Volume II: Filmography

FROM WASH TO WASHINGTON

Featuring Marguerite Snow, this was the first film directed by James Cruze, a well known Thanhouser actor. Courtesy of Ralph Graham, M.D. (Q-11)

July 26, 1914 (Sunday)

Length: 1 reel (896 feet)

Character: Comedy

Director: James Cruze

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan

Cameraman: Carl Louis Gregory

Cast: Carey L. Hastings (as Diana, a washerwoman), Marguerite Snow (as Diana, the society woman of the washerwoman's dream, who visits Washington), James Cruze (Diana's sweetheart in a dream)

Location: New Rochelle, New York and Washington, D.C.

Notes: 1. Lloyd Lonergan conceived the scenario of this film while visiting Washington, D.C. as part of the production of the Thanhouser serial, The Million Dollar Mystery. 2. Notes kept by Carl Louis Gregory, lent to the author by Ralph Graham, M.D., state that this was the first film James Cruze directed.

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, July 25, 1914:

"With her week's wash only half done, Diana drops her work to peruse the Paris fashion magazines. Poring over the beautiful fashions delineated in the highly-colored pages of the publications, Diana falls asleep. She dreams that she is wealthy and a society leader in Washington. Men of national reputation bid for invitations to her dances and eligible young millionaire statesmen and military officers spend most of their time trailing her about. Diana finally wakes up to find that she still has the hardest part of the day's washing before her."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, July 26, 1914:

"With half of her washing done Diana falls asleep and dreams that she is the society leader in the capital. All the big men of the country come to her.... Then she wakes up and finds that the first syllable of her dream city's name is indeed a command. The hardest part of her work lies before her."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, August 8, 1914: This review is reprinted in the narrative section of the present work.

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, August 5, 1914:

"The story of the girl, obliged by her mother to scrub clothes, who would rather be away with her sweetheart, the policeman. She dreams over the tub that they are both in Washington for a sightseeing tour, and by means of film trickery they are made to jump into the air and land in the next scene. These quick changes continue until it is time for the girl to wake up at the tub. The pretty pictures of the federal buildings combined with the interest in the 'magic' appearance and disappearance of the characters suffices to make this a somewhat extraordinary film."

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