Volume III: Biographies

HEFFRON, Thomas.N.

Director (1911-1913)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: T.N. Heffron was a director with Thanhouser circa 1911-1913.

Biographical Notes: Thomas N. Heffron was born in Virginia City, Nevada in 1872, and was educated at Santa Clara College in California. His early career was as a lawyer, after which, at one time or another, he was variously an actor or stage director for Cohan and Harris, William A. Brady, Minnie Maddern Fiske, John Mason, A.H. Woods, Charles Frohman, Kirke LaShelle, Augustus Thomas, and others. He was known for his villain character role and as a vaudeville dancer. He only had one leg, but, despite this handicap, he scored successes in active parts. The Toledo Blade, November 15, 1910, commented: "Tom Heffron, a one-legged comedian, keeps the audience in a good humor with jokes and stories and, with the aid of a crutch, does some clever dancing and high kicking." The Washington Star, January 30, 1912, noted: "His one-legged dancing seems little short of marvelous." In 1908 he was general stage director for the Bishop stock company in San Francisco, after which he went to Spokane with the Jessie Shirley stock company, for whom he directed The Girl of the Golden West at the Auditorium. In December 1909 he was on stage in New York City in St. Elmo.

His motion picture career is said to have begun with Thanhouser in 1911. However, it was not until 1913 that his name was publicized, and in stories about directors published in 1912, his name was not mentioned. He may have worked with the studio intermittently or as an assistant in the early days. On January 3, 1913 he took a company of Thanhouser players to Chicago and other places in the Midwest, for filming on location. He returned to New Rochelle in the summer of the same year and became Thanhouser's main director there. By January 1914 he had moved to Biograph. His place at Thanhouser was taken by James Durkin (husband of Maude Fealy), according to a notice in The Photoplay Magazine, January 1914. A paragraph in the 1916 edition of the Motion Picture World Studio Directory stated that he worked for Thanhouser for just one year. However, if this is true, as he joined Thanhouser in 1911 he must have departed and then returned, for he directed the 1913 Thanhouser film, The Missing Witness.

After leaving Thanhouser, Heffron spent just a short time with Biograph. He soon moved to the Famous Players Film Company, for whom he directed One of Our Girls, released in June 1914, and other films, including Man from Mexico, Aristocracy, Gretna Green, and Mrs. Black is Back. After remaining with Famous Players for 13 months, he went to Selig, where he was by mid-April 1915. In July 1915 the completion of his widely-publicized Selig Red Seal Play, The House of a Thousand Candles, was announced. For Selig he directed many pictures, including Stranger in New York, Milk White Flag, Temperance Town, Black Orchid, The Valiants of Virginia, and The Return.

The New York Dramatic Mirror, issue of September 1, 1915, printed his lengthy letter to the editor, which gave Heffron's views on the subject of the different functions of a director. In June 1916 he was with Selig, working on The Man Who Tried to Grow Young. During the same year he was with American Film ("Flying A") in Santa Barbara, directing Kolb and Dill. In 1916 Thomas N. Heffron lived in a bungalow in a Los Angeles suburb, where he enjoyed reading in his den and automobiling on nearby roads. In April 1917 he was with the Nevada Motion Picture Company, producing the 12-reel feature, The Planter.

Thanhouser Filmography:

1913: Halfway to Reno (2-16-1913), The Missing Witness (8-12-1913), Life's Pathway (9-30-1913), The Daughter Worth While (10-10-1913), The Plot Against the Governor (10-14-1913)

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