Volume II: Filmography

IN BABY'S GARDEN

November 14, 1915 (Sunday)

Length: 1 reel (1,015 feet)

Character: Drama

Director: Ernest C. Warde

Cast: Carey L. Hastings (Mrs. Grey), Kathryn Adams, Thomas A. Curran (Jack), Helen Badgley (Helen)

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, November 6, 1915:

"The Kidlet had a little garden all of her own in a corner of her mother's big grounds. Her governess told her how big things always grew from little ones, but Baby Helen soon found out that this is not always the case, for once when she wanted to plant some bird's eggs and help a mother bird to raise a big family, she got scolded and her mother made her put the eggs back. She couldn't even raise a new set of dishes from some broken pieces, nor some new hair ribbons from silk scraps. Soon after this, Helen's big uncle came back from somewhere on the other side of the world where he had been for a long time 'making his fortune.' Uncle brought Helen dolls and beautiful beads, but the Kidlet wondered why uncle and mother made such a fuss over one little bag of beads which they put in the wall safe. She would not have understood, however, even if she had heard her uncle say to her governess and her mother one day: 'Those South African diamonds are worth many thousands of dollars and represent my fortune.' One night when her mamma left the safe open Helen took out the little bag of beads, intending to plant the 'diamonds' and to raise herself a 'tarrara' just like her mother's.

"There was a lot of trouble when mamma found the diamonds gone. Mamma never once thought of the Kidlet in connection with their disappearance, but blamed only the pretty governess whom she had left in the room with the open safe. There was a great commotion, and the pretty governess cried and went away. Mamma and uncle had an awful dispute about something, and mamma even declared she was going to see the police, but uncle wouldn't let her. Helen waited until uncle was alone, and then she asked him if he would help her with her garden. She told him about growing her 'tarrara' - and what excitement there was! Mamma and uncle both rushed over to her little plot, and they didn't leave much of it after they got through digging up the pretty, shiny 'beads.' The governess was brought back. Everybody kissed everybody all around, only uncle didn't kiss the governess, though he looked as if he wanted to. But a few days after that baby Helen learned that the governess had decided to be her aunt."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, November 13, 1915:

"A very attractive production with the Thanhouser Kidlet playing an important role. A brother of her mother's returning from South Africa deposits a small bag of diamonds in the safe. The Kidlet steals them and plants them in her garden to grow a crown like mama's. The governess is accused of the theft and is discharged. Afterwards when the truth about the diamonds becomes known she is taken back and becomes betrothed to the child's uncle."

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