Volume II: Filmography

RUTH'S REMARKABLE RECEPTION

(Falstaff)

February 22, 1916 (Tuesday)

Length: 1 reel (1,016 feet)

Character: Comedy

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan

Cast: Frances Keyes (Ruth), Jay C. Yorke (butler), Gus Anderson (head conspirator), Arthur LeVien (his helper), Maurice Steuart (student of Ruskin)

Note: This film was originally scheduled for release on February 15, 1916, and after the date was moved forward to February 22, certain schedules were not corrected.

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, February 19, 1916:

"The lonely old maid was a kindly soul and delighted in helping the poor. 'But the children who are most neglected,' she often said, 'are the little boys of Hades Square.' The old maid was the only one who had ever visited Hades Square who felt that way. It was a favorite place to send new policemen to test their courage. The Hades Square denizens were husky and didn't care whom they hit. The old maid decided to invite the boys of Hades Square to her home for a children's party. In spite of protests, however, the old maid had her way, and the dirty-faced little boys came to her home to the party prepared for them. The dignified Butler felt the impact of a missile from a slingshot, a rare and expensive statue was destroyed during a fist fight between two of the 'dears,' while the chandeliers in the reception room crashed to the floor during the acrobatic stunts performed by one of the children.

"A little boy sat on the steps of his home, next door to the old maid, reading a volume of Ruskin. He was a very bright child - anyone could tell that by looking at his grave, bespectacled face. He was deeply immersed in Ruskin when a lasso landed around his neck and he was jerked, protesting, into the house next door. The bad little boys were very rude to the student of Ruskin, but they got the surprise of their lives when their prisoner, angered by their disrespect for his favorite author, soundly trounced them all, and converted them into eager if unwilling students of Ruskin. As the children were leaving, their tough leader asked the studious little boy if he could borrow his copy of Ruskin. 'With pleasure,' the spectacled wonder replied, 'but why, may I ask?' 'Will, it's dis,' said the boy from Hades Square. 'You seem to do everything to this book except swaller it, and you're de best rough-house scrapper I ever seen, so I guess when I get through chewin' de words in dat book I'll be able to lick every kid in de square.'"

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, February 19, 1916:

"A bachelor girl of charitable heart gives a party to a large number of children from a settlement house. They proceed to have a high time, breaking statuary, getting into the flour and the like. The subject is one that will probably appeal to children, though it leans a little too strongly toward the mischievous."

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