The Amateur Fire Brigade: A Fable of the New Deal

A quotation presented in text at the start of the film is cut out of the surviving print, but remains faintly visible during a dissolve transition. The text reads: "To the support of the Constitution let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor . . . while ever such a feeling as this shall prevail, vain will be every attempt, and fruitless every effort, to subvert the national freedom." - Abraham Lincoln

The quotation is an excerpt from Abraham Lincoln's Lyceum Address, a speech he delivered in Springfield, Illinois, as a 28-year-old lawyer and politician on January 27, 1838.

The surviving print, released on Blu-ray by Thunderbean Studios, is an edited version. Original title cards appear to be missing, as the first frame displays only the subtitle: "A Fable of the New Deal". The remnants of an excised quotation from Abraham Lincoln can be seen very briefly during a dissolve transition. Some scenes documented elsewhere are not present in this version, including a sequence with FDR driving a fire engine and the little "mischief makers" spraying a fire hose. There are several abrupt cuts, and the final scene (in color) promotes the Alf Landon-Frank Knox Republican ticket (suggesting it was added after the June 1936 Republican National Convention).