Miß Venus (1921)

The attractive and elegant Bobby Parker is considered a jack-of-all-trades and a charmer among New York’s journalists and reporters. He knows how to sell any story as a sensation, whether it is true or not. His carefree attitude toward his profession often brings him into conflict with Miss Hucklebey, a stern policewoman who, ever since Prohibition was introduced, has made it her mission to personally destroy every supply of alcohol in the city. The fact that Bobby is engaged to Hucklebey’s niece does not make matters any easier. One day, Bobby senses a new sensation: a spirited young woman named Maud Goggodan, the spoiled daughter of a billionaire who would dearly love to get her married, has plastered half the city with posters and placed countless advertisements seeking 2,000 men, in the hope of finding the one who is “right” for her. When Maud catches sight of the “right” man—Bobby—she falls for him at once. But Bobby, despite his rapidly awakening feelings for Maud, does not much like the idea of finding a wife through an advertisement or a poster campaign. He pretends to have no interest in her at all—not in the pretty young woman, nor in the billions her father might one day provide as a dowry. The hotheaded New York reporter soon regrets his decision. One evening, when Bobby attends a variety show at the Scala Theatre, he is astonished by the dance numbers performed by Miss Venus. He has no idea yet that she is Maud Goggodan. Then events take their course: Maud soon has the city’s advertising spaces plastered with the words “Miss Goggodan has made her choice,” and marries her Bobby. Then the music and dancing really get going, in proper operetta fashion, because Bobby soon also gets his former fiancée married: She, Mrs. Thompson, becomes through marriage the new Mrs. Goggodan—that is, Maud’s stepmother—and everyone is satisfied.