Volume I: Narrative History Volume I: Narrative History
A contemporary account of the serial and its expectations is provided by an article, "At the Home of The Million Dollar Mystery," by Lloyd Kenyon Jones, in The Photoplay Magazine, October 1914:
Years ago I was wont to negotiate pasteboards for seats to witness Shakespearean drama as portrayed by the Thanhouser-Hatch Stock Company, wherein Eva Taylor of gold-tooth fame, and Frederick Paulding, who ranked next to Mansfield as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, held sway. And then and there was the seed of a great movie organization, whose destiny it was eventually to mystify the world through The Million Dollar Mystery. This is the same Thanhouser whose name is at the head of the organization located at New Rochelle, N.Y., a fitting setting for the stirring film presentations of that corporation.
It is this Thanhouser band that is being stalked ruthlessly by William J. Burns, chief of the Burns International Detective Agency, and the world's greatest detective. He is seeking to penetrate the maze of plot that surrounds this wonderful story of the movies - and arrayed against him are principals and characters endowed by nature and experience with the capacity to make the best efforts of Sherlock Holmes and Raffles appear like first attempts.
There is a genius back of the Mystery, as there must be back of all great events, and that genius is Lloyd Lonergan, who has written and has had produced no less than 800 scenarios! Lloyd Lonergan is a weaver of plots, a dreamer of dreams and a teller of tales - and of all these, a master. He is a genial chap with a friendly smile and a well balanced intellect that finds logical situations and logical answers and keeps the stories traveling over the screen at every turn. He is a likable fellow, this Lonergan - and more than that, he is to movie fiction what Edgar Allan Poe was to written fiction; as unique, as fruitful, as clever as the greatest master of the most baffling literary plots. Lonergan has the power of visualizing, which is a latter-day art. He can see what is to take place - a special sort of clairvoyance, if you will, that lifts the germ of situations out of the cloudy world of thought, and focuses the results on the screen.
Out of Lloyd Lonergan's intellect these amazing situations spring and multiply without end. He employs material with which we are familiar. He borrows from science only what science has demonstrated. He uses the common, everyday settings, and out of the combination evolves the most mystifying situations imaginable. And in this work, he has the assistance of Director Howell Hansel and others - men who watch every detail of each scene and who see that nothing creeps in that is not in harmony with the Lonergan ideas. Also Lonergan has the assistance of the principals - who lead a truly charmed life and make of their fairyland something tangible and worthwhile. They are members of one big family, living in clean, wholesome concord, without bossism or unfairness - brothers and sisters who enjoy every moment of their dreamland existences, down in the nestling fastness of Thanhouserville that lies at the foot of a hill in historic New Rochelle. Note
There is Florence-Hargreave-Gray-LaBadie, for example. She is much prettier than the screen tells - just about as big as a stray ray of sunshine and every whit as lively. But she has the heart of a lion - or lioness, whichever suits her. She has done some things that the majority of big, boastful heroful men would shrink from doing, because she has bravery woven into her warp and woof and meets each new demand unafraid. Incidentally, she doesn't pronounce her name as it is spelled. Not at all. It is like this: Lobody, with the accent on the "Lob." Note
I looked at Miss LaBadie and I looked at Jimmie Cruze and then at Lloyd Lonergan - and I felt that if Mr. Lonergan doesn't permit Florence to marry Jim (in the Mystery, of course), then he deserves a choking. Anything else would be a pity and a shame - referring to the romance or the choking, as you choose. He's the sort of chap, this Cruze, who could blow into a brand new town - into a mining camp or backwoods settlement or anywhere - and have all the men trying to buy him a drink at the same time, and who would set the feminine hearts aflutter with the sheer romance of his presence. He's a fine looking fellow - and he is magnetic, and he puts his whole heart and soul into the episodes that started with the night scene of Stanley Hargreave and the infant and the sea-going cab.
Then, there is Sidney Bracy, who as Jones the butler has kept us on tiptoe ever since the opening gun. Bracy looks just like Jones and acts in a mysterious way, anyway; that is naturally. Maybe he knows who he really is, but if he does, he isn't going to tell. I doubt if even the great Burns could get him to divulge what he knows about the Mystery itself. Indeed, they all guard it jealously, as well they may, because all manner of cranks are thinking about that $10,000 - and some of them have written to the principals offering to split, fifty-fifty, for the correct information! As a matter of truth not even Lloyd Lonergan knows how it will end. Only the winner of the prize will fathom that secret, because the denouement will be prepared according to the accepted answer.
They are a wonderful lot, these Mystery folk. The Countess Olga doesn't look like the ruthless, contriving schemer she is. I saw her and Florence chatting like pals - and forgetting all about the deadly feud that we see each week in the episodes. They call the Countess "Peggy" in the Thanhouser family. For some years, I resided in Denver, the cradle of winsome, talented Marguerite Snow's theatrical career, and out West they wager on her and point with pride to the fact that Miss Snow had her start in the shadow of the majestic Rockies and played at Elitch's Gardens, the scene of so many histrionic conquests. Her remarkable work in the Mystery has called forth great praises. Miss Snow is as much at home in the movies as she was on the stage of the "legit."
Even the deep-dyed Braine is a most agreeable fellow. I was going to tell Frank Farrington that the crowds are crying for his life-blood, but I didn't have the heart - although I suspect that, like other villains in the play, he would have regarded it as a compliment. It was that way in the old days - and why not in the movies?
Miss Chester, who takes the part of Susan, is like a breath out of a May apple orchard - and several times as attractive as her part permits her to appear, although many a mere man has watched her likeness with eager eyes. She has hair tinted with the kind of glow that illumines Pikes Peak at sundown - and smiles play tag all over her regular features. She carries none of her professional grief into everyday affairs. Note But to see these good people in the play, one might fancy that they spent their lives weeping and gnashing their teeth and wailing in inconsolable anguish. It actually isn't that way at all. I have slept better since I have viewed them as they are. There isn't one who would recognize Worry if he came limping down the lane, but they can hear the velvet tread of Happiness a mile distant.
I looked around for Hargreave, through curiosity, of course, but he wasn't present. "Where is he?" I queried casually of Jay Cairns, director of publicity, and Cairns replied, "Ask Mr. Burns!" It's a little way they have down there. Their eyes twinkle when they talk about the plot - and they feel the joy of fooling the people; a frightful disposition to have; a regular $10,000 disposition! I didn't see Stanley Hargreave, Note or even find his trail, but I shall follow their suggestion and ask Mr. Burns, by waiting to read what he says about it. The great detective has some task on his hands; one none of us could covet joyously. I do not envy him his job in the least. Hunting for the ultra-violet and infrared rays with a candle would be a half holiday compared with it!
A remarkable assortment of talent was required in the production of The Million Dollar Mystery. Each member of the cast is peculiarly suited to his or her part. And back of all are Lonergan (I shall always like Lonergan) and Hansel (and I'm betting on him, too!) stirring up the broth in the cauldron of mystery with every new scene, until the very atmosphere simmers with unfathomed riddles.
You have no idea what terrific investments have been required in staging this story. It was no ordinary shopping event. First of all, the Thanhouser people purchased the "House of Mystery," a fine old mansion that, they tell me in New Rochelle, stood them around a quarter of a million dollars. They have automobiles, yachts, high powered motor boats, staffs of cabinet makers, electricians, carpenters, and other high-salaried mechanics, and some of the scenes that are but 10 or 15 seconds in passing on the screen cost fortunes to prepare. They sent an expedition down to the Bahamas to secure under the sea pictures - the most remarkable movies you have ever seen. And they don't use dummies or fake scenes in their thrillers, either. Some of the cast take chances that make aviation look like a parlor game of ping-pong; little Florence LaBadie gambles with fate with as much unconcern as you and I would evince in selecting pudding from the menu. One of the mighty trans-Atlantic liners (that may be used in the World War before it is ended) played a part in some scenes; one of the street affairs was staged in Fifth Avenue, near Tiffany's, and the shoppers thought it was on the level. At any hour of day, a cavalcade of Mystery players may hop into motor cars and go lickety-split to some lonely spot abutting Long Island Sound or in the woods and add to our brain-snarls just that much more.
In New Rochelle, The Million Dollar Mystery is as popular as it is in Chicago or any other place. One of the great new movie houses along Broadway is making a sensation of it. And why not? The story itself is a model of plot - a wonder in logic - a hair raiser in action. It establishes a new standard for movie features. It brings in the real art of story telling, and it grips the audiences with such tense interest that mobs congregate at the Mystery theatres on Mystery nights, and struggle and smother in the heat, awaiting admittance, just to see what's next!
In plain justice I wish to say something else about the Mystery cast and the Thanhouserites as a whole. Everything is clean - no swearing, no insinuations, no back alley ethics. The moral tone is high - the way you would ask it in your own home. The directors never quarrel with the players. There is patience and consideration and a brotherly-sisterly atmosphere that proves that it is possible to operate the film game according to the highest ideals.
"There is no snobbery - no loftiness or aloofness - no overbearing attitude. The really big people in life do not parade their bigness, but prove it by their deeds, and the Thanhouser folk are big - as broad as all outdoors, as fair as the golden rule. They haven't become stuck on themselves, as is the custom of gifted persons, and they are of the type that never will be boorish or uppish. When I told them how the crowds surge in upon the Mystery theatres, they were pleased. Sometimes they must become hungry and thirsty for the applause they do not hear. Sometimes they must feel the tugging of desire to mix in personally. I doubt if they realize how many friends they have made and are making. But we know, and they must know, that they are doing their best, and their best is wonderfully good. It is just that they should understand that the movie public is with them, including all ages, all manner of folk, in all localities. The Million Dollar Mystery in my estimation and in the estimation of tens of thousands of others is a masterpiece. It is a pattern that others will attempt to follow in the future. It is the one thing that I have long felt as being possible, and have waited for, until it seemed as though hope would never be fruitful of fulfillment. It is the product of master intellects and superior talent, working in unison and feeling the fun of doing something big. The Million Dollar Mystery was not a guess or a gamble. It was born of mature thought, reared in care, and it has helped many of us to forget the tribulations of life, and has lifted us into another world where we see the first great epic of the films!
The Million Dollar Mystery is no creature of mediocrity. It will have commanded in box office receipts about $7,700,000 before it has run its course. Note That looks big and it is enormous, but pause to ponder these facts: The Million Dollar Mystery will have passed through its 23 episodes in approximately 4,000 theatres during the period of its vogue. The average seating capacity of these houses will be not under 400. Therefore, each "Mystery night" about 1,600,000 persons will view each of at least three shows - or 4,800,000, or 110,400,000 tickets for the Mystery night! Some of these are five-cent houses; many charge ten cents. At an average of seven cents, that totals $7,728,000!
Do you think this great feature is entitled to be called a "million dollar production?" Why not a multi-million dollar proposition? The Mystery fans in America (including Canada) number about 5,000,000 persons. That means that nearly five percent of our population has taken the Mystery to its sizable heart - this embrace including the members of the cast. More than 50,000,000 official "heralds" Note will have been distributed before this feature is completed - and over 200 great daily newspapers are running the story. This number will be augmented by perhaps 2,000 smaller papers! Verily, the Mystery is reaching into the highways and byways - great cities, mining camps, small cities, agricultural cross-roads, lumber sections, and seaport towns.
A great author was commissioned, at tremendous expense, to write what will be a large novel constituting a story wholly apart from the scenario. The world's greatest detective was retained to give his personal attention to tracing the plot and suggesting possible means of solution. Noted lawyers, physicians and others in professional and business life were consulted to strengthen the fidelity and faithfulness of the plot. In the Mystery theatres (meaning those that run the episodes) thunderous rounds of applause greet the announcement on the screen that the Mystery is the next feature.
Back of it all is a lure: $10,000 - a comfortable fortune for the lucky person whose solution is most acceptable to the judges. It is a real, tangible, actual prize that will be awarded without favor or unfairness. Will you win it?
Copyright © 1995 Q. David Bowers. All Rights Reserved.