Soon after their arrival in Lockville, broke vaudevillians Tommy Tanner and Egbert G. Higginbotham befriend a tearful Mother Talley while riding on a trolley car. Upset because she is unable to make her dead husband’s drugstore a going concern, Mother Talley eagerly accepts the help of “drugstore experts” Tommy and Egbert. While Tommy and Egbert are “analyzing” the drugstore, Harry Watters shows up and reminds Mother Talley that the payment on her bank note is due to him in thirty days. Although Harry suggests that she sell him the store for $300, Mother Talley takes Egbert and Tommy’s advice to hold on to her property. Irked by the vaudevillians interference, Harry tells police chief H. A. Morton, who has been criticized for his failure to purge Lockville of racketeers, that Tommy and Egbert are bootleggers. When Morton’s daughter Peggy, who is dating Harry, hears of Harry’s suspicions, she goes to the drugstore to warn Mother Talley. However, Tommy’s instantaneous and ardent infatuation with Peggy causes her to forget her mission. Later, Mother Talley is visited by a representative from a retirement home and discusses with him her plan to use her savings to secure a place at the home. Depressed by the conversation, Mother Talley begins to cry again, and her tears move Tommy and Egbert to promise to transform the drugstore into a money-making venture. By filling the store with everything but drugs and advertising it on their own in-store radio program, Tommy and Egbert begin to attract new customers. The store’s success causes Harry, who wants to buy the property as part of his bootlegging operation, to plot with fellow racketeer Clark to sell Tommy and Egbert an alcohol-laced lemon syrup. Anxious to please their soda fountain customers, Tommy and Egbert order ten gallons of the syrup. After witnessing the drunken state of the store’s customers, Harry notifies Morton, who arrests Mother Talley for running a speakeasy. Determined to keep Harry from buying the drugstore, Tommy and Egbert tell Morton that Clark is the guilty party. With Peggy’s help, Morton, Egbert and Tommy nab Clark and Harry in a basement filled with illicit alcohol. As Mother Talley celebrates her financial liberation, Tommy and Peggy embrace. More on Wikipedia
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