Volume II: Filmography

THE TOMBOY

December 19, 1911 (Tuesday)

Length: 900 feet

Character: Drama

Cast: Marguerite Snow (the tomboy), Harry Benham, Marie Eline (the tomboy's sister)

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, December 16, 1911:

"The tomboy is a person that is well calculated to corral your admiration, with her brave and independent spirit, characteristic as it is of a nation of free men. Her tiny sister, too, has qualities that will play upon your affections - she it is, who finally brings the tomboy into her own. The picture is quite an oddity in the human interest way, that is why it is found in the 'Greatest December' list."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, December 16, 1911:

"A wealthy miner, having no near relatives, leaves his two little daughters to the guardianship of a former chum of his, who had left the West with a fortune and returned to his old home in an Eastern city. The guardian is rather overwhelmed with his responsibilities, but he induces his old aunt to come and keep house for him, and prepares to give his charges a hearty welcome. The guardian is a young man, and he is surprised to find that one of his wards is of marriageable age, beautiful and vivacious. He promptly proceeds to lose his heart to her, and while she admires him immensely the girl is finally thoroughly impressed with the idea that her guardian would gladly be rid of her. This feeling is intensified when she attends a reception and her awkwardness is made more manifest. She decides that she is out of place in her new surroundings, and runs away after writing a pitiful note to her guardian. She takes her horse with her and has some wild, undefined plan of making her way out West again, where she believes she will be loved and appreciated.

"Fortune favors her, for she runs across a wild West show, where her beauty and horsemanship promptly win her congenial employment. She is sorry to be separated from her little sister, but believes that it is for the best, and that her guardian 'will make a lady' of the little one, as she asked in her last note. The younger sister mourns constantly, however, and is finally taken to the country by her worried guardian. There she and another child attend a wild West show, and chance so ordains it that she and her sister meet. The elder girl weeps over the sister and decides to take her with her. The little one, however, has a better plan than that. She has learned from her guardian how he misses the elder girl, and being a bright child, has shrewdly figured out the facts in the case. Furthermore, as she loves both her sister and her guardian and does not want to lose either. So she slips away, finds her guardian and whispers to him the glad news that the missing one has been found. It requires no ordering on her part to induce him to go with her. He tells his elder ward that he cannot live without her, and that she is more to him than any other woman, and begs her to become his wife. Convinced of his love, she finally consents, and finds that the girl from the West is the girl for the man from the East, that is, when she is the girl he loves."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, December 24, 1911:

"It is seldom that such an original manner of working out a story is given the viewer, and few offerings have more of true appeal than has this. Its story is not so remarkable, but it is the way it is worked out that counts most toward its success. A young man is left the guardianship of two children of a former chum with whom he had lived in the West. One of the wards is a grown girl and the other a younger sister. He falls in love with the older girl, but she for some unexplainable, womanly reason thinks the opposite and runs away, joining a Wild West show. She is later found by the little sister, and the guardian is informed and the love ending speedily follows with the return of the girl as the promised bride. Do not miss the play."

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

"The tomboy came from the West and was about 17. She and her sister lost their father and his will made an Easterner, the father's partner, guardian of them. The tomboy was charming in a riding habit and she, with her little sister and their guardian, made a very pretty picture out riding in Bronx Park. But she did not shine in society and her accidents and the reproofs she got made her so ashamed that she ran away and joined a Wild West show. Her guardian sought her for months without finding her; but the show came to town where the family was spending the summer and the little sister finds her. There are some very pretty horses and pretty riding in the picture which makes a very pleasing, wholesome character story. It is commendable as a picture with a heart interest and other elements that make pictures popular."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, December 27, 1911:

"The feature of this film is the introduction of life and scenes around a Wild West show, including a regular performance. The story around this feature has been most ingeniously worked in and it makes altogether a highly entertaining and interesting film. It is also acted and managed in a superior and convincing manner. The young man is appointed guardian of his old partner's two children who come on from the West. The western girl has a hard time adjusting her life to that of the East and at length runs away and joins a Wild West show. Later she is found by her little sister who attends the show, and explanations follow that quite convince the girl that she loves her guardian too well to ever run away from him again."

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