Volume II: Filmography

THE SILENT CO-ED

Production still courtesy Dominick Bruzzese. (F-861)

British release title: A QUIET LITTLE ANGEL

(Falstaff)

July 2, 1915 (Friday)

Length: 1 reel (1,012 feet)

Character: Comedy

Director: Arthur Ellery

Cast: Peggy Burke (Kit Donahue, the silent co-ed), Morris Foster (the coach), Wayne Arey (Jo Mulvaney, the janitor), Claude Cooper ("Percy Boy"), William Carroll

Notes: 1. The release date was listed erroneously as July 21, 1915 in a review in The Moving Picture World, issue of July 10, 1915. 2. Wayne Arey's surname was misspelled as "Ayre" in Reel Life, June 26, 1915.

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, July 3, 1915:

"Rich, clean humor, rollicking fun, a gymful of pretty girls, fine acting and Peggy Burke in the role of a saucy, swat-'em-in-the-eye, winky, dinky, little college tomboy. The whole combination spells out with mighty truth the name Falstaff Comedy. - Edwin Thanhouser."

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, June 26, 1915:

"The girls of Jones College are accustomed to seeing their basketball team annually defeated by Hartford College. On receiving a challenge, however, from a city settlement house, they anticipate an easy victory. It proves otherwise. Kit Donahue, the little gum-chewing captain of the settlement team, outplays the entire college five and scores an easy triumph for the urbanites. The college girls at last induce the little captain to stay at the college and play on their team. The wealthy girls club together to pay her expenses, and the brainy ones agree to get her through the examinations. She is cautioned to say absolutely nothing before strangers, as, to use her own expression, 'her line of talk is some queer.' So the boys of Jones nickname the new basketball star 'The Silent Co-Ed.' Joe Mulvaney, the janitor of the settlement house, is an ardent suitor of Kit Donahue. When he gets a letter from her telling about a 'Percy boy' who brings her violets, he decides it is time to stop her college education.

"On the day of the big game with Hartford, the janitor turns up and demands to see his sweetheart. The girls, determined not to jeopardize the game, manage to coax Mulvaney into an automobile and carry him many miles into the country. With victory safely theirs, they return with him to the college. He and Kit have a joyous meeting. And when the 'Percy boy' comes for his answer, this is the one he gets: 'I have spilled your words to my steady,' says the star captain, 'and he says it can't be did.'"

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, July 10, 1915:

"A light comedy number featuring a basketball contest, with girl players. The janitor is in love with a settlement girl and wins her in the face of opposition. The scenes are well pictured and the number quite pleasing."

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