Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 11: Epilogue Lloyd and Marie Thanhouser

Neither of the children of Edwin and Gertrude Thanhouser became interested in film production, although Lloyd once considered becoming a professional playwright. He attended Culver Military Academy from 1915 to 1919, and while there served as editor of the the school paper, the Vedette, and as literary editor of the 1919 yearbook, Roll Call. From 1919 to 1926 he attended Yale and received his L.L.B. law degree in the latter year. In the meantime he took up residence in Greenwich Village briefly with a show girl, until his father put a stop to the arrangement. Around the same time, Lloyd was also "learning the effects of Prohibition-time liquor." Note While at Yale, Lloyd wrote numerous one-act plays and had a book of them published in 1924 by the Walter H. Baker Co. Note He began writing a full-length drama, Pedestals, only to learn to his chagrin that the Theatre Guild was producing Merchants of Glory, a play with a virtually identical theme written by two Frenchmen.

Lloyd Thanhouser married Alice Way in 1927. The couple had three children: Joan, Gretchen, and Edwin. From 1949 until his retirement in 1967, Lloyd Thanhouser was general counsel to the Continental Oil Company in Houston.

Marie Thanhouser attended St. Mary's School in Garden City, New York, and the Mary Burnham School in Northampton, Massachusetts. In 1929 she married Arthur Paar, whose father was a vice president of Abraham & Straus, the well-known Brooklyn department store. Arthur worked for the Melville Shoe Corporation, retailer of Thom McAn and other footwear brands, for whom he served as a vice president and was in charge of their real estate operations. The couple had three children: Margaret (known as Pego), Wilhelmina, and Peter.

In later years, two of Lloyd's children, Joan Thanhouser Sherman and Edwin ("Ned") Thanhouser, became interested in Thanhouser films of the 1910-1917 era and in the 1980s arranged the projection in theatres in Oregon and New Hampshire of copy prints of several one-reel subjects. In 1989 Ned Thanhouser, his mother, and his two sisters gave $40,000 to the Library of Congress "to preserve pre-1920 silent movies and provide greater access to them by film scholars and the general public." Note

As over 80% of the Thanhouser films originally made no longer exist today, the absence of material makes definitive evaluation of Thanhouser films as a whole impossible, although conclusions can be drawn from the surviving examples. There are still people Note who remember Thanhouser pictures as having an individuality of their own, which distinguished them from many other films made by other companies. Edwin Thanhouser deserves credit for the good taste shown in his choice of subjects, his interest in the classics, and his ambition to create distinguished products, even when the results were inadequate. Thanhouser's use, over a comparatively long period for those days, of one of the most winning of early screen personalities, Florence LaBadie, is also on the credit side.

Edwin Thanhouser's theatrical expertise enabled him to create an important role in strengthening the Independent film makers in their struggle with the Motion Picture Patents Company members by producing quality films which were among the earliest Independent pictures to be favorably reviewed and received by the public. Edwin Thanhouser stood out among many of the other film pioneers. Far from being the flamboyant mogul type which immediately comes to mind when most people think of a film producer, Edwin Thanhouser was a gentleman in his personal relations, even with those who opposed him, and was cautious in his financial dealings. In most ways he was a paragon of moderation - one of those rare individuals who was able to achieve a happy balance between his profession and his personal life.

In their day Thanhouser films ranked high in quality among the output of the Independent faction, and it is certain that the efforts Edwin Thanhouser and those associated with him were important elements in the American film industry during some of its most important growth years.