1915FalstaffOne reelComedy

Gussie, the Graceful Life Guard

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

“Ted Jerrold, a young and extremely good-looking clerk, is enjoying himself at the seashore, when he receives word from his employer that his services will no longer be needed. Daisy, the pretty cashier at the hotel, suggests to the proprietor that Ted be taken on as life guard. ‘The girls all lose their hearts to him,’ she says. ‘he’ll pack your hotel to the roof.’ So it is arranged. Ted, as a matter of fact, cannot swim a stroke. Daisy’s homely brother, Tom, had patrolled the beach alone formerly. Now his irresistible sister persuades him to cooperate in her scheme. ‘All you need do,’ she tells Ted, ‘is look handsome and save the old ladies and children who fall into shallow water. My brother will do the work.’ All goes well, until Ted, his head turned by the flattery of fair summer visitors, attaches himself to Miss Charlotte Keen, a rich old maid. Daisy is incensed. She confides in her brother. Tom swims out under the boat in which Ted has taken Miss Keen for a row, and deftly upsets them. He then saves them both. Miss Keen cannot forgive Ted for being an imposter. And he, seeing that lady’s false hair float off in the water, also is sadly disillusioned. Expecting to be fired, he goes back shamefacedly to Daisy. But she tells him not to worry about losing his job. Then it dawns upon the young man that the little cashier is worth a whole beach full of summer girls.”

Summary from Reel Life · 7 August 1915

What the papers said

1 review

“A particularly pleasing comedy number, with a fresh little plot. Gussie goes broke at the summer hotel and the girl gets him a job as lifeguard, although he can’t swim. Her brother does the rescuing. This has snap to it and it is unusually well photographed.”

The Moving Picture World · 21 August 1915

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Cast and crew

Cast
Carey L. Hastings as Charlotte Keen
George Renevant as Ted Jerrold
George T. Welsh as the innkeeper
Kenneth Clarendon as Tom, Daisy’s brother
Peggy Burke as Daisy, the cashier

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More about 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 1915 →

Cite as: Bowers, Q. David. Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History, “Gussie, the Graceful Life Guard”. thanhouser.org/films/gussie-the-graceful-life-guard/

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