Volume II: Filmography

THEIR GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL DOLL

Working title: THE BIG BEAUTIFUL DOLL

November 23, 1913 (Sunday)

Length: 1 reel (1,010 feet)

Character: Drama

Cast: Violet Stewart (Mrs. Read, a poor widow), Leland Benham (Larry, her son), Helen Badgley (Daisy, her little girl), Madeline and Marion Fairbanks (Madeline and Marion, twin sisters), Dorothy Benham (Jane), Al Russell (policeman)

Note: The title was listed as The Big Beautiful Doll in Thanhouser's advance publicity notices.

ADVERTISEMENT, Reel Life, November 22, 1913:

"The Thanhouser twins had a great, big beautiful doll that was so great, so big and so beautiful, that someone had to steal it, so the Twins got a more beautiful one that was human besides."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, November 29, 1913:

"The twin sisters had one possession of which they were greatly fond: an extremely large doll, which excited the envy of all their little playmates. It really was a beautiful doll, and they took much comfort in it; therefore, one day when it was stolen their grief was profound. Of course, they had other dolls, but none could compare with the vanished queen of the nursery, and for several days the little girls refused to be comforted. Then one morning when passing along a shabby street they noticed a beautiful child peering out of a window of a tumble-down old cottage. They thought at first she was the doll, but when they found her to be alive they bribed her with candy to consent to be her doll 'just for a little while.' The little girl was all alone in the house, and tired of doing nothing she consented to the plan, was helped out of the window, and taken away to the home of the twins. There they arrayed her in the purple and fine linen of the doll who had disappeared, had a pleasant happy time. Later in the afternoon they started out for a walk through the city, the 'doll' complaining then in the doll carriage. In the meantime the baby's home had caught fire through her carelessness with playing with matches and her mother, a poor widow, who had been out working, returned to find the place in flames. She believed her child was dead, and for a while her grief was profound. Then down the street came the twins with their new doll, and the mother's grief changed to joy. She took her little one, doll dress and all, and rushed off with her, leaving the twins mourning their unhappy lot, for as one said and the other agreed, 'she was such a great big beautiful doll.'"

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, November 22, 1913:

"This quaint little play is full of happy surprises - though it opens with a very mournful discovery indeed, when the Twins find that their biggest doll is gone. A frantic search through the nursery and out of doors proves fruitless - and the two little girls scarcely know what to do with themselves without Blanche Cecile. Then, one morning on the street, they happen to see in a window a beautiful child of three years, whom at first they mistake for a doll. When the lovely little thing shakes her golden curls at them and laughs, they are filled with rapture - here is a real, live doll, who can walk and talk and play - why not take her home with them? The child's mother is away all day - and the lonely tot is easily coaxed, with promises of candy and cookies, to go with the Twins. Such a happy day they spend, dressing little Daisy up in the lost doll's things and taking her to ride in the doll's carriage. What has been happening meanwhile, at the house of poor Mrs. Read - and the reason for the frantic welcome Baby Daisy gets on her return - is too good a bit to give away. It puts the dramatic finish on the play - and makes the kidnapping of their 'great big beautiful doll' an act of Providence."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, November 30, 1913:

"This is another of the plays with little folk as actors which the Thanhouser company does so well. The Thanhouser Kidlet and the Fairbanks twins are featured. Two little girls, having lost a big doll, of which they were very fond, discover a little child at the window of a humble cottage. She looks so doll-like that they ask her to be their doll. Then they wheel her off in their carriage. The little 'doll' had been playing with matches just before she crept out of the window with the aid of the two older girls. The house is burned to the ground, and her mother, running from the laundry where she works, is nearly frantic, for she supposes her baby to have perished in the flames. She soon discovers her error and realizes how providential the kidnapping was."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, December 3, 1913: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

# # #