Volume II: Filmography

HIS VOCATION

a.k.a. HIS PROFESSION

December 7, 1915 (Tuesday)

Length: 2 reels

Character: Circus drama, "The romance of a sensitive circus clown"

Cast: Grace DeCarlton (Beata McBride), Bert Delaney (Dan Dinsmore), Helen Badgley (Eulalie, Beata's little sister), Ethyle Cooke (a nurse), Eugene Moore, Jr. (porter)

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, December 4, 1915:

"Dan Dinsmore, a natural born fun-maker, fell in love with Beata McBride. The two young people saw a great deal of one another at the gay beach resort where Dan had saved Beata from drowning, and little sister Eulalie came in for no small share of her big sister's admirer's attentions. But no clown in a circus could ever think of proposing marriage to a girl like Beata - so Dan went away. Some months later, Dan's circus came to Beata's home town. Eulalie won big sister's promise to take her to see the clowns. But the day of the show the little girl became very ill. Her fever rose, and anxious Beata watched beside the delirious child, who called incessantly for 'the clown.' The doctor had said, 'Don't deny her anything she wants. For I fear to do so would be fatal.'

"How could he know that Eulalie would beg for a circus feature? At last, Beata, desperate, phoned the manager of the show. 'I will pay any price,' she told him, 'if you will send one of the clowns to my house to amuse my very sick little sister.' Dan seized the opportunity. He entertained Eulalie with all his funniest antics, taking care that neither she nor Beata should guess who he was. But the following day, Beata called on the manager. Eulalie was safe - and she insisted that the clown be rewarded. When Dan, innocent of what was wanted of him, entered the room, it would have been hard to say which was most surprised - the girl, the manager, or the clown. Dan discovered that his vocation was by no means a stumbling block in the way of his love. And then he claimed his reward, while Eulalie, restored to health, vowed that Dan was the greatest man in the world."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, December 4, 1915:

"An interesting two-part drama featuring a young woman and a man with whom she has fallen in love at a summer hotel. She finds out afterwards the cause of his sudden withdrawal from her society. It happens that he is a clown in a circus, and concludes that she would never marry a man of his vocation. One day, however, when the circus is visiting her home town, her little sister, who is very ill, cries to be allowed to go to the circus. A clown from the circus consents to come to the house to do funny tricks for the child's amusement, and turns out to be the young man at the summer hotel. The friendship is cemented, and afterward a wedding ceremony is performed."

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