The Vanishing Virginian

Based on the true story of turn-of-the-century district attorney Robert Yancey (Frank Morgan), a lawyer and ever-popular politician in Virginia. The film starts with the statement, "This is the story of a vanishing era when simple men so loved their country, their families and their friends that America became a better place in which to live. Such a man was Cap'n Bob Yancey." The film is based on a 1940 memoir of the same name by Rebecca Yancey Williams. The book's central figure was her father, Robert Davis Yancey, and detailed the story of Cap'n Bob Yancey, his charming and absent-minded wife, Rosa (Spring Byington), and all the Yancey children. The film explores societal roles in plantations of the "Old Dominion" around Lynchburg and their socio-economic implications, as well as the movement for women's suffrage, among other things. It is also the town's story, and various eminent Virginians cross the pages, including Carter Glass, General Jubal Early, Lady Astor's father, "Chilly" Langhorne, and others. Katharine Alexander portrays an outspoken woman who moved north and got a divorce; the character is held to be loosely based on Nancy Langhorne Astor.