The 1934 film "Laughing Boy" is about a Navajo Indian man "Laughing Boy" who has been raised on the reservation in traditional Navajo style and a Navajo woman "Slim Girl" who has been raised in the white world and has been educated in the white man's vices. At one point the girl seduces the boy with liquor and the next morning he leaves her with a few coins adding to around $2.50 as an obvious message. The film was based on a best-selling novel of the period. A scene with some US coins on a metal cup includes a Morgan silver dollar, a Peace dollar, a Mercury dime, an Indian Head or Buffalo nickel, a US cent, and an unidentified token.

The title is preceded by the MGM logo along with the emblem of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's National Recovery Administration (NRA).

The NRA was an economic scheme created in 1933 where supposedly business and labor would cooperate to end the economic depression which began in 1929. The NRA was ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in 1935.

The film begins with a prologue:

Laughing Boy is a young Navaho who has been raised in Arizona under traditional values. He comes to the "sing" wearing a traditional blanket. Slim Girl is a orphan Navajo girl who has been living in the railroad town of Los Palos. She has been living in the white world and some of the Navajos believe that she does "bad things." She also appears at the festival and some women ask her to leave which she refuses to do. She spots the handsome Laughing Boy who doesn't know her.

Slim Girl tries to take his blanket but he resists her and leaves. He goes out to a cliff to sing, she follows him, and convinces him to stay with her. She pulls out a bottle and a metal cup and introduces him to liquor.

Where is that wonderful blanket now?

She tells him it is "Moonshine - From the moon" They spend the night together but in the morning she wakes up to find him gone.

Laughing Boy has left something for her on the ground, a very insulting message.

She looks around and back to the coins, which somehow have shifted position and and have been joined by another coin (on the left).

Two views of the coins marked with numbers for identification:

First picture: 1. An unknown holed token 2. A Peace silver dollar reverse 3. A Morgan silver dollar reverse 4. An Indian Head or Buffalo nickel reverse 5. A Mercury dime obverse 6. A cent or similar sized coin or token Second picture: 7. A nickel or similar sized coin or token

Slim Girl goes to Los Palos to see her white boyfriend, George Hartshorne, a local businessman. To him she is "Lily" and not "Slim Girl."

George is rough with her for leaving him to visit the Indians. After an argument, she heads back to the reservation, meets Laughing Boy, and they decide to get back together. Laughing Boy even wants to marry her and asks his parents for permission. His parents are not fond of her but allow the wedding to proceed. After three months, Slim Girl is still trying to learn Navajo ways and women's work like making blankets. She shows a blanket to Laughing Boy's mother who disapproves of it. The couple have been living in a traditional hogan but with some furniture. Laughing Boy's parents visit and the mother sits in a chair.

The mother asks Slim Girl to kill a goat but she refuses and heads for town and George.

George hands Slim Girl what appear to be silver dollars. Laughing Boy heads to the town to find her and bring her back. He finds her with George.

Slim Girl steps in front of George and gets the arrow.

She tells him that she will wait for him in the next world. He then takes her to the reservation and inters her there.

The peak in front of him is "Shiprock", a holy mountain to the Navajos.

Ramon Novarro as Laughing Boy
Lupe Velez as Slim Girl
William Davidson as George Hartshorne
Director: W.S. Van Dyke
Writers: John Colton, John Lee Mahin, Oliver La Farge (novel)