Ralph Shumake

The Green Hand

Paul Chapman, M. D. Mobley

In 1932, University of Georgia agriculture professor Paul W. Chapman wrote a novel about the Future Farmers of America (FFA), The Green Hand, in which joining FFA improved the life of a young delinquent, Fred Dale. In 1939, Sears-Roebuck & Co. sponsored the filmed version of The Green Hand and shot the film in Athens, Georgia, casting townfolk and university professors as its main characters. The main character, Fred Dale, is played by UGA sophomore Alpha Fowler, Jr., the son of a state legislator. A "big man on campus" in the 1940s, Fowler, Jr. went on to his own career as a state legislator. Other men prominent in Georgia and UGA agriculture appeared in the film.