Toby Tyler’s chimpanzee received much attention during the film’s production. Will Toby be moved by these sentiments and return home, or will he remain with the circus? Stubbs.” Concurrent with Toby’s rising stardom under the big top, correspondence from his Aunt Olive, which is suppressed by Tupper, reveals Uncle Daniel’s failing health and true repentance for his harsh words. Fortunately for the lad, he makes some genuine friends on the tour, including the deceptively-kind strongman, Ben Cotter (Henry Calvin) the head clown, Sam Treat (Gene Sheldon) the young female equestrian, Jeanette (Barbara Beaird) and one of the circus’s chimpanzees, who Toby names “Mr. Recruited by the show’s seemingly-friendly concessionaire, Harry Tupper (Bob Sweeney), to be his assistant, Toby slowly but surely realizes that Tupper is in fact a sleazy backstabber. Convinced that he is no longer wanted by his guardians, his Uncle Daniel (Tom Fadden) and his Aunt Olive (Edith Evanson), poor farmers, following an impassioned tirade by Daniel, young Toby Tyler (Kevin Corcoran) runs away from home to join Colonel Sam Castle’s Great American Circus, which is concluding its local run.
