Skinner is ordered by his boss to fire two of the older employees. Feeling beholden to the old fellows, he decides to save their jobs by enlivening their work performance. To do this, he hires cute, vivacious secretary Dorothy (Martha Sleeper), whose presence “rejuvenates” the two geezers. Naturally, Mrs. Skinner (Ethel Grey Terry) suspects the worst — until the last reel, of course.