Hearts of the West

1933. Iowa hayseed Lewis Tater wants to be the next Zane Grey, doing whatever needed to get his western novel published and to be a better western writer. As such, he enrolls in a correspondence writing course with the University of Titan which he learned about from a magazine ad. He decides to head to Titan, Nevada to soak in the western atmosphere and to attend the classes in person, he not realizing that the university does not exist and that it is all a scam. In Titan, he, by chance, stumbles across Hollywood-based Tumbleweed Productions' latest filming locale, they who specialize in B-westerns. Tumbleweed studio head Bert Kessler hires Lewis, who needs a job to live, to be among the stable of stock "cowboys" appearing in his movies. As enthusiastic but naive Lewis works his way through his new-found movie career while still clinging to the notion of getting his novel published, he changes his role model from Grey to Billy Pueblo, who was not only a famed western writer but also a star in B-westerns before he supposedly retired from both careers to live on a weasel farm in Montana. Lewis is assisted in navigating through his Hollywood life primarily by two people: Howard Pike, the lead stock cowboy in Tumbleweed's movies, he who is also seen as an expert in all things culturally western; and "Troutie" - Miss Trout - Kessler's production manager, who is attracted to Lewis, and he to her. Lewis also has to steer clear of the con artists behind the University of Titan, they who are after him because of an incident that occurred before Lewis left Titan, and who only know that Lewis has headed to Hollywood.