The story
“Arthur von Bauer’s desire to forget the death of his mother and father brings him to New York, where he secures a position at the Garden Cabaret. Arthur’s inheritance of musical genius from his father makes him a popular musician. A panic on the Stock Exchange ruins Donald Ober overnight and rather than face the ruin he commits suicide, leaving the care of his invalid wife to Mignon, their daughter, whose greatest accomplishment is a wonderfully cultivated voice. Their home is sold over their heads, and Mignon realizes she must do something to provide for her mother and self and finds employment singing at the Garden Cabaret.
“Arthur is working on an expression of his loneliness which he puts into music and calls The Song of the Heart. On the other side of the wall in the next building, Stephen Richards, a degenerate and piano player in a low dive, hears and steals Arthur’s composition and has it copyrighted under the title of A Tuneful Melody. Mignon, who has taken rooms above, also hears the song and is charmed by it. After a few days at the Garden Cabaret, the proprietor, McChesney, sees in Mignon a different sort of girl as usually inhabits this place, and he makes plans to take advantage of her, which plan is frustrated by Arthur at the cost of his and her positions. He then composes a light operetta in which is incorporated The Song of the Heart, in which Mignon sings the leading role and makes a greater hit than the opera itself. Richards, having stolen the melody, comes forward, claims authorship, and proves by copyright his claim. Arthur loses his position. Mignon makes every endeavor to prove him innocent even to the extent of visiting the dive to plea with Richards. A few nights later during a scuffle at a card table near the piano being played by Richards, a stray shot finds its way into the piano player’s back. He is taken away to the hospital where he is told that he cannot live. He confesses to having stolen The Song of the Heart, and Arthur is restored to his position, and his reward is Mignon.”
Summary from The Moving Picture World · 10 April 1915
Another synopsis, from Reel Life · 24 April 19151 min
“Arthur von Bauer, son of a German composer, puts his sorrow for the loss of his father and mother into music and calls it The Song of the Heart. The melody is stolen by Stephen Richards, a piano player in a low dive in the same building where von Bauer has rooms. Mignon Ober, who also lives over the young German, hears him working on his composition and is charmed by it. Mignon and von Bauer are employed in the same cabaret. On one occasion he saves her from the insults of McChesney, the proprietor, and they both lose their jobs. The German composes an operetta, in which Mignon is primadonna singing The Song of the Heart. Richards, the plagiarist, then comes forward, shows his copyright to The Tuneful Melody, which is identical with von Bauer’s composition, and the latter finds himself an outcast from the musical world. Later, Richards is shot in a brawl and, dying, confesses the theft, and von Bauer is reinstated as one of the leading musicians of the day. Then he and Mignon are married.”
