Volume II: Filmography

FLAMES AND FORTUNE

LAMES AND FORTUNE was set against the deliberate burning of the Sicard mansion in New Rochelle. Courtesy Ralph Graham, M.D. (R-7)

June 16, 1911 (Friday)

Length: 1,000 feet

Character: Drama

Cast: Marie Eline (youngster in big sister's love story), William Garwood (her rescuer)

Location: Filmed in New Rochelle, New York, when the Sicard mansion, built circa 1700, and owned for the 30 years prior to 1911 by John H. Trenor, who lived next door, was put up for bids for removal, to clear the site for the building of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. The Thanhouser Company was the buyer, and with the New Rochelle Fire Department and an estimated 3,000 bystanders (according to reports; the figure seems optimistic) watching, the mansion was burned to the ground, providing the focus for the plot of the film.

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, May 27, 1911:

"Actual scenes [per illustrations] from Flames and Fortune, out Friday, June 16, which you must book NOW to make sure of getting. This is 'the film they burned down a house for' - the best sensational fire picture ever shown - and live exhibitors everywhere are shooting in their applications for it to their exchanges. Has your exchange your application?"

ARTICLE, The New Rochelle Pioneer, April 29, 1911:

"In order that moving pictures might be taken of a real fire and rescue, the old Sicard residence on the Trenor property, one of the first dwellings erected in New Rochelle, was burned to the ground on Friday afternoon of last week. Hundreds of people watched the blaze, the rescue of a child, the excitement of villagers, and the futile attempts of a bucket brigade in rural costume to save the building. They saw the flames rapidly destroy the homestead, and at the end the young owners mourning over the blackened ruins. The fire was witnessed by Fire Chiefs Ross and Dunkle and members of the Olympia Hose Company, the latter having their apparatus on hand in case the sparks should set fire to the Trenor mansion nearby."

ARTICLE, The Billboard, May 6, 1911.

"New Rochelle New York - April 26. Special to The Billboard: The Sicard Homestead, one of the oldest houses in New Rochelle, was burned in the presence of 3,000 spectators to furnish a spectacle for a motion picture concern. There was enacted a rescue of a child and the work of a village bucket brigade, while a 'mournful family' viewed the ruins when the house was a mass of cinders. The house was erected about 1700 by the Sicard family, which was among the Huguenots who settled in New Rochelle. When John H. Trenor, who at one time was dancing master to New York's exclusive set, retired and came to New Rochelle 30 years ago, he purchased the place. The plot on which the house stood was sold recently for a site for St. Paul's Episcopal Church."

ARTICLE, Motography, May 1911:

"The historic Sicard mansion at New Rochelle, New York, built about 250 years ago by a Huguenot family, and the scene of many fiesta meetings of aristocratic society in colonial days, is a mass of blackened ruins today. It was sacrificed to furnish a spectacle for a motion picture film. The site of the house was purchased recently for a new Episcopal church, and the old mansion, offered at auction, was bid in by a moving picture company. With the permission of the city authorities the company set fire to the house in order to obtain a series of realistic pictures of the rescue of a child, a village bucket brigade in action, and a mournful family viewing the ruins."

ARTICLE, The Moving Picture World, May 27, 1911:

"ANOTHER FIRE FILM FROM THANHOUSER. A pretty country house basks peacefully in the golden sunlight - a few minutes elapse and it is a roaring, seething furnace. One minute you see two lovers talking pleasantly in front of the pretty manor; next you see of them is in retreat from a mere wooden frame that belches smoke and flame. Such is the sight presented to your vision through the ingenuity and enterprise of the 20th century film producer. A short space of years ago, when the filming of an onrushing train or a galloping squad of calvary was considered most remarkable, the total destruction of a house for a moving picture was a feat never dreamed of. And so you can consider Flames and Fortune, which the Independent exhibitors should book now to secure after its release on Friday, June 16th, as a real epoch-maker and something that will reflect real credit on your show-picking ability. Film men who have seen the picture call it a masterpiece of realism, something that is easily the best film of the sensational kind the Independent side has yet developed. The Thanhouser people, who produce the film, extend their thanks to the New Rochelle, New York Fire Department, who kindly stood by during the burning of the house to see that the flames did not extend to adjoining properties."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, June 10, 1911:

"A Southern woman, widowed during the early days of the Civil War, lives with her new baby in her home in a small village. Receiving word that the enemy is approaching, and that the Confederates mean to make a stand in her house, she hastily departs, after ordering her faithful servant, Sam, to hide her money and jewels. Sam performs his mission, selecting a hiding place which he believes no one will discover, and is about to join his mistress when he is killed by a stray bullet. And the secret of the hiding place dies with him. Forty-eight years later, the other members of the family are two girls, grandchildren of the woman who ordered the treasure put safely away. They have a desperate struggle to get along, but the elder girl supports them by sewing. There is a mortgage on their home, which is held by a miserly old man, who refuses to show them any mercy. He is willing, however, to give the girl a home if she will marry him, but she hates him and is in love with a younger and better man who, however, is poor.

"But she loves her little sister, and while willing to stand poverty herself, cannot bear to think that the child will suffer. So she finally decides to accept the offer and goes to the man's house, prepared to tell him she will make the sacrifice. The child is left alone in the house, and being warned not to play with matches, she naturally does so, and sets the place on fire. The big sister hears the news while she is telling the man that she hates that she will marry him. She runs off to the fire, followed by her unwelcome suitor. There she finds the house blazing fiercely. She tries to enter the place but is held back. Her unwelcome suitor has a chance to win her love, but is not man enough to make good. But the lad she always loved proves to be the man for the emergency, dashes through the fire and smoke and saves the little girl. The big sister decides that she will not sacrifice herself, that somehow, in someway they will get along. She spurns her wealthy suitor, and he goes away, vowing vengeance. And good fortune comes through the fire. The little girl is playing around the fire ruins, delighted at the scene of disorder, and comes upon the treasure hidden years and years ago by the faithful servant of her ancestors. It came at the right time and proved that sometimes buried treasure is best buried until the time comes that somebody who really needs it and appreciates it comes along."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, June 18, 1911:

"This is a praiseworthy film in every sense of the word. The story evolved around this old mansion is logically worked out and creditably presented in every sense of the word. It begins during the Civil War, when the Northern troops are passing through that vicinity. The parlor of the dwelling is used by rebel sharpshooters, and just prior to their arrival the mistress of the home turns over her jewel and money box to their faithful old Negro servant, who takes it down into the cellar and there hides it beneath a heavy slab in a fireplace. The slave is accidentally killed by a stray bullet, and after the troops have passed on the woman believes they have stolen her valuables. Fifty years elapse, bringing the tale down to the present day, when we are introduced to the descendants of the war-time folk, who have since passed to the Great Beyond. A young girl and her little sister are all that remain of the family, now almost poverty-stricken. The house has gone to wreck and ruin, the plaster falling from the walls, the fireplace crumbling to dust, the pictures faded and the furniture worn and broken. The girl is desired by a cold and unscrupulous man of means who holds a mortgage on the home. She is loved by a sterling, manly chap of small means. For the sake of her sister she decides to wed the rich man, and leaving the tot at home she goes to his house to tell him so. But the little one is a mischievous miss and in playing with matches sets fire to the home, which soon burns to the ground. The day following the lover, who had gone into the building to rescue the child and had thus proven his manliness and love for the sister, accompanied by the latter and the youngster, walks over the ruins, and the child comes upon the box of jewels and money. Here the story logically ends. There is one point open to criticism or possibly comment would be better: Why have Confederate soldiers in the house? Why not Union troops? Would it not make it more dramatic?"

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, July 1, 1911:

"This is mostly little Marie Eline's picture, and she makes it a very charming one. The first scene is in the Southern homestead during the war, where you see the old darkey who buries the family fortune to save it, shot by a stray bullet. Then we see the home many years later when it is delapidated and the two sisters are in want. The burning of the house is what reveals the hidden fortune. Little Marie Eline plays the youngster's part in big sister's love story. The picture is well made and well acted."

Note: To this point in reviews of Thanhouser films published in The Moving Picture World, Marie Eline is the only player mentioned by name. Apparently, reviewers for this periodical did not know the names of the Thanhouser players and could recognize only Marie Eline, whose name often appeared in print as "Maria" Eline.

REVIEW by C.H. Claudy, The Moving Picture World, July 8, 1911: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, June 21, 1911:

"The remarkable feature of this film is that an entire dwelling is demolished by fire taken by the camera from the first of the flame to the fallen ruins. The fire effects are exceptional. The story was not happy in the arrangement of the last half, in that one lost sympathy with the girl for apparently desiring to give herself up to the rich man, as no respectable girl would have done unless much greater issues were involved. The story begins at the time of the Civil War. At the invasion of the troops the old darkey hides the family's fortune, confined in a small iron chest, in the old fireplace in the cellar. He is accidentally shot and the chest is never found. Fifty years after this - the change is well brought out in the set - the young daughters are all that is left of the family. The house will be taken from them unless the oldest consents to marry the mortgagee. A young lover consents to take her elsewhere, but that evidently does not satisfy her, for she goes to tell the older man that she will marry him. While she is gone the small sister plays with matches. The house catches fire. The older man refuses to rescue the sister, but the young lover does, and is thus the hero of the older sister's heart. A few days later the younger sister finds the chest with the fortune while playing about the ruins. It is not hard to see how the theatric incidents in the story could be avoided."

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