In 1925, Billy B. Van’s early film work unexpectedly resurfaces. Miller and Steen Film Distributors announce a series of six two-reel comedies featuring Van alongside Walter Hiers, Bert Byron, and the Beaumont Sisters, to be released for the 1925–26 season. The titles include “The New Clerk,” “The Janitor’s Birthday,” “The Inventor,” “Some Hero,” “The Bootlegger’s Legacy,” and “The New Woman.”

One of these, “The Janitor’s Birthday,” is particularly notable, having first been mentioned a decade earlier in connection with Van’s Equity Motion Picture activities in 1915. Its reappearance raises immediate questions about the origin and history of the series.

Miller and Steen’s president, A. G. Steen, asserts that the films were produced only a year and a half earlier and were originally intended for longer release before being re-edited into two-reel form. This account is soon challenged.

“I want to send out a denial, or something,”

Walter Hiers publicly disputes the claim, stating that the comedies were in fact made “about ten years ago” in Sunapee, New Hampshire, and minimizes his own involvement, describing himself as “just a punk small part player.”

The conflicting accounts leave the true provenance of the films uncertain, illustrating the difficulties of reconstructing early independent production histories—particularly when older material is repackaged and redistributed years later under new claims.

By this time, Van himself appears to have fully withdrawn from motion picture work. Settled in Newport, New Hampshire, he lives with his wife, Rose (Beaumont) Van, and her sister Nellie on an expansive estate described as “476 acres, embroidered with hills, trees, lakes, cottages and sky,” marking a striking contrast to the unsettled afterlife of his film career.