TILLIE'S TOMATO SURPRISE

Overview

Tillie Todd gives her rich Aunt Sally a dime-store tomato pincushion for her birthday, claiming that it is the product of her own hard labor. However, Cousin Percy, also competing for Sally's favor, snidely exposes the deception. While testing his latest invention, Tillie's paramour, The Bat, makes a crash landing at Aunt Sally's birthday celebration. Inspired, eccentric Sally takes to the air herself, but after several days' absence she is declared dead. Aunt Sally bequeaths Tillie the tomato pincushion, giving most of the estate to her pet monkey, Jim, and after Jim's death, to Percy. Wanting to speed up his inheritance, Percy kidnaps Jim and connives to frame Tillie for his apparent death. The police relentlessly pursue Tillie until Aunt Sally finally returns. Disgusted at her inability to rid herself of the ugly pincushion, which Percy nastily keeps returning to her, Tillie rips it apart with her teeth, only to discover that it is filled with 10,000 dollar bills.