Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 7 (1914): Ramsaye's Story

The genesis of The Million Dollar Mystery serial was graphically described in A Million and One Nights, by Terry Ramsaye, published in 1926. At the point at which Ramsaye's highly romanticized account of the Thanhouser effort begins, The Chicago Tribune has completed the serialization of The Adventures of Kathlyn, the 13-reel Selig series which had scored a success with newspaper readers and theatre patrons from late December 1913:

All through the days of The Adventures of Kathlyn serial the Tribune was casting about for a follow-up. Joseph Finn, of the impressive Nichols-Finn advertising agency, himself a graduate of the volcanic school of journalism, was called into conference. Note Paul R. Kuhn, of the Finn staff, a merchandising expert, went to work to take the serial business apart to see what made it tick, and how it could be made to tick louder. He found that the Kathlyn picture, successful as it was, had been only half sold to the theatres. The Adventures of Kathlyn circulated only 24 prints, due to restrictions imposed by the General Film Company. Kuhn's digest proved that a serial project could keep a hundred prints busy and reach many, many more theatres.

There were conferences and a decision to make a detective story serial. They did not know what the story was to be about, but the circulation formula called for certain surefire elements: wealth, mystery, love, and adventure. They decided on the title, The Million Dollar Mystery, and let the matter of the story go to be taken care of as routine. Two weeks later Finn fell into a smoking car conversation on the Twentieth Century Limited with the stranger in the next chair. He proved to be full of motion picture information and admitted presently that he was Lloyd Lonergan, scenario chief for the Thanhouser Film Corporation at New Rochelle. He introduced Charles Hite, president of the concern. When the train reached Chicago the trio went to the Tribune office. Note

Now came the Syndicate Film Corporation, floated through John M. Burnham & Company of Chicago, to finance The Million Dollar Mystery, to be made by Thanhouser and promoted as a newspaper feature by the Tribune. James M. Sheldon, famous football star in the days of his glory at the University of Chicago, a friend of Burnham's, became president of the syndicate concern.

At New Rochelle, Hite put the picture into production with a cast which included Florence LaBadie, Marguerite Snow, and James Cruze.... The Lonergan scenario of The Million Dollar Mystery and the serial version for the Tribune, written by Harold MacGrath to the formula of riches and romance, progressed neck and neck under high pressure production. Meanwhile promotional plans new to the screen were underway.

On the staff of the Finn concern was a nonchalant, freehanded and deft-spoken copywriter who signed his name Jay Cairns, in spite of the fact that the newspaper world knew him as "Casey." J. Casey Cairns had come into Chicago through the main gate, which is to say the Chicago Union Stockyards, wearing curly chaps, musical spurs and a pair of six-guns, chaperoning a trainload of chuck steak on the hoof. The great open spaces behind him were getting full of wire fences and bleating sheep, whereas the field of Chicago journalism seemed to offer the very flower of the sort of excitement the range was losing. This led him to Finn and advertising and now to the motion pictures and New Rochelle as the first special production press agent.

Jay Cairns of Chicago registered at the Pepperday Inn, sent for a copy of the script of The Million Dollar Mystery, and retired for religious meditation. The shades of night were falling on the village when a very sober-faced, worried-looking young man with a western manner presented himself at the New Rochelle police station and asked private audience with the officer in charge. "A very serious thing has happened - Miss Florence Gray - millionaire's daughter, you know, has disappeared - millions involved, and we suspect there may be foul play. Hate to call you into it, but I know you'll be careful, etc., etc."

Cairns was reluctant and hesitated often. But under the pressure of police questioning he decided to give the officer a written statement on the affair, which he chanced to have with him. It was a neatly typed synopsis of the opening chapter of The Million Dollar Mystery. The names were those of the fictional characters. It took the "missing story" fully an hour to reach Park Row, New York City, and 10 minutes more to get all over the United States. It was an otherwise dull night for news. The story flowed freely over the leased wires.

In the Chicago Tribune office that night as usual, E.S. Beck, the managing editor, was shrewdly scanning the telegraph news proofs as they arrived wet from the composing room. The "missing heiress" story brought him up with a start. He sniffed. There was something slightly familiar about the story, but he could not place it. It had something of the odor of fish. The Chicago Tribune did not carry the missing heiress story. Nearly every other newspaper in the United States did, including the Chicago Hearst papers down Madison street. And they continued to carry it, with developments locally discovered and meager facts wrung from the silent Cairns of the Pepperday Inn.

On the third day Cairns reluctantly parted with "the only photograph in existence" of the missing heiress. It bore a striking similarity to the publicity stills of Florence LaBadie issued by the Thanhouser company. The Hearst pictorial news service got a scoop on this picture. The sixth day of the missing mystery the New Rochelle police called Cairns from the Pepperday Inn to receive tidings of immediate importance. They had a wire from John J. Halpin, the Chicago chief of detectives, announcing the apprehension of the missing heiress. The identification was positive and the girl was held pending shipping instructions. On the seventh day the Finn-Tribune serial advertising campaign was launched in neat cohesion with the missing mystery of the newspapers.

The final realization of the facts did not tend to warm up any newspaper friendships on Madison street. This was the first of the great film press agent hoaxes. The Million Dollar Mystery swept through the motion picture theatres with a success without precedent or parallel. The 23 chapters of The Mystery played in about 7,000 motion picture theatres in a period when there were probably about 18,000 such houses. Production costs of The Mystery were in the vicinity of $125,000, and the gross receipts for the picture were nearly $1,500,000....