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Private Notes
The Bolt brothers (Jason, Joshua and Jeremy) bet their mountain that they can bring one hundred marriageable women back to Seattle and that those women will remain in Seattle for a year. In exchange, Aaron Stempel funds their expenses.
The Bolt brothers arrive in New Bedford, Massachusetts--a town that has a shortage of men thanks to the Civil War (and probably the whaling industry). After a persuasive speech by Jason, the women enlist for the trip. Jason Bolt finds an old mule boat --er, ship-- and arranges passage on it for the women, his brothers and himself with Captain Roland Francis Clancey.
They arrive back in Seattle and have a roaring celebration.
With the pressure of a large logging contract with a late penalty, the Bolt brothers would be busy enough, but the brides, led by Candy Pruitt, have put together a petition. The town must get a doctor or they will leave.
Jason heads to San Francisco in search of a doctor. The only one he can find has excellent credentials, but is a woman, which in the mid-1800s was very rare. He extends her the offer out of desperation and they sail back to Seattle.
In the meantime, Joshua and Jeremy have been running the logging camp. Jeremy dynamites a log jam and is severely injured. Dr. Wright returns in time to save his life.
To thank her, Jason throws her a welcome party, but attendance is mixed: the loggers go only because Jason insisted that they go, but only two of the brides show up. Jason delivers an impassioned speech to the brides about their prejudice.
Dr. Wright realizes that even in unconventional Seattle, there is still a lot of uneasiness about a woman doctor and decides to leav
Holly Houston rides into town with three small children and a plan to find herself a husband, so the judge won't take the kids from her. Her target? Jason Bolt.
She manages to convince most of the town that Jason IS the father of the three children and that he'd promised to marry her. She then leaves the children with the brides and disappears from town.
With the town mostly taking Holly's side, Jason tracks her down and tells her that he will teach her how to be a lady so that the judge will not take the children from her. She accepts his offer, hoping that he will marry her once she's more ladylike.
At the custody hearing, everyone finds out that Jason is not the father and that Holly is not the mother. (She's the aunt.) The children will be sent to Ohio to live with their grandparents and Holly decides to accompany them there.
In the final scene, Jason receives a note from Holly telling him how things went and asking him to introduce her to the eligible Mr. Aaron Stempel when
Clancey brings the son of one of the brides to town and the trouble begins!
Reverend Gaddings proposes to Polly Blake, who tries to see Jason to discuss what the term ""marriageable"" means. Before she can talk to him, Clancey arrives in town with Polly's son, Tommy. Polly explains that she is a widow.
If Polly is considered ""unmarriageable"", then the bet between the Bolt brothers and Aaron Stempel will be over, with Stempel winning Bridal Veil Mountain. Complicating matters is Tommy, who is opposed to his mother's engagement and a generally nasty brat of a child.
It all comes to a head when Tommy goes to the chapel and in a fit of anger shakes the ladder that Reverend Gaddings is on, knocking him down and rendering him unconcious.
At a town meeting to discuss whether Polly's marriageable, Reverend Gaddings interrupts Aaron's speech and says she is marriageable, because if she is interested, he wants to marry her. Tommy learns that adults need love, too, and now approves his mother's
Can you believe it? Jason Bolt and his two brothers have been away from Seattle for more than half a year to bring back one hundred eligible ladies and... the men that they left behind FORGOT to build housing to accommodate the women!!
This episode is told as a flashback as Biddie Cloom interviews Clancey in his ship about the first days after their arrival in Seattle.
After a rousing celebration by the entire town, the men are about to have a congratulatory drink when Jason discovers that Big Swede and Corky forgot to build a dormitory. Realizing that lack of accommodation would be a great reason for the women not to stay and for them to lose their mountain, they hastily make plans to build a dormitory without letting the women know what's going on.
In a delay tactic, Jason persuades Captain Clancey's navigator, Dimitri, to visit a nearby Russian settlement. This leaves Clancey without anyone familiar with navigating the West coast.
Another part of Jason's plan includes taking the
Jeremy proposes to Candy and Candy accepts. Everyone is thrilled for them except another logger named Lew. Lew thinks all the girls will want to get married now that Candy and Jeremy have gotten engaged. He raises doubts in Jeremy's mind and Jeremy and Candy call off their engagement. Candy and the other brides tell Jason somebody has to get married to break the log jam they've been experiencing. Jason decides that Lew is going to break the log jam. He pretends to be in love with Lew's girl Abigail and makes Lew jealous enough to marry her. Everything ends well with Candy and Jeremy deciding that they need to get to know each other better.
Adam Wilson, a Mormon, arrives in Seattle hoping to find several women to make his brides. He informs Jason of his plan and Jason says to go ahead but that none of the brides are Mormons and he doubts that any of them would want to share a husband. He introduces himself to Candy, Biddie, Anne, and Amanda and asks them to help him get settled by cooking and cleaning for him. They agree not knowing that his ulterior motive is to woo them. They go out walking with him and one of the lumber jacks goes running back to the camp to let their boyfriends know. Jeremy is out of town and Josh can't believe Candy would cheat on him. The loggers confront their women about being squired around town by a Mormon and they tell them they didn't know that he was one. The loggers have a good laugh about the women being taken in by Adam Wilson and the women get angry at being made fun of. They decide to pretend that they are interested in Adam and actually go so far as to go to him farmhouse to help him fi
Candy Pruitt's grandfather Benjamin Pruitt arrives in Seattle to visit Candy but also to prospect for gold. Jeremy is very anxious about meeting her grandfather as he has never met any of Candy's relatives. He and Jeremy get along fine but he confides to him and Candy that he has always dreamed of striking it big prospecting for gold and he feels Seattle may be the place. Jeremy tells him that others have searched for gold unsuccessfully but this doesn't sway Benjamin in the least. He proceeds to try his luck and in the process the mine shaft caves in on him. The Bolt brothers rescue him but he no longer feels like living as his dream of finding gold hasn't been fulfilled. Candy believes that if her grandfather finds even a small nugget of gold this will give him the will to live again. She convinces Jeremy to salt the mine with gold from her grandmother's locket. Once the town finds out gold has been discovered they all buy mining equipment and fights break out over different claims.
Marriage Chinese Style is a 1969 adventure, western and comedy television episode written by Skip Webster and directed by Richard Kinon.
