"Burn Em' Up Barnes" -- a 1921 Silent Version: Auto Racing and Love in the Early 1920s

Hi folks -- I never cease to keep learning more about car culture and history. In my book The Automobile and American Life, I discuss in the 1930s serial starring Frankie Dario entitled Burn Em' Up Barnes. Recently I learned of a silent film version that was a precursor to the 1930s serial, starring "torcher" Johnny Hines.

Burn Em Up Barnes is the son of a millionaire owner of an high-powered automobile manufacturing company, who supposedly was born on the 2oth Century Limited. Whether this is the cause of his flagrant violation of the speed laws in New Your is questionable, but he is constantly in trouble with law enforcement, and incidentally his father. After a bad turn that includes a fight with his father and an encounter with some crooks, Barnes finds himself a hobo , a member of "The United Travelers of America." A beating by train guards, a friendship and a girl by the name of Madge point this story to a memorable ending with a final race, love, and reconciliation.