Volume II: Filmography

DOTTIE'S NEW DOLL

Advertisement from The Moving Picture World, June 1, 1912. (F450)

June 4, 1912 (Tuesday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Comedy

Cast: Helen Badgley, Marie Eline (Dottie), Florence LaBadie (nurse for the older child), Marguerite Snow (nurse for the younger child), Ethyle Cooke

Notes: 1. Refer to Delightful Dollie (October 14, 1910) and The Spoiled Darling's Doll (April 4, 1913) for related scenarios. 2. The Motion Picture Story Magazine, September 1912, erroneously listed Helen Badgley as Dottie. The September 1913 issue of the same publication repeated the error and also erroneously listed the title as Dorothy's New Doll. 3. The New Rochelle Pioneer, September 7, 1912 stated that Betty's Doll, a Thanhouser film, was being shown at the Little Theatre, Rose Street, near Main, in New Rochelle on that date. Undoubtedly, Dottie's New Doll was intended.

ARTICLE by Gordon Trent, The Morning Telegraph, May 26, 1912:

"The Thanhouser kidlet is again the feature of a Thanhouser picture this latest Dottie's New Doll, a comedy released Tuesday, June 4. Here the youngest New Rochelle player - or shall it be playerette? - is the innocent kidnapper of a judge's baby daughter."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, June 1, 1912:

"Dottie was very proud of her great big beautiful doll, but even the best of dolls are like plungers in Wall Street - sometimes they are in danger of getting broke. And that is what nearly happened to 'Beautiful Bess' and it nearly broke her mother's tiny heart. The accident happened while Dottie and her nurse were in the park. Nurse had gone away for a moment with another nurse, and Dottie was all alone with the wreck of her child. There was no one to comfort her, and she wept bitterly. Suddenly she noticed another go-cart near her, and saw that it contained a beautiful doll, and one that was not broken. It had real hair and could gurgle, and kicked about in a funny way that was most delightful, in fact, a much more desirable play fellow than 'Beautiful Bess.'

"So being a child who always took what she wanted when she wanted, Dottie threw 'Beautiful Bess' into the shrubbery, and put the new doll into her buggy, carefully covering her up so that the nurse would not notice the substitution. Gladly she welcomed the return of her nurse, and gleefully she went home, for she wanted to be alone with her new doll. Sitting alone at supper in her nursery, it suddenly struck her that perhaps 'new dolly' might be able to eat, for she seemed so accomplished. She started her in on cocoa, and managed to spill it all over them both. Dismayed, she rushed from her bedroom where the new doll was, to the nursery, where the nurse returned in time to see her, showed anger at her condition, removed her apron, and put it in the soiled clothes basket. Dottie was a kind mistress, and she realized that if she needed clean clothes, 'New Dolly' was in the same condition. So she took advantage of being unwatched to try to remove 'new dolly's' clothes, failed and finally dumped Dolly and all into the basket. It struck her that immediate sanitary measures were needed (although she did not use those exact words) so she promptly dragged the basket off, knowing where the laundry was, as she had been there with her nurse.

"She arrived just in time to save a poor Chinaman from being dragged away to a cell. It was an honest, hard working Chinaman (there are many of them, by the way), but his partner was a thief and had been sentenced for stealing a watch, and the judge who presided had reason to fear that the criminal's Tong was after him. So when the judge's baby mysteriously disappeared, and the good Chinaman was seen in the neighborhood at the time, he naturally was suspected. They were just preparing work all the police degrees in full form on the unhappy Wu when Dottie arrived with her dirty doll that needed to be washed. The judge and his wife took the new doll away from Dottie, for it was their baby, and Dottie returned home disconsolate. The graceful Chinaman cheered her up, however, by promising to get her a doll with a pigtail from the Flowery Kingdom. All the time she regrets the animated toy that she had for a short time, so short, in fact, that it did not have the opportunity to be troublesome."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, June 9, 1912:

"Most baby stories are more or less pleasing, but this one surpasses almost any that has been presented during the past season, and all because of the remarkably natural and innocent playing of the tot who is the center of the story. A Chinese laundryman is arrested for a theft, being brought before the father of the baby referred to, as magistrate of the local court. The baby, while out with her nurse, decides to have a live doll and takes her tiny sister from its carriage and places her in her own doll's carriage and trundles home. Here she hides her from her nurse and mother and then places her in a basket and drags her to the laundry to be thoroughly washed. The baby being missed and the Chinaman having been seen to pass the nurses shortly before, is arrested on a charge of kidnapping. Everybody rushes to the laundry to search for the lost baby, when in the midst of the confusion in toddles the infant, dragging the basket from which is taken the missing one. Though the child does not actually lift the real baby, the cuts in the film and the substitution of a dummy or covering of the cart and basket are so cleverly done that the change cannot be detected. It is put on as well as the average Thanhouser, a high commendation, and is splendidly acted by all concerned. But the baby is a wonder."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, June 15, 1912:

"Dottie is a very pretty little girl of about four. There is another child in the picture, a baby, a daughter of a judge who has just sentenced a Chinaman. The two nurse girls are Florence LaBadie, for the older child, and Marguerite Snow, for the younger. Dottie broke her dolly and purloined the judge's baby for her new dolly. Nothing could be more fetching than the way the youngster is made to play the situation. It will make a roar of the very best kind of laughter and is, indeed, a little masterpiece of picturemaking. The child player is a gem. We can't say anything that will give any real idea of the picture's quality. It is a joy forever. If any spectator is worried or grouchy, this will cure him. It will warm the heart of any human spectator."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, June 12, 1912:

"Dottie is just a little girl of four, but she involves herself and her relatives in a most delightful mix-up. While strolling the park with her nurse, she slyly substitutes the real baby from a nearby baby carriage for the doll in her own go-cart. Then the nurse misses the baby, and instantly places the blame upon Dottie's caretaker. The baby, of course, cannot be located, and Dottie in triumph wheels her new 'doll' home. Later, she dumps the baby in a clothes basket, and drags it to the Chinaman's laundry. Because of the previous suspicious actions, the Chinaman has already become implicated, and when the baby is found in his shop, the parents and spectators are ready to lynch him. Dottie clears matters up, however, and justice is meted out to all. The story is highly chimerical, but nevertheless very amusing. The role of Dottie is very ably played by one of this company's child actors."

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