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1914Thanhouser CompanyOne reelComedy

Arty the Artist

No copy you can watch online. No print is known to survive. What follows is what does: the release, the cast, the story, and what the trade press said at the time.

The story

“Arty has a fatal gift for caricature. He is a skillful artist, but loses several positions because he cannot help being funny. On one occasion he lands a fat job as a drawing master in a girl’s boarding school. But the humorous points in the principal’s make-up are too much for him. He draws a caricature of her which convulses the pupils, and being caught in this unpardonable offense, is instantly dismissed. Another time, while trying to be a good fellow at the hotel bar, he gets in wrong by making a comic portrait of Mr. Taft. With great presence of mind, however, he placates his angry audience by transforming the likeness to that of William Jennings Bryan.

“Arty is successful in selling some humorous drawings to a newspaper. The same day he meets on the street May Miles, one of his former pupils at the boarding school. She takes him home with her and announces to her father that Mr. Archibald Atkinson will come daily to teach her art. Father accepts this state of affairs on one condition—that the lessons be conducted right there in that room, and that neither of them shall speak a word. The young pair show some disappointment, but soon brighten up. Arty places his easel and surreptitiously starts on a humorous sketch of Father Miles. This he follows up with another drawing in a more ardent vein. It resembles a huge valentine with two arrow-pierced hearts. May and Arty, on bended knee, supplicate Mr. Miles with the art offering. Their cleverness in getting round the technical difficulties of their case so please the old man, that he gives them his blessing.”

Summary from Reel Life · 22 August 1914

What the papers said

2 reviews

“A lively little comedy, introducing a clever American cartoonist, who plays a leading part therein, and incidentally executes lightning cartoons—accomplishing both feats with much facility, although he is naturally more of a draughtsman than an actor. Quite light and bright and merry, and of some novelty.”

The Bioscope · 31 December 1914

“A comedy number featuring ‘Vic,’ the cartoonist, creator of the well-known Axel and Flooey series. Vic hires out as a draughtsman at a girl’s school and gets in trouble. He has further adventures in a saloon, and with his sweetheart’s father. This makes an amusing number. The artist draws numerous sketches in the course of the film.”

The Moving Picture World · 12 September 1914

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Cast and crew

Cast
Alice Turner
Fan Bourke as Miss Smythe, an old maid
Gardner Crane as city editor
Justus D. Barnes as Mr. Miles, May’s father
Lydia Mead as May, in love with Arty
Vic Forsythe as Archibald Atkinson, otherwise known as Arty, a caricature artist
Writer
Lloyd F. Lonergan

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More about this film

Bowers’ notes
  1. Vic Forsythe, a well-known cartoonist who played the title role, was not a regular Thanhouser actor. 2. Certain trade publication schedules, those in The Moving Picture World, August 8 and 15, 1914, for example, erroneously gave August 16th as the release date for this film.

From Volume II: Filmography of Q. David Bowers’ Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, reproduced with permission and unchanged. Read the history of 1914 →

Cite as: Bowers, Q. David. Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, “Arty the Artist”. thanhouser.org/films/arty-the-artist/

Where a print is held

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No print known