Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 5 (1912): September and Onward

Next on the Thanhouser release schedule came The Voice of Conscience, on September 3, 1912, followed on the 6th by His Father's Son, and on the 8th by a comedy, Don't Pinch My Pup, which featured Marie Eline as a newsboy (again) and Riley Chamberlin as his father. The New York Dramatic Mirror commented:

The picture unfolds a healthful and amusing comedy of life in a great city, a film that cannot possibly offend anyone, and that is bound to amuse the majority of those who see it. The story carries also, a heart interest that will win the interest of most spectators, and it is told in a manner so simple and yet so interesting that it will draw the plaudits of most of those who witness it. The little newsy who tries to save up the necessary two dollars to pay his dog's license is a sufficiently attractive figure to make friends with almost any spectator who visits the moving picture show. There is more than this to attract the fan, for the actual method of little Tim's money-making powers is enough in itself to corner the applause of most picture enthusiasts. Riley Chamberlin does good work as little Tim's father.

On Saturday, September 7, 1912, The Thanhouser Film Corporation hosted an event billed as the first annual outing, at the Bayview Hotel on City Island. The event was attended by employees, their families, and guests, some 200 in all. Among the activities were bowling, foot races, and dancing, arranged by the outing committee, comprised of Bert Adler, Charles Gercke, and Charles Van Houten. Note A good time was had by all, except that on the way home an overloaded motorbus could not negotiate the hills, so each time a rise was encountered the men had to get out and push!

Around the same time, the Mutual Film Corporation announced that The Mutual Observer, 36 pages in length, would be published each week beginning on September 30th. Named as editor was Hector J. Streyckmans, a jack of all trades in the film publicity business who earlier had bounced around from one publication to another, including The Universal Weekly, Show World, and Film Fancies. Mutual's new magazine, to be printed in two colors, was to feature listings of all of the films released by its affiliates as well as synopses and information about players. In early October The Thanhouser News, which had been published weekly for over two years, was consolidated with The Mutual Observer, and Thanhouser publicist Bert Adler promised to spend several days each week collaborating with Streyckmans. Note

The idea of forming a club for motion picture people, the film equivalent of the Players Club, had been discussed frequently, and seven people gathered in New York City for a preliminary meeting, followed by another with 15 in attendance. The third gathering saw 75 in attendance who were willing to pony up $5 each to join the newly-formed Screen Club. Note King Baggot, one of the leading actors of the period, was named as temporary chairman. Thanhouser subscribers included Harry Benham, David Thompson, William Garwood, William F. Russell, Albert W. Hale, and Bert Adler. The Screen Club, which admitted men only, was a success, and during the next few years many events were staged by the group.

A Star Reborn, the Thanhouser release of September 10, 1912, featured a scenario involving life on the stage, a popular topic and one that the studio used regularly. The review in The Moving Picture World gave players' names:

The Thanhouser people have always been very successful in picturing theatrical people. Here is another offering of this kind, and it is even better than most of them have been. Its hero (Howard Kyle) is a Shakespearean star who finds himself unable to get work. The heroine (Miss Flo LaBadie) is an ex-actress who has married a millionaire (William Russell). The rich woman discovers her old friend in distress, and there is a revival of Twelfth Night, an outdoor presentation, in which he is given the role of Malvolio. The story is not tensely dramatic, but accents scene-making. Some of its scenes are fine. This in a way is a legitimate aim, but it is not the best use that can be made of the motion picture camera. If Thanhouser stories were, as a rule, up to Thanhouser scene-making, its products would be, we feel very sure, even more deservedly popular than now.

Bearing the brunt of the criticism was Lloyd F. Lonergan, who continued to be the major contributor to the scenario department, with some assistance furnished by his brother Philip. By this time, Gertrude Thanhouser, who had helped in the early days, was hardly ever seen at the studio. Edwin Thanhouser supervised the day to day activities of the directors and players, while Charles J. Hite tended to financial and administrative matters.

The autumn season on Broadway featured several plays with Japanese themes. Following this fad Thanhouser released on September 13th a Japanese film, The Birth of the Lotus Blossom. Miss Taku Takagi was the leading lady, supported by a cast of players billed as "our special Japanese Stock Company." Directing the production was Albert W. Hale, who the same month would be taken from the Thanhouser studio by Charles J. Hite and assigned to directing Reliance and Majestic films. This was a sign of things to come: if a Thanhouser employee was considered to be more useful at another Mutual Film Corporation division, he or she would be sent elsewhere. Under the aegis of Edwin Thanhouser, the New Rochelle players had developed a family atmosphere of closeness, and such reassignments were not appreciated by the majority of those involved.

The Birth of the Lotus Blossom was favorably reviewed. Hale also directed the same cast in two more Japanese films for Thanhouser: For the Mikado, released on October 18th, and Miss Taqu of Tokio, distributed on November 19th. Each garnered enthusiastic reviews.

Orator, Knight and Cow Charmer, a comedy featuring Mignon Anderson and William Russell, was released on September 15th. The Morning Telegraph commented:

No more nonsensical comedy has been presented in recent weeks, but the fact remains that it is highly amusing. A congressman running for re-election has an enemy who is an editor. The latter sends a girl cartoonist to cover the convention. She is chased by a cow and is rescued by the congressman. She draws a cartoon of herself, the statesman and the cow. This enrages the congressman, who goes to the newspaper office to horsewhip the cartoonist. He learns that the artist is the girl he had saved from the cow. The situations are highly amusing and the play is a laugh winner without doubt.

The Mail Clerk's Temptation, issued on September 17th, had William Garwood in the title role. Next came At the Foot of the Ladder on the 22nd, followed on the 24th with Undine, featuring Florence LaBadie as the water nymph. Gordon Trent, Note film columnist for the New York Evening Mirror, shared his feelings: "C.J. Hite grasped me by the hand yesterday and led me to a private showing of the coming Thanhouser two-reeler, Undine, and I am thankful that he did. There may have been better pictures made in this country or in Europe, but they are mighty few. I haven't seen a film in a good many months that has anything on this one." At the time, reviewers seemed to be partial to any film which bespoke culture and refinement, entertainment value notwithstanding, and it is probably the case that costume play pictures such as Undine were more popular with film columnists than with the average patron of the Bijou Dream.

But the Greatest of These is Charity, first screened on September 27, 1912, had a scenario based upon newsreel footage taken of Cardinal Farley, who was no stranger to the camera, for in his official duties in connection with the New York Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church he had been filmed by other companies as well. The Morning Telegraph related:

Continuing the Thanhouser policy of utilizing topical events around which to weave entertaining stories, this play is a noteworthy example of the excellence of such a policy. In this the dedication of a school is used as the basis for the play, Cardinal Farley officiating at the actual event, which is well taken. In the story a grouchy man of wealth practically disowns his daughter because of her charitable work among the poor. She enters a convent and then begins teaching in the slums. The father in later years becomes softened in heart and through him a little child again is reunited with his daughter when he founds the school, which is dedicated in the last scenes. The acting is excellent, the development of the play is consistent and the settings of a high standard.

Please Help the Pore, released on September 29th, featured Riley Chamberlin in the role of Henry Snaith (the unusual surname Snaith again), a wealthy banker, William Garwood as the poor father, Mignon Anderson as the destitute mother, and Marie Eline as the daughter. The May Day celebration in New York City's Central Park furnished the background. The New York Dramatic Mirror reviewed the film: "Whatever merit there is in this drama is due to the charming little girl, Marie Eline, who essays the role of the child. There are a few pretty scenes in the picture, especially those showing the New York Labor Day parade and the frolic of the children in Central Park. A number of such scenes have grafted into and made a part of the story with good effect.

Financial reverses overtake a young married man and he is unable to meet his note. The banker, refusing to extend time, has informed him that unless the note is paid at date he will foreclose. The young man imparts the sad news to his wife and little one. That morning the child while playing in Central Park sees a man carrying a sign, "Please Help the Poor" [sic; "Pore" should have been used to be consistent with the spelling in the film's title], and she conceives the idea of doing that herself as a means to help her father out of his difficulties. It is while she is bent on that mission, playing her little toy organ, that the banker comes upon her. He is touched, discovers the cause of her actions, and sends a note to the father stating that as a result of his daughter's splendid concert the interest has been paid on the note, and now he can take his time in paying. The acting by the older members of the cast did not seem quite spontaneous. William Garwood was the father, Mignon Anderson the wife, and Riley Chamberlin the wealthy man.

Letters of a Lifetime, issued on October 1, 1912, told of a man who inherited a fortune on the condition that he remain single, while his brother, who had declined a similar offer, married and raised a family. Nearing his death in old age, the bachelor reviews correspondence of years past and feels that he made the wrong choice. Next came The Warning, released on October 4th. In keeping with other Thanhouser films of the time, it was favorably reviewed.

A Six-Cylinder Elopement, released on October 6th, featured Mignon Anderson as the girl who elopes and William Garwood as her sweetheart. Then followed Miss Robinson Crusoe on October 8th, with Florence LaBadie in the title role. This film was about 1,500 feet in length, too short for a standard two-reeler and far too long by itself for a one-reel production. Thanhouser grafted a 500-foot filler to the end, Specimens From the New York Zoological Park, and released the result in two reels as a "natural length film." An article in The Moving Picture News Note told about the situation and also of Edwin Thanhouser's future plans:

THANHOUSER ADVOCATES NATURAL-LENGTH FILMS. What will perhaps be the last trade statement of Edwin Thanhouser, who goes into retirement next month, has been made in favor of the natural-length subject. A Thanhouser story entitled Miss Robinson Crusoe was released Tuesday, October 8, in fifteen hundred feet instead of the regulation full thousand or two thousand feet, and on it being volunteered that no Independent maker of film stories had ever stopped a story midway through in a reel Mr. Thanhouser said:

"It was a matter of being artistic. The market is supposed to want feature stories that occupy full reels. But the producer turned in a little over sixteen hundred feet, all live stuff. With titles and padding, the picture could have been stretched to cover two full reels, but I decided to use the live stuff as it stood; with cut-outs there are fifteen hundred feet of it. Note So we stopped the story there. Then we chopped a thousand foot negative showing specimens from the New York Zoological Park down to five hundred feet, added it to the number two reel, and so supplied the missing length of film.

"It seems too bad that a producer must sell his story in a given length. It means too short films or too long films; it means the padding evil. It would be splendid if the manufacturers would make up their minds to let a story just run along naturally, not only to start right, but stop right. The story-action would be helped a lot, and if good stories are the salvation of the business we may all yet get around to natural-length subjects."

Dotty, the Dancer, released on October 13, 1912, featured Riley Chamberlin as a deceived old man and Harry Benham in a female role as Mlle. Cleo. His impersonation was the subject for numerous articles and was sufficiently successful that he was undertake transvestism again in 1913, in The Eye of Krishla. Released on October 15th, When Mercy Tempers Justice told of a judge who sentenced to jail a poor man who stole a bottle of milk for his family. Later, in a reverie the judge sees himself as a hungry, poor man, like many who came before his court, who comes before the stern judge - himself - on the charge of stealing bread. Enlightenment comes to the judge, and mercy tempers justice.

The Woman in White, released in two reels on October 20th, saw a conflict with a Gem film of the same name and subject issued two days later. Thanhouser had scheduled its release for several weeks later, but when it was learned that Gem was going to issue the same story, the program was hastily rearranged to move the Thanhouser offering to the 20th. The story, taken from a classic novel by Wilkie Collins, featured Marguerite Snow in two roles, supported by James Cruze and William Garwood. The Morning Telegraph considered it to be "obscure in the early action" and concluded that "the story does not lend itself to the picture drama as well as might be expected." However, The Moving Picture News felt that "the entire production may rightfully be termed a triumph."

In a Garden, the release of October 25, 1912, is notable in that during the production of the film James Cruze in real life proposed marriage to Marguerite Snow. Early the next year the couple married in what was said to be the first real wedding ceremony ever filmed in its entirety by a motion picture camera. The Cruze-Snow union eventually produced a child, Julie, but was to end in divorce in the 1920s, after which Cruze married actress Betty Compson.

The plot of Taking Care of Baby, released on October 27th, was summarized in a review in The Morning Telegraph: "In this comedy film a small boy is offered ten cents to mind the baby. While he is at play the baby wanders away and has an unparalleled series of adventures. The child narrowly escapes death by auto, by drowning in a fountain, by being hit by a falling safe, and by dynamite. However she gets back into her carriage and the boy gets his dime for his good care of the baby." It wasn't clear exactly what a certain heavy falling object was, for another account said it was not a safe, but a piano. At the end of the reel was another comedy, Taking Care of Mary's Goat, with Florence LaBadie as Mary.