Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 7 (1914): Promoting the Serial

A constant barrage of news releases told of various aspects of the Mystery and those involved in it. On June 6, 1914, Reel Life informed its readers:

Marguerite Snow and Florence LaBadie, the two leading women in The Million Dollar Mystery series, the 46-reel production which now is absorbing the Thanhouser management, are spending a small fortune each, these days, on clothes. Miss Snow, as the Countess Olga, finds that to costume herself as a lady of Russian nobility requires both a great deal of time and money. And Miss LaBadie, as the millionaire's daughter, is beginning to appreciate some of the hardships of a poor little rich girl. Note

Up to date, Miss Snow has spent $2,500 for costumes, and yet she has appeared thus far in only six reels out of the 46. She roughly estimates the total cost of her wearing apparel for the film at an excess of $10,000. To make her costume distinctively Russian and of high rank Miss Snow is obliged to haunt the antique shops for all sorts of unique ornaments of genuinely Russian origin. She has collected oddly designed earrings, bracelets, beads, coiffures, berets, and several unique and beautifully jeweled belts - the kind of adornment one sees and admires with envy in Petersburg cafés.

A long walking staff, carried at the Russian court - which now has become the vogue at Europe's smart spas and race courses - is used by Miss Snow. Hers is a bonafide antique, imported for her from Petersburg. It is made of a dull-lustre black hardwood which in certain lights becomes opalescent. The handle is of gold with a peculiar design, half heroic, half ecclesiastical, and bears the coat of arms of one of the Russian royal families. Colonel Radonivitz, the Petersburg dealer who forwarded the staff to Miss Snow, said that without doubt it is a relic of some ancient noble house.

While Miss LaBadie does not have to study to achieve the unusual, she has her troubles keeping pace with le dernier cri in Parisian fashions. She appears in an effective costume developed in pink chiffon velvet, with tunic of gold, embroidered tapestry velvet, and yoke of heavy gold lace. The slit skirt discloses a petticoat of lace in the same color though a trifle softer in tone.

The very graceful toilette worn by Miss Snow is of imported orchid chiffon, goldfine. The gown is draped on classic lines, a high-waisted orchid corsage confining the upper part of the figure over a girdle of lavender variegated silk. The yoke is of Limerick lace. The sleeves are caught at the wrist by bracelets of pearls sewn to the gown. The costume was designed by Drecoll, the Parisian couturier who formerly resided in Petersburg as dressmaker to Russian women of nobility and fashion. Note

Even the Broadway Rose Gardens, which was having difficulty getting ready to open its doors to the public, was featured in publicity for the serial, as per this item in Reel Life, June 20th: "Do you dance? Would you rather dine? Perhaps you would prefer to watch a first-run feature photoplay? Broadway is soon to have a caravansary in which all three features may be enjoyed - and all on one floor. In the week of June 29, Charles J. Hite, president of the Thanhouser Film Corporation, and George F. Kerr, vice-president and general manager of the Delta Theatre Corporation, will throw open the doors (both on Broadway and Seventh Avenue) of the Broadway Rose Gardens, Theatre and Danse de Pierrette.

If you enter on the Broadway side with the rest of the first-nighters you will be ushered into a photo-playhouse deluxe. From the loge boxes in the balcony, after you have seen the first run of the early episodes of The Million Dollar Mystery or The Deep Sea Mystery, Note you may follow a private passageway into the Danse de Pierrette on the Seventh Avenue side of the building.

There on a balcony decorated with hanging rose bushes and designed to simulate an outdoor flower garden you may dine and dance between courses. Both the balcony and the spacious floor below have been especially constructed for the devotees of Terpsichore. The combination of all three features in one building promises to appeal to the sensation-seekers of the metropolis. Mrs. Clarence Burns, president of the Little Mothers' Aid Society, Commissioner of Corrections Katherine B. Davis, Note and Florence Guernsey, head of the organization which controls 125,000 clubwomen of the state, have promised their support to the new enterprise.

Among other news, Edwin and Gertrude Thanhouser were continuing their tour of Europe, stopping here and there to visit film plants and offices. A letter dated June 6, 1914, from Thanhouser secretary Jessie B. Bishop, in New Rochelle, to Paul Kimberley, head of Thanhouser Films, Ltd. in London, stated:

We have your letter of May 23rd and note that Mr. and Mrs. Thanhouser have recently visited your place. They are very delightful people. We are glad to note that you were able to show them some of our feature productions, and we suspect it seemed good to both of them to see some of our old time actors on the screen.

Enclosed please find a list of negatives which we have produced and which have not been exhibited in Great Britain or on the Continent. Mr. Thanhouser will undoubtedly remember well all of the ones taken before he left here, and while some of the subjects are topical and some local, there are others that we think would go very well with English audiences. We should be glad to send any of them to you upon request.

Kindly give the writer's best regards to both Mr. and Mrs. Thanhouser, and with sincere wishes, we are,

Yours very truly, THANHOUSER FILM CORPORATION, J.B. Bishop, Secretary