Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 10: 1917 Florence LaBadie

If any single player could be said to be the most important personality at the Thanhouser studio, that honor would go to Florence LaBadie. Year in and year out Florence remained loyal to the studio, in the meantime starring in The Million Dollar Mystery serial and dozens of regular releases, nearly always in leading roles. James Cruze, Marguerite Snow, Marie Eline, Mignon Anderson, Maude Fealy, Muriel Ostriche, and others came and went, but only Florence remained in New Rochelle, unaffected by offers of higher pay elsewhere.

Then tragedy struck. On August 28, 1917 Florence was driving an automobile near Ossining, New York with her fiancé, Daniel Carson Goodman, a free lance scenario writer, as a passenger. Note Descending a steep hill, the automobile lost its brakes, careened at a breakneck speed down the slope, and turned over at the bottom. Florence was thrown from the vehicle and suffered a compound fracture of the pelvis. Goodman escaped with a broken leg and minor injuries. The Thanhouser star was hospitalized in Ossining for the next six weeks. Her condition took a turn for the worse, severe infection set in, and she died on October 13th.

What little tradition was left at the Thanhouser studio was gone when Florence LaBadie left the earthly scene.