Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 10: 1917 Frederick Warde Scores a Success

In The Moving Picture World Note and elsewhere, Pathé advertisements featured stars who worked for the various studios which distributed through the organization. In May 1917 these names included Pearl White, Gladys Hulette, Mollie King, Florence LaBadie, Baby Marie Osborne, Creighton Hale, Warner Oland, Harold Lloyd, and Frederick Warde.

In an interview published in The Moving Picture World Note Edwin Thanhouser noted that his productions had been well received by the public. Retreating from the stand he so often took in earlier years, he stated:

So the big, costly feature finds its meed of appreciation - the star of the Warde type with enormous national prestige, a star who is sure to attract the best people everywhere. The big star, in the big production, pays.

Speaking of stars, let me say that I have not lost faith in my old theory that the right kind of star material can with intelligent training can sometimes be developed from players whose physical attraction and all around talent entitles them to something better than minor parts. In other words I believe in granting to players of such gifts the right to promotion. This sort of material is very scarce, I grant. I think our Gladys Leslie is this sort of material, and I expect to prove it to the fans in a feature that Van Dyke Brooke is making at this moment.

In its issue of May 25th Variety printed this fantasy, an item reminiscent of the pranks of former Thanhouser publicist Bert Adler:

The Thanhouser Film Corporation will not be outdone by the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation. Recently the latter stated that the three ferry boats plying the North River between New York City and Fort Lee, N.J., wherein the Goldwyn studios are located, had had their names changed and now were called after three Goldwyn stars. This week the Thanhouser studio states that in consequence of the recent order of the government giving the New Haven Railroad (the line between New Rochelle and New York) over to freight traffic exclusively, resulting in the formation of an airship line to transport the commuters, the airship company has called its three largest craft Florence LaBadie, Frederick Warde, and Gladys Leslie respectively. There is agitation in both New Rochelle and Fort Lee for the conscription of press agents for immediate trench duty regardless of age or physical disabilities.

The May 26, 1917 issue of The New Rochelle Pioneer carried an interview with Edwin Thanhouser in which he said, "Two words sum up our summer releasing policy, 'Americanism' and 'sunshine.'" He could have added 'retrenchment,' for the last paragraph in the article revealed that the company of stock players for the summer would consist of Florence LaBadie, Frederick Warde, Jeanne Eagels, Gladys Leslie, Wayne Arey, Thomas A. Curran, Robert Vaughn, Carey L. Hastings, Arthur Bauer, Ernest Howard, and Inda Palmer - a bare-bones contingent remaining from dozens of players on hand just a year earlier. Edwin Thanhouser went on to describe several coming films to be released on the Pathé program. By this time numerous Thanhouser players, including the much-acclaimed Gladys Hulette, had gone to Astra in New Jersey.

The motion picture trade continued in poor health due to the effects of the World War upon domestic activities. Production of films was reduced by various studios, and many actors and actresses were unemployed. Relations between the Thanhouser Film Corporation and the Pathé Exchange were shaky at best, and despite news releases and articles to the contrary, many Thanhouser films did poorly at the box office.

Hinton's Double, a five-reel Thanhouser film released on May 6th, featured Frederick Warde in two roles. Reviews were enthusiastic, including this one in Variety:

When Edwin Thanhouser announced a short time ago that he was out to make better pictures there was some covert questioning. The answer to all questions has been given in unmistakable terms in this five-part feature written by Lloyd Lonergan and directed by Ernest Warde. Not only has Thanhouser produced a remarkable picture, but Frederick Warde has shown that after all the trained actor of the legitimate stage has a power and facility of expressing sentiment before the camera so strong and so clear and vivid that the spoken word is not needed to tell the story. Only in one or two cases were "doubles" needed in the scenes, and the double exposure work was not marred by the slightest hitch. Mr. Warde has proved that after all it is the actor and not the "type" that the screen needs, for in nothing except his face was there the slightest resemblance between the characters of Joshua Stephens and John Evart Hinton.

The story is a variant on John Needham's Double and tells how Stephens, dismissed from his work of 35 years just as he was asking for a raise, was induced by Hinton, a get-rich-quick swindler, to serve a sentence in prison, on condition that his widowed daughter and her child receive $500 a month during the term. In prison he saves the life of Clancy, a detective, and is pardoned. Free, he learns that Hinton has failed in his contract, that his grandchild is in an asylum, and his daughter gone. Hinton, learning of the pardon, has his lawyer convince Stephens that he and his little family should go away to a farm where they will be happy, and Stephens, through love for them, and finding his daughter, consents.

Hinton resumes business under his old name and is visited by Clancy, who suspects crookedness and warns him that, although he (Hinton) had saved Clancy's life in prison, he must go straight. Swindling successfully in a big deal he tries to make a getaway, and writes Clancy, telling him that the fugitive can be found at the farm. Clancy goes there, and fooled for the second time by the resemblance, arrests Stephens, but he finds it hard when he learns that the girl he had met in a restaurant (a waitress) and had fallen in love with is the daughter of the man he deems a crook. The daughter's pleadings and the old man's story have their effect, the family is taken to town, and as they are leaving the station meet Hinton going to the cars. The child recognizes the man who took her to the asylum, the detective learns the whole story, sees Hinton with the man from whose attack in prison he was saved by Stephens, and cleverly fastens Hinton and the crook together. Stripping the disguise from Hinton's face the striking resemblance of the men is revealed, the crooks are taken away, and Stephens is restored to his family, which is increased by a stalwart son-in-law, the detective.

The picture is a piece of work worthy of high praise from every point of view, and the Thanhouser forces have got to travel fast to exceed it, both as a work of art and as a box office attraction.

Next came The Candy Girl in five reels on May 20th. Gladys Hulette, by now departed from the New Rochelle studio, was seen in this picture, which had been filmed the preceding January. Reviews, including this one in Variety, were favorable: "A current Thanhouser Pathé Gold Rooster release is The Candy Girl featuring Gladys Hulette. The New Rochelle film impresario has a winner in little Miss Hulette and she should be nursed very tenderly in the matter of the selection of suitable scenarios."

"The Candy Girl is a simple little affair, but serves to illustrate once more that a clean little story, with a sweet, wholesome appeal, is certain to appeal. She is a little country girl who comes to New York, opens a candy store, is loved by a manly musician and an undersized rich man's son addicted to the use of the needle. She marries the 'jabber' - has a hard time of it at first and finally cures him. Not very much in this bare outline, but it works out neatly, though by all the ethics of drama the musician should have landed the sweet little maiden. - Jolo."