Plot

Tom Kelly, a small-town baseball pitcher, is sent to a minor-league team in Florida, and fails to make the team. He starts dabbling in real estate, in the midst of the Florida land boom (in which a lot of the land sold was under water), makes a fortune and buys into the team that cut him from its roster.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

The New Klondike (1926, directed by Lewis Milestone) follows the story of baseball star Tom Kelly, pitcher for the "New York baseball club." He batted in the winning runs in the previous year's World Series, and is a hero to his teammates and to his New Jersey hometown. Those World Series events are shown in a flashback sequence which displays a wonderful automated device called a baseball "Play-O-Graph," a machine which replicates on-field action. (NB: Working knowledge of baseball is required in order to follow this sequence.)

The film opens as the citizens of the said NJ town give Tom a parade and brass band as he leaves for Florida and spring training. In tow with Kelly is his friend Bing Allen, coming to try out for the team.

On the boat to Florida, Kelly meets Evelyn Curtis, a wealthy single woman; Bing meets her maid: romantic interests begin. Also on the boat is Morgan West, attorney for the Curtis family, and also - you guessed it - a realtor.

Florida, meanwhile, is undergoing a burst of development, and is the newest frontier for real estate speculators of all stripes: there are fortunes to be made there (hence, the "New Klondike"). Kelly's manager, Dave Cooley, who is involved in some of this shady real estate dealing, plots to get Kelly off the team in order to preserve his scheme of buying up parcels of land surrounding the ball park where the NY Club plays. Cooley sacks Kelly in front of his teammates, but not before Bing has had a chance to show his hitting prowess and makes the team.

It is then revealed that Morgan West, the attorney, is in cahoots with Cooley in their real estate venture.

The unemployed Kelly, meantime, falls prey to the old con of a free trip on a balyhooing bus which eventually results in a pitch about real estate (this gambit was not invented by the time-share industry, after all). Promised a "free band and barbecue", Tom ends up in a realty office where the hard sell is delivered. A comic vignette of the business is shown as each new "target" is presented to an unctuous salesman, who uses music to help his pitch. Behind him is a violinist and other musicians: when the salesman learns something about the new target (e.g., "newlyweds," "from Iowa,") he pulls an appropriate piece of sheet music from his pocket and gives it to the violinist to play. [Note to musicians: three specific pieces are referenced in this scene, with sheet music briefly shown on screen: 1. "The Love Nest;" 2. "When you and I were Young, Maggie;" 3. Funeral March from Chopin Piano Sonata no. 2, op. 35]. Kelly, who has made clear his intention of not buying any land, is secretly pinned with a "dead-head" button, which signals to all in the know that he is a free-loader. He is accordingly given the bum's rush from every hotel in the city. Looking for work, he finally happens upon a real estate mogul who is also a baseball fan. He recognizes Kelly, and gives him a job. Kelly has the pleasure of buying the NY club's ballpark out from under the noses of West and Cooley - for his new boss - and foiling their scheme. This small piece of sweet revenge sets alight a fire for real estate in Kelly; he also gets his teammates to invest with him in a new real estate venture. Soon the entire team is consumed with real estate rather than sport.

The NY baseball club, professional as they may be on the diamond, are rank amateurs in the real estate game. Tom is cleverly tricked into buying a worthless piece of swampland and faces financial ruin for himself and his teammate-investors. Yet they learn quickly, and retaliate by getting West to buy the land back through the intervention of a "bird-bog" apparently hired by Bing (this is not entirely clear). All is settled as West and Cooley are foiled, Cooley is fired as manager, Kelly is redeemed, returned to the team and made manager again by the team's owner, Kelly and Evelyn are happily reunited after a falling-out.