Volume II: Filmography

THE JUNIOR PARTNER

November 4, 1913 (Tuesday)

Length: 2 reels (2,009 feet)

Character: Drama

Cast: James Durkin (the junior partner), Florence LaBadie (the twice-married girl)

Notes: 1. The release date was first announced as October 21, 1913, after which it was advanced to October 28, 1913, and then finally set at November 4, 1913. 2. This film marked the film debut, according to Thanhouser advertising, of James Durkin, a stage actor. He joined Thanhouser with his wife, Maude Fealy, in late spring 1913. 3. An old house owned by William Downing was burned down as part of the film action. A photograph of the structure in flames appeared in the October 22, 1913 issue of The New York Dramatic Mirror. An article in The New Rochelle Pioneer, September 27, 1913, reprinted in the narrative section of the present work, indicates this fire was to be used in several different Thanhouser films. Also see the related article from the New Rochelle Evening Standard, reprinted below. 4. A story by Clara E. Post, developed by expanding the plot synopsis, appeared in the November 1, 1913 issue of Reel Life.

ARTICLE, The Evening Standard (New Rochelle), September 26, 1913:

"A new motion stunt in motion picture making was accomplished by the Thanhouser Film Corporation yesterday when scenes of three different photoplays were made around a fire which destroyed the old frame house which for many years was a landmark on the north side of Huguenot Street just west of River Street. Three different companies under three different stage directors with three different leading men and leading women, three different villains, mobs, villagers, servants, etc., performed at the same time before three different cameras while the fire was raging. Several hundred men, women, and children, many in automobiles and carriages, watched the spectacle.

"The old house which was owned by William Downing, but which was unoccupied for several years, was purchased by Charles J. Hite, president of the Thanhouser Film Corporation, for the purpose. Permission was secured to burn it, and Fire Chief James Ross was on the spot with a steamer and a hose crew of volunteer firemen to prevent possible trouble from the fire and to extinguish the remains after the actors and cameras were finished. The inside of the house was soaked with oil and filled with quick burning material. Several scenes of The Junior Partner, You Great Big Beautiful Doll [sic; Their Great Big Beautiful Doll was intended] and The Rube Boss [believed to be the working title for His Father's Wife - Ed.] were made before the match was applied. Then smoke pots were ignited inside and under the outside to form dense yellow smoke, and the first of the fire scenes began.

"But when the torch was applied to the combustibles, the fire stayed inside and burned so slowly that Lloyd Lonergan, who wrote the scenarios, began to worry lest the sun would set before the fire was big enough to work with." Chief Ross was appealed to for advice, but he told the stage directors that he knew better how to put fires out than to make houses burn. He finally advised them to chop the plaster from the walls. Actors went inside the burning house with axes, and in the flame and smoke-filled rooms hacked the walls until the fire began to bite. Then they came running out nearly overcome from heat and smoke. To get the fire to burn faster, cans full of oil were thrown in at the doors and windows. Perry Horton burned one of his hands handling a smoke pot. There were several rescues, including an impromptu one of the Kidlet by David Thompson.

"When the fire grew too hot for the actors to work near it, the cameras were turned on the fire and continued making pictures until the flames began to die down. Then Chief Ross sent his firemen right into the flames with a line of hose, and in five minutes there was not a sign of fire. The cameras were on the firemen while they worked. Besides the three machines making the photoplay, two other cameras made views of the entire scene and the photographing of the three plays at once."

ARTICLE, Reel Life, November 1, 1913:

"JAMES DURKIN IN FILMS NOW: Another legitimate leading man has deserted, James Durkin, of Broadway and 'stock' note, and last of the celebrated Fealy-Durkin Stock Company, Denver, in a genuine every-week-in-the-year photo-player now. Miss Fealy had joined the Thanhouser forces last July. Mr. Durkin has attached himself to the same payroll. His first film is a two reeler called The Junior Partner, released Tuesday, Nov. 4th. Flo LaBadie is his leading woman. Mr. Durkin says that the picture producer goes into detail a little more than the stage producer in the securing of realistic effects. This was because The Junior Partner script called for a fire scene and the director burned down a regular house."

ADVERTISEMENT, Reel Life, November 1, 1913:

"This two-reeler is notable for being the thrill-successor of A Message from Headquarters, for the burning of a real house for its fire scenes, and for the introduction of James Durkin, the theatrical star, to motion picture audiences. As the Junior Partner, he is beaten for the hand of the girl of his heart, by a foreign nobleman - who, abroad with his bride, plans to incarcerate her and take her wealth. There are great chase, race and fire scenes, and a wonderful escape through a trapdoor."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, November 8, 1913:

"The old merchant had plenty of money, but did not care for styles; his wife more than made up for it, however, she had social aspirations and dreams someday of being the mother-in-law of a nobleman. Their daughter was loved by both parents, but her head had been turned by the attentions paid to her by a foreign count who had a wonderful title and an amazing array of creditors. The father hoped that his daughter would marry his junior partner, a young man with sterling qualities, and one the old merchant relied upon. The junior partner did love the girl, and when her engagement to the foreigner was announced he was broken-hearted. A year after the girl and her husband had gone abroad the father was forced to believe that all was not well with his daughter. He received numerous letters from her, but each and every one was an appeal for money, and he finally reached the conclusion that clever forgeries had been perpetrated in her name. Too old to undertake the trip abroad to investigate himself, he confided in his junior partner, who gladly accepted the mission. On arriving in the vicinity of her castle he learned many things that convinced him he should pursue his mission cautiously, so instead of going boldly to the count and announcing who he was, he lurked about the place in disguise. In this way he was enabled to overhear the count and a rascal of a physician lay a plot to send the American girl to an asylum as a lunatic. The doctor explained to the count that it would be necessary for him to have a second physician to certify to the facts in the case, and left the castle to secure the second man.

"The junior partner promptly followed and waylaid him and so frightened the doctor that he consented to take the junior partner with him as the consulting physician. In the castle, by a clever trick the junior partner got the girl away from under the very eyes of her watchful husband. Unfortunately for them their auto broke down and the count and his men overtook them. The fugitives sought refuge in a deserted hut, where for some time the junior partner, who was an expert revolver shot, kept them. Then the count ordered the place burned, and his menials carried out his orders. The young couple were almost suffocated when the girl discovered a trap door leading to a secret passage, which had been built by smugglers, and through it they escaped. Arriving in America the young woman planned to secure an annulment of her marriage, but death carried off the wicked count before the case could be taken to court. A very short time after she married the man who had always loved her."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, November 15, 1913:

"This two-reel subject, with Florence LaBadie and James Durkin in the leads, gets an interesting start, but soon drifts off into melodrama of an unconvincing sort. The situations are too plainly manufactured and lack atmosphere in keeping with the story. The girl marries a Russian count in preference to the junior partner. Later, when she is in trouble, he goes to her. The escape down the tower on a knotted rope was about the best of the latter scenes."

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