Volume II: Filmography

INAUGURATION CEREMONIES

March 5, 1913 (Wednesday)

Character: Documentary

Cast: Woodrow Wilson (incoming president), William Howard Taft (outgoing president), government officials

Location: Washington, D.C.

BACKGROUND OF THE SCENARIO: This film, probably a reel or less in length, was not a regular release, but consisted of footage taken on inauguration day, March 4, 1913. Much of this footage was incorporated into The Patriot, a Thanhouser drama released on April 8, 1913. The title of the inauguration footage shown separately at the Ideal Theatre on March 5, 1913, according to the article quoted below, is unknown. The following appeared in the New York Morning Telegraph, March 16, 1913: C.J. Hite of Thanhouser took a cameraman to Washington, March 4, filmed the inauguration ceremonies, jumped back to his factory with the negative next morning and showed a picture at the Ideal Theatre, a Bronx photo-play house, in the afternoon! Then he proceeded to see that the other business of the Thanhouser, Mutual, Western Import [British distribution company for Thanhouser films], and allied companies was running smoothly. So promptly at 11:30 that night he slammed his desk shut with the exclamation, 'Nothing to do till tomorrow!'

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