Volume II: Filmography

BARRED FROM THE MAILS

May 11, 1913 (Sunday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Comedy

Notes: 1. The title appeared with an S at the end in most Thanhouser advertisements, synopses, and reviews, those in The Moving Picture World, May 10 (advertisement) and 17 (synopsis), 1913, for example. However, some advertisements, such as the one in The Moving Picture World, May 17, 1913, omitted the S, as Barred from the Mail. 2. This film was originally scheduled for release on May 13, 1913, then rescheduled to May 11, 1913.

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, May 17, 1913:

Just suppose you were a fond mother, and the mean Post Office Department called your ooky-snookums a 'live animal!' Wouldn't you boil with rage! See if you can appreciate the feelings of the mama of this story when her baby was barred from the mail and came dratted near going to the 'dead letter office.' Screaming comedy from start to finish.

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, May 17, 1913:

The young matron lived in the Bronx, did her own housework, had a baby to look after, but still found a way to enjoy a day in uninterrupted shopping. She sent her baby by parcel post to her mother in Jersey City, meaning to drift over there in the evening, have dinner and reclaim the child. It was a very ingenious plan, and because the letter man whom she accosted on the street was a new member of the service, she induced him to take the baby. Then she went cheerily on her way. The letter carrier had his own troubles with the baby, but he got it to the post office and turned the youngster over to the superior. He found to his sorrow, however, that 'live animals' could not be sent through the mails, and the package was restored to him, neatly marked 'return to sender.' Under orders he tearfully located the woman's house, but the place was locked, and there was no one in sight to accept the unwelcome package. The postman tried to leave it on the doorstep, but a stern policeman convinced him he was wrong, so again he wandered back to the post office. By this time the mother had discovered that there was something wrong with the parcel post, for her baby had not arrived in Jersey City. She made frantic search, finally heard the policeman's story and rushed around to the post office just in time to save the little one from a journey to the dead letter office. Any postal official who religiously lives up to the rules will tell you that this is exactly what would happen when a 'live animal' barred from the mails was returned and the owner thereof could not be located.

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, May 18, 1913:

This picture would be very amusing if it could be forgotten that a real baby is the 'fall guy' of a mother's foolishness. As it is the various trying circumstances in which the baby has been placed in the construction of what it cannot be denied is a good comedy, offends the sensibilities of the majority of people, and the climax of indignity seems to have arrived when the postman after various efforts to get the baby delivered at the address written on its tag, puts it in his satchel, preparatory to taking it back to the place where he got it.

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, May 17, 1913: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

# # #