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1915Thanhouser CompanyOne reelRomance

His I.o.u.

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

“Nan, a newsgirl, loans fifty cents to Karl, a little orphan, to start him on his career as a seller of the daily news. Karl soon after is adopted by a wealthy uncle. In the excitement, he forgets to repay Nan, and all she has to remember him by is an I.O.U. written in Karl’s boyish hand. Nan grows into a very attractive young woman. She has built up a good news business by which she supports her mother and younger brother. A jealous politician, however, induces the mayor to deprive Nan of her newsstand privilege. Learning that the friend of her childhood, Karl, has become state senator, she goes to his office. She sends in to him the tattered I.O.U. and is granted an interview. The young senator calls up the mayor. He orders him to restore to Nan her newsstand. A romance develops between the old playmates, which results in a happy marriage.”

Summary from Reel Life · 10 July 1915

What the papers said

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17 July 1915The Moving Picture World_1 min

“Showing how the simple little things of life mean so much in the years to come. A newsboy becomes senator and grasps the opportunity to return the bread that had been cast upon the waters when he was a homeless waif. The pretty way that this story is worked out brings new charm to a human theme.”

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Cast and crew

Cast
Daniel F. Keleher
Dave Keleher as the politician
Mildred Manning as Nan, the newsgirl
Morgan Niblack as the mayor
Samuel Morgan Niblack
William Ray Johnston as Karl, the orphan, who in later life is a senator

Every name opens that person's page, with each film they appear in and which of them you can watch.

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A frame from The Tell-Tale Scar12:09
1914 · Same leadThe Tell-Tale Scar

More about this film

Bowers’ notes
  1. In an interview years later, W. Ray Johnston stated that his first starring role was in this film. 2. Morgan Niblack’s surname was frequently misspelled as “Niblock” in Reel Life during this period.

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, “His I.o.u.”. thanhouser.org/films/his-i-o-u/

Where a print is held

Held by
No print known