Volume II: Filmography

LOUIE, THE LIFE SAVER

October 7, 1913 (Tuesday)

Length: 1 reel (1,026 feet)

Character: Comedy-drama

Director: Carl L. Gregory

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan

Cameraman: Carl L. Gregory

Cast: Harry Benham (Louie, the lifeguard), Florence LaBadie (the rescued girl)

Location: Cape May, New Jersey

Notes: 1. The title was designated erroneously as Louis, the Life Saver in a synopsis in Reel Life, October, 3, 1913. In The Motion Picture Story Magazine, March 1914, it was given as The Life Saver. 2. Thanhouser advertised this film would be "inaugurating the Cape May by-the-sea stories...made by our special company at Cape May, New Jersey." The group of films included the following: Louie, the Life Saver (October 7, 1913), A Deep Sea Liar (October 12, 1913), Beauty in the Seashell (October 19, 1913), The Mystery of the Haunted Hotel (October 21, 1913), The Water Cure (November 2, 1913), and Little Brother (November 7, 1913).

ADVERTISEMENT, Reel Life, October 4, 1913:

"INAUGURATING THE CAPE MAY 'BY-THE-SEA STORIES.'

"Get the first picture in the wonderful series made by our special company at Cape May, New Jersey.... While the rollers roll onto the beach at Cape May, Louie plans he will save some beautiful maiden from the surf and marry her. He does save a beauteous one, and moneyed too, but the wedding bells don't somehow ring."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, October 11, 1913:

"Louie was lazy, and owing to a diet of flashy novels, he grew up to be a worthless young man. He had a job in an office, but when summer came he gave it up and hied himself to the seashore, securing a place as a lifeguard. He decided after a few days that there was one pretty girl who would suit him. She was very pretty, and was accompanied by an elderly gentleman, undoubtedly her father. Louie tried to scrape an acquaintance with her in the water, but failed. Just the same his chance came. The girl was seized with cramps, and Louie gallantly rescued her. Everything was going just the way things did in the yellow-backed novels, but he was rudely awakened, however, for the next day the broker called to thank him. Then Louie learned to his sorrow, that the 'girl' was the old man's wife, and that old men are sometimes stingy with their money."

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, October 4, 1913:

"A very entertaining comedy - with unusually pretty scenes along the ocean - is Mr. Lonergan's sparkling playlet, Louie, the Life Saver. Louie was one of those young hangers-on whose ambition is to get rich without working. Added to his laziness, he had a voracious appetite for dime novels - and a job in an office was too slow for him. When summer came he threw up his place with Jones & Johnson - and bought a ticket to Mermaid Shoals. There he escaped starvation by securing a post on the bathing beach as life guard. He recalled many stories of life savers who had made very profitable matches with beautiful heiresses whom they rescued from watery graves - and there was one young lady - whom he saw daily, walking on the beach with an elderly gentleman, evidently her father - whom Louie decided would just about suit him. One morning, in the water, she was seized with cramps - and he gallantly swam out and bore her safely to shore. Everything was going just as it always did in the novels - and he dreamed of the bride, and the fortune, soon to be his. Next day, the broker called to thank him. 'I am greatly indebted to you, my brave fellow, for rescuing by wife' - and he handed the life saver a ten-cent piece.

"'Sir,' said Louis, 'I had not the slightest intention of rescuing - your wife.' He looked at the ten-cent piece - and was about to fling it in the man's face - when he thought better of it, and put it in his pocket. And that was lucky - for that same evening he was dismissed from the life guard 'for insolence' - and, if it hadn't been for the munificent broker's tip, how would he have got his next - dime novel?"

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, October 18, 1913:

"Harry Benham appears in this as a life guard at the beach. Flo LaBadie plays the part of the girl. She is contemptuous of his attentions until she gets out into deep water and he is called upon to save her life. The usual marriage did not follow, however, as Louie merely dreams that part of the story. A rather pleasing offering."

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