Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 6 (1913) On a Monday Afternoon

Early Monday afternoon, January 13th, all was quiet at the Thanhouser studio. Many of the players, directors, cameramen, and others were 2,500 miles distant, enjoying warm and sunny Los Angeles, while a few others were with the Middle Western Company and were busy in that area. Edwin and Gertrude Thanhouser were enjoying their travels in Europe, while young Lloyd and Marie were attending private schools in Switzerland. At home in New Rochelle were James Cruze, Marguerite Snow, the Thanhouser Kid and Kidlet, director Lawrence Marston, and a handful of other players and production personnel, plus the usual office and laboratory contingent. Being processed in the plant were advance negatives from Sherlock Holmes Solves The Sign of the Four, a film still being made, featuring Harry Benham and Mignon Anderson, recently returned from the Middle Western Company. What happened next was related, more or less accurately, but with some errors, by the New Rochelle Evening Standard, as reprinted below.