Volume II: Filmography

IN THE CHORUS

September 15, 1911 (Friday)

Length: 1,000 feet

Character: Drama

Cast: Marguerite Snow (mother), Marie Eline (her young daughter), Florence LaBadie (daughter grown up)

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, September 9, 1911:

"In the chorus was where a mother found her long-lost daughter, in time to lead her from temptation and back to protecting hands. Also the finding lead the mother herself back to the path that was narrow, and from which grief that her great loss had caused her to stray. The story is one of the most touching and pleasing we have ever filmed. It is difficult to make a heart throb reel of this variety without a surplus of sad things, but you really find such a reel here. It will cause some tears, but not enough to generate real gloom, and you needn't play any ragtime music to make your patrons forget its lessons."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, September 9, 1911:

"A young widow is compelled because of her poverty to leave her only child, a little daughter, in a charitable institution, while she hunts for work. The child, punished because of some minor infraction of the rules, runs away, takes refuge with a kindly old couple, who being childless, welcome and finally adopt her. In the meantime the mother receives word from the asylum authorities that the little one has been lost and that everything indicates that she was drowned. The mother, alone in the world, has just secured a position in the chorus of a musical show, and tries to drown her sorrows in a life of gaiety. Ten years later, a theatrical manager who stops by chance at a farmhouse, is charmed by the voice and beauty of a young girl he sees there. He offers her an engagement in one of his attractions, and the girl, dazzled by the thought of a life on the stage, gladly consents, and later appears in the city.

"The mother is a member of the same chorus, and at first laughs at the new member of the cast and her shy country ways. She and the other girls induce the newcomer to attend the dinner in which some men about town are giving, and laugh at her prim, high-neck dress. On a sudden inspiration the mother offers to rearrange the girl's attire so she will not look so 'old fashion.' Deftly she removes the yoke of the dress, and for the first time sees a scar on the girl's shoulder. A recollection of the fact that her own child was scalded on that same shoulder years before flashes through her brain. A few questions establish that her belief is correct. The mother recognizes the daughter, but the girl does not know her. The mother's first thought is to save her daughter from treading the path she has followed. She induces her not to attend the dinner, and after the others have gone on, she paints for the frightened, innocent, country bred child the pitfalls and dangers of a life in the chorus. She proves to her that she will be far happier with the people who had been so kind to her, and leads the girl back to her foster parents. But the mother does not reveal her identity. She considers that she is not worthy to associate with the innocent young woman, and decides that it is her duty to disappear as soon as she has placed her in safety. She creeps into the girl's room at night, places a farewell message on her pillow, kisses her softly, and steals out into the night alone, determined to lead a new life, and in time become worthy to reveal herself to the daughter she had lost, but found again."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, September 17, 1911:

"How old is mother? And how does she do it? She is just exactly the same age, as far as appearances go in the first scene, as when 10 years later she is shown to be still a member of the 'merry-merry.' Could not the director see that the fall of the child behind the table looked fakey? There is no accident at all and nothing that could by any stretch of imagination leave such a scar. That Johnnies may swarm about a stage entrance we well know, but that they can do so in the chorus dressing room is stretching the rules and regulations of theatres. Why not, after giving such a good picture as the rehearsal scene and the others upon the stage, adhere to the atmosphere throughout? The story has offtimes been told in different ways. A mother loses her child, which through poverty she has been obliged to place with relatives, and receives word that the little one has died. In fact the girl runs away from those who have abused her and is later adopted by other folk. The mother has meantime entered the chorus. Ten years elapse, the girl has grown and developed an exceptional voice, which a theatrical manager hears her use in singing as he passes in his auto (identical situation as used before). He engages her. Later by the scar the mother identifies her, succeeds in bringing her away from the rather lively life, accompanying her to her home among those who had cared for her. She never lets her know she is her mother and in the end slips from the bedroom where the girl is sleeping, leaving a note in which she says she too, is going to leave the chorus forever and wishes the girl the best the world has. It is dramatic, though unhappy, and in reality is more plausible than a recognition with all of its accompanying sentiment would have been."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, September 30, 1911:

"A picture of theatrical life which possesses all the elements of a sermon. Its chief point of interest is when the mother, who has lived fast, discovers in the shy newcomer in the chorus her own daughter and takes her away from its pitfalls, back to the family who have brought her up, without revealing her own identity. In printing one last kiss upon her she steals forth into the night, determined to change her mode of living so that she may someday return and claim this young woman as her daughter. The film will arouse the emotions and lead the audience to tears, in many instances. Indeed, in the section of the house where this reviewer sat handkerchiefs were used freely."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, September 20, 1911:

"A dramatic and entertaining story is cleverly unfolded on this film, that maintains with a few overdrawn exceptions excellent atmosphere. It is well acted and seems to point a moral. A mother in order to support her child obtains a position in the chorus. She leaves the child with relatives, whose cruelty causes the child to leave them and find a home among some farmer folk. After ten years her mother's theatrical manager happening through the country hears the girl sing and engages her. At the theatre the mother tries to make her over into a real live chorus girl, until she sees the scar on her shoulder caused years before by boiling water. Then she persuades her to go back to her former, better life, keeping her own identity unknown."

Modern Synopsis

(from surviving print)

(Library of Congress)

Note: The Library of Congress print bears the title Sins of the Parent, believed to be a title added unofficially at a later date.

(Opening subtitle missing)

In the opening scene the mother and her little daughter are in the dining room of a small home. (The dining room has display dishes on the wall and is comfortably furnished; an apparent contradiction to the theme of the story.) The little girl is hungry, but there is little food.

POVERTY FORCES HER TO LEAVE HER CHILD WITH RELATIVES

The mother and her daughter are on the front porch of a home, in a goodbye scene as the daughter is handed over to a woman relative. After caressing her little girl several times, the mother departs.

SHE SECURES AN ENGAGEMENT IN THE CHORUS

The mother is interviewed by a director, who watches her perform, as a piano player provides music. She is hired.

ILL TREATED, THE CHILD RUNS AWAY

The scene shifts to the little girl, who is with a goat in a farmyard. Her mistress thrashes her for some offense (not readily determinable by the viewer). The little girl climbs over a stone wall and runs away.

THAT NIGHT

Tired, the little girl collapses in sleep at the base of a large haystack.

THE FOLLOWING MORNING, SHE FINDS A HOME AMONG STRANGERS

A farmer finds her asleep and carefully lifts her into his arms and carries her to a farmhouse, where she is welcomed by the farmer's wife.

The scene changes back to the mother, in a chorus company, who picks up her mail. A letter reads:

"Dear Cousin -

"Your little girl disappeared a week ago. We can account for it in no other way than she was drowned in Beaver Lake.

"With deep sympathy,

"Your cousin,

"Jennie B. Smith"

The mother is distraught.

TEN YEARS LATER

The girl grown up, now a beautiful woman, is on the farmhouse porch with her foster mother, the farmer's wife. A man, obviously well-to-do, drives up in an open automobile. A business card announces that he is Jerome Walton, of the Walton Opera Company, with offices at 196 East 42nd Street, New York City. He is given a glass of water, which apparently is what he stopped for, after which he drives away.

THE GIRL COMES TO THE CITY

The pretty farm lass visits Walton in his New York City office. He sends her to the stage. She gives the manager a note: "Dick - Try this girl for the chorus. - Walton."

AFTER THE FIRST NIGHT'S PERFORMANCE

The chorus girls leave the stage and return to their dressing room. The older, experienced girls surround the newcomer and congratulate her. The girl's mother, unrecognized by her daughter, is among them. She identifies the new girl as her daughter (in a manner not clear to the viewer), hugs her, but does not reveal her identity.

WITHOUT REVEALING HER IDENTITY, SHE PERSUADES HER DAUGHTER TO RETURN TO THE COUNTRY

Mother and daughter talk alone in the dressing room. The daughter returns to her adopted home in the country (although why she does this is not obvious to the viewer).

LATER

The mother, dressed beautifully (obviously from her success on the stage), visits her daughter, who is asleep in a bedroom. She leaves a note, kisses her sleeping daughter, and leaves.

(Balance of film missing?)

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