Volume II: Filmography

THE SONG OF THE HEART

May 11, 1915 (Tuesday)

Length: 2 reels (2,008 feet)

Character: "Romantic drama"

Cast: Henry Leon (Donald Ober), Mignon Anderson (Mignon, his daughter), Arthur Ashley (Arthur von Bauer), Morgan Jones (McChesney), Bruce Weyman (Stephen Richards), Gordon Hollingshead, Fred Probst

Location: Some scenes were filmed in New York City.

Notes: 1. This film was originally scheduled for release on April 20, 1915. 2. Certain cast surnames were given as "Wiaman" and "Leonie" in a review in The Moving Picture World, May 15, 1915, this information having been taken from Reel Life, April 24, 1915.

ARTICLE, The Moving Picture World, May 15, 1915:

"Mignon Anderson and Arthur Ashley are featured in the cast of The Song of the Heart, a two-reel Thanhouser release in the Mutual program. These two popular stars are ably supported by Morgan Jones, Bruce Wiaman and Henry Leonie. The story deals with the love of Arthur von Bauer, a young German musician, for his landlord's daughter. The young woman sings in the same cafe where he plays, and when the proprietor insults her he comes to the rescue and they both lose their jobs. Meanwhile, Bauer has had his wonderful song and opera, both called The Song of the Heart, stolen by a ragtime artist named Richards. When von Bauer asserts his claim to his own music, he is branded as a plagiarist and only Richards' dying confession absolves him. When he is cleared, he and the girl he loves are married."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, April 10, 1915:

"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."

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, April 24, 1915:

"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."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, May 15, 1915:

"A two-reel production amplifying an old theme which has been done many times in pictures. A young composer is robbed of his song by a man next door, who steals the melody and has it copyrighted. There is the usual love story and when the young composer is accused of stealing his own production the girl uses her wits in tracing down the criminal. Arthur Ashley and Mignon Anderson play the leads. The story, in spite of its familiar theme, is well constructed and holds the interest of the observer."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, May 19, 1915:

"The very capable acting of Mignon Anderson and Arthur Ashley serve to keep this two-part drama of New York City life from falling into the class of the mediocre. With New York as the locale of the story, it is surprising, however, that a director should show men and women drinking in the barroom of a saloon. It isn't done in our best circles, or our worst circles, or the circles in between. A young and charming widow, whose husband [sic; synopsis says father] is a suicide, is forced to sell her effects and live in a furnished room. Later, she is forced to take a position as a singer in a cabaret. A young musician living in the same house accidentally meets her, and they fall in love. Part of the opera, which he is composing, is stolen, and published, and when he later tries to sell the completed score he is accused of plagiarism. The girl by clever detective work discovers the thief, the opera is a great success, the thief is accidentally shot, and all ends most happily."

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