The Vanishing Virginian

Based on the true story of turn-of-the-century Robert Yancey, 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."{{cite web|title=The Vanishing Virginian|url=http://www.classicmoviemusicals.com/filmsv.htm#vanishing|access-date=7 June 2014}}

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 and all the Yancey children.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/07/archives/rebecca-yancey-williams-wrote-vanishing-virginian.html|title=Rebecca Yancey Williams, Wrote 'Vanishing Virginian'|date=1976-04-07|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-09-27|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/rebecca-yancey-williams/the-vanishing-virginian/|title=THE VANISHING VIRGINIAN by Rebecca Yancey Williams - Kirkus Reviews|access-date=2 June 2017}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.popmatters.com/post/179592-the-vanishing-virginian/|title='The Vanishing Virginian' (1942)|access-date=2 June 2017}}

• Frank Morgan as Robert Yancey
• Kathryn Grayson as Rebecca Yancey
• Spring Byington as Rosa Yancey
• Natalie Thompson as Margaret Yancey
• Douglass Newland as Jim Shirley (as Douglass Newland)
• Mark Daniels as Jack Holden
• Elizabeth Patterson as Grandma
• Juanita Quigley as Caroline Yancey
• Scotty Beckett as Joel Yancey
• Leigh Whipper as Uncle Josh
• Louise Beavers as Aunt Emmeline
• Katharine Alexander as Marcia Templeton
• J.M. Kerrigan as John Phelps
• Harlan Briggs as Mr. Rogard
• Katharine Alexander as Marcia Marshall

According to MGM records, the film earned $589,000 in the U.S. and Canada, and $316,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $63,000.

A promotional poster for the film makes the claim that "Millions Read the Book", and also refers to the film as an "American Masterpiece" having "Heart-Throbs, Laughs, [and] Thrills".{{Citation|title=The Vanishing Virginian|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035504/|access-date=2019-09-27}} In addition, a 1942 issue of Photoplay referred to the book as "delightful".{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/photoplay120phot|title=Photoplay (Jan - Jun 1942)|last=Photoplay Magazine Publishing Company|date=1942|publisher=Chicago, Photoplay Magazine Publishing Company|others=New York The Museum of Modern Art Library}}

The Vanishing Virginian, the book the film is based on, was published a second time in London in 1941, this time under the title Father Was a Handful.{{Cite web|url=http://www.presbyteriancemeteryva.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Fall-Winter-2018.pdf|title=Robert Davis Yancey|website=Friends of the Presbyterian Cemetery|access-date=September 11, 2019}} This version was published by Michael Joseph, a British writer and publisher who was part of the publishing company that would later become Penguin Random House.{{Cite web|url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/company/publishers/michael-joseph.html|title=Michael Joseph|website=www.penguin.co.uk|access-date=2019-09-27}}

The story told in The Vanishing Virginian is continued in Rebecca Yancey Williams' second and final novel Carry Me Back,{{Cite web|url=https://www.freyfinebooks.com/pages/books/23438/rebecca-yancey-williams/carry-me-back|title=CARRY ME BACK by Rebecca Yancey Williams on Frey Fine Books|last=www.bibliopolis.com|website=Frey Fine Books|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-27}} which further chronicles the life of the family, focusing on Rebecca Yancey Williams' experiences during the country summers of 1913-14 in Lynchburg. In addition, some of the content in this novel was adapted from Williams' own diary she kept when she was 15 years of age.{{Cite book|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/rebecca-yancey-williams/carry-me-back/|title=CARRY ME BACK by Rebecca Yancey Williams {{!}} Kirkus Reviews|language=en}}

{{reflist}}

{{commons category|The Vanishing Virginian (film)}}

• {{IMDb title|0035504}}
• [https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/94682/the-vanishing-virginian The Vanishing Virginian] at TCMDB
• {{AFI film|26975}}

{{Frank Borzage}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vanishing Virginian, The}}

Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films

Category:1942 films

Category:Films directed by Frank Borzage

Category:1942 comedy-drama films

Category:American comedy-drama films

Category:Films produced by Frank Borzage

Category:American black-and-white films

Category:1940s English-language films

Category:1940s American films

Category:Films scored by David L. Snell

Category:English-language comedy-drama films