Volume II: Filmography

PANSY POST, PROTEAN PLAYER

(Falstaff)

March 21, 1916 (Tuesday)

Length: 1 reel (1,011 feet)

Character: Comedy

Director: Arthur Ellery

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan

Cast: Frances Keyes (Pansy), Jay C. Yorke (manager of the Intelligence Office), Edith Diestel (Mrs. Gray)

Note: The term "protean" refers to someone who assumes different roles; after Proteus, the sea god who assumed different forms. The term, used often in the theatrical trade, recurs in Thanhouser advertising and notes; e.g., those for A Desert Tribesman and Harry's Waterloo.

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, March 18, 1916:

"The manager of an employment agency was extremely unhappy, because when he was so fortunate in the selection of applicants that when they once obtained a place they never left it. Fate, however, brought a meeting with Pansy Post, Protean Player. Her lightning change act had failed upon the stage and she was headed for New York, walking. The manager suggested to her that she be his entire staff of domestics, changing costumes until a customer was satisfied, and that as quickly as possible she would leave her new place and come up and divide the commissions with him. This arrangement worked like a charm for a while. Then the unexpected happened. Pansy's last employer, who had hired her under several different disguises, came in and complained that her 'last girl' had run away and had been married to her son. The poor manager scowled at the unhappy mother and simply said, 'Woman, your son has ruined my business.' He knew what he meant, but the woman didn't, and often wondered why the loss of one applicant should put a flourishing Intelligence Office's business out of commission."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, April 1, 1916:

"A clever idea is pictured in this comedy number. An actress, out of a job, conspires with the manager of a employment agency and appears in various costumes before women who call for help. She hires out as a colored girl, a Swedish girl, and an Irish girl before the trick is discovered. An amusing number of its kind."

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