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Annabel Takes a Tour

1938 film by Lew Landers

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ4767695 ↗
Source-derived summary

Annabel Takes a Tour is a 1938 American comedy film directed by Lew Landers and starring Lucille Ball, Jack Oakie and Ruth Donnelly. Annabel (Lucille Ball) is on a promotional tour and, as a publicity stunt, leaks a story that she is having a romantic fling with a famous romance novelist. The film is a sequel to The Affairs of Annabel.

Plot

Frustrated at being upstaged in the press by a colleague who's making headlines with her aristocratic fiancé, movie star Annabel Allison insists that studio chief Howard Webb rehire dangerously resourceful publicist Lanny Morgan. Allison, Morgan, Josephine, and Poochy depart by train for Chicago on a public-appearance tour in conjunction with the premiere of Allison's latest film. Morgan accidentally sends Allison through a trap door as she addresses the Chicago audience, and he attempts unsuccessfully to capitalize on the mishap for PR purposes by exaggerating Allison's injuries. While recuperating in her hotel, Allison learns that author Ronald River-Clyde is staying down the hall, and she realizes his aristocratic title could solve her publicity problems. She and Morgan work independently to manipulate River-Clyde into a high-profile date with Annabel; but when Annabel gets so carried away with her fantasies of accommodating the viscount's presumed loftiness that she decides to shun publicity, she finds herself at cross purposes with her press agent. While Annabel pursues a quiet relationship with River-Clyde, Lanny keeps trying to push them into the spotlight. Meanwhile, an initially baffled River-Clyde has been persuaded by his publisher to use Annabel for his own publicity, so he does not resist Annabel's romantic pursuit of him.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Annabel Takes a Tour” as 1938 film by Lew Landers. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1938—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1938-01-01. The account is most persuasive where Annabel, Takes and Tour can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1938 film by Lew Landers. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4767695. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1938.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Annabel Takes a Tour”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Annabel Takes a Tour primary sources, Annabel Takes a Tour archive and Annabel research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Annabel Takes a Tour”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Annabel Takes a Tour” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.