Volume II: Filmography

THE WAX LADY

March 30, 1913 (Sunday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Comedy (per Thanhouser); comedy-drama (per reviewers)

Cast: Lila Chester (the Wax Lady), Harry Benham, David H. Thompson, Carl LeViness (all as dummies in the store window)

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, April 5, 1913:

There was once a cross, grumpy man who owned a cheap little clothing store. He acted as his own 'puller in,' because he enjoyed annoying people and inducing them to pay high prices for second class goods. He was overbearing to the poor, brutal to the children and never happy except when he saw somebody suffering. His neighbors all hated him, but had given him up as a bad John. Consequently they were very much surprised to notice a sudden radical change in him. He became kindly instead of cruel, benevolent instead of penurious and tried in every way to be a benefactor to all mankind. They couldn't understand it and the mystery was not lightened when he unbosomed himself to a friend. 'You see it was this way,' he said. 'I got in bad with the queen of the fairies and she put me over the jumps. See that wax lady in there? Well, she came to life and so did those other dummies, and I found out that after they had tortured me for a while that I was a pretty bad lot. So now I am a good scout, and I am going to keep on being one, for if I don't that fairy queen will come back.' The merchant never relaxes in his efforts to please the fairies, for the experiences he had were so fearful that he will never forget them.

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, April 6, 1913:

Due to strict photography, stop-work and such, clever acting and an equally clever plot, this is one of the best comedy-dramas of the week. A Jew who is proprietor of a second-hand clothing shop is hated by everyone who knows him. He is cruel, vindictive and mean. But one day a wax model in his shop comes to life, as do others of his clothing dummies, and the wax lady appears as a fairy to him and makes him miserable in his realization of how mean he has been. It brings about an immediate change in his entire life and manner and he becomes gentle, kind and charitable. Harry Benham and Lila Chester play the leads, and play them exceedingly well, a great part of the success of the play being due to theirs and the other players' work.

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, April 12, 1913: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

REVIEW, The Moving Picture News, March 29, 1913:

Displays originality of theme, and the work of those impersonating the wax figures in the wicked clothing man's window is exceedingly fine. The above might be classed as a comedy drama.

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, April 9, 1913:

A modern fairy story dealing with the regeneration of a stingy Jew of rather odd nature. Though the production lacks the finish that is characteristic of the Thanhouser pictures, it maintains interest. The Jew is the soul of meanness, cheating where he can and abusing those around him. A fairy undertakes the task of teaching this Jew his mistakes and the harm they work, and to bring this about causes the three wax figures in his show window to come to life.

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