Volume II: Filmography

BROTHER BOB'S BABY

December 8, 1911 (Friday)

Length: 900 feet

Character: Comedy-drama

Cast: Helen Badgley (the baby), James Cruze (Bob's brother)

Location: Some scenes were shot using ambient light in the interior of the new Pennsylvania Railroad Station, New York City, an innovative use of natural interior light at the time; other scenes were photographed elsewhere in New York City, including the Hudson River Day Line landing.

Notes: 1. Helen Badgley, who beginning in February 1912 was called The Thanhouser Kidlet, made her screen debut in this film. 2. Pennsylvania Station was opened to the general public on September 8, 1910 and was widely admired as an architectural marvel. Built of granite and travertine, and designed by the well-known firm of McKim, Mead and White, the structure, two city blocks in size, was modeled on a room in the ancient Baths of Caracalla, had 84 Doric columns each measuring 35 feet high, a 150-foot ceiling, and cost the staggering sum of $112 million to build. It remained a New York City landmark for over a half century.

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, December 2, 1911:

"Brother Bob's baby wants a milk bottle. Poor Billy Batch has to lay down a good hand at the club to go and feed his brother's baby on a Pennsylvania Railroad train - while the mother, who missed the train, frantically telegraphs instructions on how bachelors should take care of children. Can you beat it? The brother does! He flees while the fleeing is good, and his garishness entertains you mightily."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, December 2, 1911:

"A bachelor, with plenty of money and not a care in the world, suddenly finds himself involved in a sea of trouble. It all starts when his brother, who lives in Trenton, wires that his wife and baby are on the way from the mountains and that he will appreciate it if 'brother Jack' will meet them and see them across town. The bachelor, with a sigh, prepares to be gallant. He meets the women and child, also much luggage, and escorts them across town to the Pennsylvania Station. Then he takes them aboard a train, and believes that his task is over. But the mother suddenly remembers some purchases she must make, and the good-natured bachelor is prevailed upon to stand guard over the child until she returns. The mother forgets the time and misses the train and the baby and the bachelor uncle start off together. But the mother is a woman of resource. She wires tips on caring for the baby to various stations along the line, and all would be well were it not for the uncle's awkwardness. But he annoys the other passengers, fights with the conductor when that official remonstrates with him, and is finally thrown off at a little station far from Trenton.

"It is a hot day and that, together with the necessity of singing to the baby, had made uncle thirsty. He sees a saloon nearby, but does not care to take the baby there. Furthermore, the baby will not remain quiet all by itself. But finally fortune smiles on the uncle, although, as afterwards develops, it is a hypocritical smile. A dog is being shipped to Philadelphia in a dog basket, and was left on the platform near the pair of unfortunates. When no one is looking, the thirsty uncle ejected the astonished dog, and places the baby in a place of security. Then he goes off to the cafe and enjoys himself. Time passes rapidly in joy parlors, and trains do not wait for highballs. The car pulls in, the dog basket starts on its journey, and uncle is still in blissful ignorance of what is transpiring. The baggage man finds that instead of a live dog he has a squalling baby on his hands. Being a matter-of-fact individual, he hunts through the train, hoping that some woman will relieve him of his burden. One of the passengers is the baby's mother, and she greets her offspring with glad surprise and delight. And mother and child are reunited. The uncle sends his apologies by wire and then went for a long trip abroad."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, December 10, 1911:

"For pure farcical comedy this has the average film beaten about one hundred ways to one. It is so extremely realistic in the way it is put on, so ridiculous and yet so humanly likable that it causes one continuous ripple of laughter from start to finish. The views of the Pennsylvania Railroad Depot in New York, showing its exterior, its huge waiting rotundas, its stairs to the tunnels below the trains in the tube, the views of the trains in motion - a cleverly worked studio effect, the views at the country depots - in fact, each and every scene is a strikingly fine one and makes the film more notable. A married woman meets her brother at the railroad station and goes back for candy and misses the train, he being obliged to go on with her baby. She wires him at intervals regarding the infant's care and at last he arrives at a way station, where he deposits the child in a traveler's straw bag, which is expressed on to the train on which the mother is fast journeying to overtake her brother and babe. The youngster cries, is discovered, carried into the passenger car and thus meets its mother."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, December 16, 1911:

"This particular baby caused uncle no end of difficulty and finally forced him to sail for Europe. The mother left him in his uncle's care while she went to the newsstand. The train goes without her, and the troubles of the uncle begin, supplemented by telegrams from the baby's mother. The uncle and the baby are ejected at a station. For safe keeping the uncle places the baby in a dog basket in the baggage car, while he goes for a drink. The train goes and leaves him, but the baby makes a disturbance in the baggage car, and the man takes him through the train. He is promptly claimed by his mother, who is taking this train. The badly disconcerted uncle telegraphs where the baby is and adds that he sails for Europe on the next day. The picture of the Hudson River steamer and the one of the new Pennsylvania Station in New York are both excellent. The comedy is sparkling."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, December 13, 1911:

"The trouble that Bob's brother encounters with Bob's baby makes one of the most delightfully entertaining and unique little comedies seen for some time. The story is remarkably well sustained, and told without the use of titles, though letters and telegrams are present which, however, in each instance add zest and progress to the story. Bob's brother meets his brother's wife and baby at the wharf of the Hudson River boats and takes them to the New York Pennsylvania Station - actual scenes used. He sees them on board the train, but the mother retires to buy a magazine, and the train goes off without her, leaving the young uncle with the baby. She sends him telegrams along the way as to the care of the infant, but his efforts at length cause the conductor to put him off the train - a forced situation, perhaps, but seemingly logical at the time. At the station he leaves the baby with the baggage, while he goes to get a drink, but the baby is prone to wander, so his uncle puts him in a dog basket, and during his absence the baby in the basket is whisked into the next train, which happens to be the train on which the mother has followed. Thus the baggage man passing through with the baby restores the baby to the mother. It is exceptionally well played, put together, and set, though in several instances it is apt to stretch the situation."

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