Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 7 (1914): Meanwhile at the Studio

At the time of Hite's death the studio had a backlog of films in process which would last it for the best part of two months. The success of The Million Dollar Mystery serial had set the wheels in motion for a successor named Zudora, and the scenarios for the first several episodes had been completed. Under the direction of Charles Van Houten carpenters were busy tearing out the dressing rooms in the old Main Street studio - the former Columbia Garage building - so that space could be converted to factory and mechanical operations. Henceforth, all dressing rooms would be in the newer facilities across Thanhouser Lane. Note For the time being at least, Lloyd F. Lonergan was in charge of the company's daily operations.

While plans continued to move full speed ahead on Zudora and regular scripts approved of earlier by Hite, future operations were in doubt. Muriel Ostriche later related: Note

We were all confused, and we didn't know who was in charge. When Charles Hite was here he took care of everything, and there was no other person who knew what he was thinking or what he had in mind for the coming year. Also, he was very well liked by everyone at the studio, and his passing was a cause for great sadness and grief. Dr. Shallenberger came to the studio and took over.

Charles Hite liked me and my acting, Note and at the time he died we were planning a large production of Alice in Wonderland, with me as Alice. After he died many of his plans were never carried through by anyone else, and Alice in Wonderland was not made. Eventually, I didn't like the kind of films they were putting me in, and I left Thanhouser, but by that time many others had left, too.

The Shallenberger brothers came to the forefront. Dr. Wilbert E. Shallenberger took charge of the financial operations, and Dr. William Edgar Shallenberger relocated to New Rochelle to replace Charles J. Hite. The two brothers, each named Dr. W.E. Shallenberger, were a source of confusion for the trade press, and numerous activities of one were credited to the other, and vice-versa. Hite's death on August 21st had no effect on the immediate releases for Thanhouser films, and the Sunday-Tuesday-Friday schedule continued to be implemented. A Dog's Good Deed, issued on August 23rd, featured Shep, the Thanhouser Dog (also called the Thanhouser Collie), in the title role. Shep was a sure-fire audience pleaser, and the film was well received. Conscience, released on August 25th, had the seemingly usual plot problems, according to The Moving Picture World, but it was found to be "a cheerful yarn which leaves a pleasant feeling with the observer."

The Keeper of the Light, the Princess offering of August 28th, featured Muriel Ostriche and Boyd Marshall and was filmed at Execution Light in the harbor of New Rochelle. A special scaffolding 75 feet high was erected to permit views of the top of the lighthouse. Note Arty the Artist, released on August 30th, featured Vic Forsythe, a well-known cartoonist who produced the Axel and Flooey newspaper comic strip. Forsythe was a frequent visitor to the New Rochelle studio, and this film was produced as a whim. A Mother's Choice, a drama issued on September 1st, was from a scenario written by Carey L. Hastings, who also acted in the film. As was the case with most other one-reel productions of the time, it was scarcely noticed by reviewers, most of whom were busy with the larger features which were increasingly dominating the market for dramatic-content films.

His Winning Way, the Princess film of September 4th, featured Mayre Hall and Boyd Marshall, the latter in the role of Nolan Gottispile, who through strenuous efforts at high finance and a fortuitous legacy, "got his pile." The Moving Picture World commented:

A farce with broad humor; it makes a good general offering. The high finance of its hero, a youth who will only be acceptable to dad as son-in-law when he has $10,000, and whose name is Gottispile, gives the picture a very entertaining bit of freshness. In the end, he becomes Gottispile de facto as well as de jure; but it is the legacy and not the finance that does the trick for him. People will enjoy it.

Little Mischief, released on September 6, 1914, was reviewed by Kitty Kelly, a writer for The Chicago Tribune, who began her commentary by saying:

The bright and only shining star of the film is little Miss Helen Badgley, and she is quite sufficient to illuminate the whole picture, contributing an added radiance by reflection to the observers so fortunate as to see her. One couldn't exactly call the picture a drama, though it is full of events and possesses capital climaxes. Too much like real life it is to be tagged with any such pretentious label as 'drama.' It is a first class cross section of the happenstances in any home when the young person is on a rampage, which will awake responsive thrills in the hearts of the many possessors of young persons in all of whom to parental eyes seem just as fascinating as the Thanhouser twinkler....

Jean of the Wilderness, a drama featuring Morris Foster and Mignon Anderson, had many scenes taken in the middle of the night using only the light from a campfire. For a welcome change The Moving Picture World found the story acceptable, more or less, if not indeed entertaining: "A two-reel story of the Northwest, abounding in good scenic effects. The story itself is entertaining, though not intense or gripping, and it has no great novelty about it. It concerns the efforts of a gambler to wed the daughter of a man falsely accused of murder. Jean is the Canadian hero. There was some confusion of names in the subtitles. Morris Foster and Mignon Anderson play the leads in this fairly strong offering." A review in The New York Dramatic Mirror included this commentary:

This picture opens pleasantly, and presently it becomes excitingly melodramatic, out-westing even some of the best of the Westerns. The criticism may rightfully be leveled at it that it is unrealistically melodramatic in spots, this being due at times to the too great ingenuity of adventure and escape. However, its characters are plain, its photography is of the most brilliant, and its acting for the most part likable.

In Danger's Hour, released on September 11th, featured the Thanhouser Twins and was favorably reviewed. Sis, which with the earlier production of She is a contender for the shortest-titled Thanhouser film, was first screened on September 11th and featured Reenie Farrington in the title role. Seventeen-year-old Reenie Farrington, formally known as Irene Farrington, was the daughter of Frank Farrington, who played the role of Braine in The Million Dollar Mystery. Reenie was a difficult nickname for trade publications to handle, and on numerous occasions they helpfully "corrected" it to Rene, sometimes even accenting it as René!

The Emperor's Spy, released on September 13th, was found to have an insufficient plot by The Moving Picture World; however the reviewer found that "the photography is acceptable." Then came Thirty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, also known as Thirty Leagues Under the Sea, the Williamson brothers' submarine film which had its first showing to a paying audience on September 14, 1914 at the star-crossed Broadway Rose Gardens. The picture was quite similar to Terrors of the Deep, the Williamson film shown in New Rochelle earlier, and is believed to have included much of the same footage.

Although it was planned that Mignon Anderson, Morris Foster, and other Thanhouserites would return from Yellowstone National Park on September 15th, apparently the crew came back earlier, after receiving news of Charles J. Hite's passing. The New Rochelle Pioneer, September 5, 1914, noted: "It is expected that Morris Foster and Mignon Anderson, leads of Carl L. Gregory's company in the Yellowstone National Park, returned on a late train last night, too late to verify for this edition. Mr. Gregory will remain until the 15th to take 'scenic stuff.'" Note

The "scenic stuff" comprised views of the geysers, gorges, waterfalls, wildlife, and other attractions of the nation's first national park. A commentary in Reel Life Note told more:

The first expedition of motion picture actors to be granted governmental permission to take pictures in Yellowstone Park has returned to the Thanhouser studio. In sending a company to the national reservation the Thanhouser management has scored a triumph. There have been permits granted in the past for the use in the park of motion picture cameras, but never before has a company of actors been allowed to actually work out a picture. Note

The Yellowstone trip constitutes an advance in the educational phase of the motion picture industry. By means of these pictures, which will shortly be released by the Thanhouser Company, the scenic wonders of the nation's biggest and most beautiful playground will be brought within the view of millions of people in the United States who are unable to go and see the park. This point was given emphasis by Secretary of the Interior Lane, in granting the permit. 'I want as many of the people of the United States to enjoy these national parks as is possible,' he said. The motion pictures will first be shown to the Secretary of the Interior in Washington. The company which went to Yellowstone Park was headed by Mignon Anderson and Morris Foster. John Lehnberg appeared in the character parts.

Although during the next several months much publicity was given to the Thanhouser films of Yellowstone, it is not certain that the scenic features ever reached the market.

In New Rochelle filming was proceeding apace for the new serial, Zudora, although relatively little about the project appeared in the trade papers, probably because The Million Dollar Mystery had two more months to run, and there was no sense in confusing exhibitors or the public. However, a few scattered items reached print, including this mention in The New Rochelle Pioneer, September 19, 1914:

Wednesday [September 16th] night at 7 o'clock, Frederick Richard Sullivan, director of Zudora, by Daniel Carson Goodman, staged a scene in the old City Hall police station using 150 extra people in the cast. The principals were Miss Marguerite Snow, Harry Benham, James Cruze, Sidney Bracy, and Arthur Bauer.

Around this time a series of large advertisements was being prepared for Sempre Giovine, a skin cream. In October and November 1914, The New Rochelle Pioneer printed many of these advertisements, each illustrated by a Thanhouser player and accompanied by a testimonial from the person. The manufacturer, the Marietta Stanley Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan, hastened to say the name of the product was pronounced SEM-PRAY JO-VE-NAY and translated to "always young."

Florence LaBadie, who was said to "know and value the care of skin and complexion," furnished a testimonial: "In Sempre Giovine I feel that I have found, at last, a thoroughly satisfactory and dependable skin cleanser and complexion beautifier. It keeps my skin in perfect condition at all times. Its use is a delight and a benefit. Sempre Giovine has my hearty endorsement." In another advertisement James Cruze stated: "I find in Sempre Giovine all that is desired in a face cream. I use it. It is good. What more can be said?" Maude Fealy stated: "It is with pleasure that I attest to the excellence of Sempre Giovine as a skin cleanser and complexion beautifier."

Gold, a two-reel drama, was released on September 15, 1914. In August it had been reported Note that several Thanhouserites had been injured during the production of the picture. Variety commented:

HURT BY PREMATURE DISCHARGE. New Rochelle, N.Y., Aug. 12: Frederick Sullivan, director of a picture company here, was struck on the forehead by a double barreled shotgun that recoiled while he was directing last Saturday. Sullivan was taken to his home in a dazed condition and it is feared his skull is fractured. Rene Farrington, a member of the cast, and Albert Mayo, assistant director, were hit by buckshot from the gun. Their wounds were dressed by a surgeon. The property gun was lashed to a chair and pointed at Miss Farrington by Justus Barnes, an actor, who then set a candle to burn a cord attached to the trigger. The scene was to provide a thriller for the film, but the gun discharged prematurely.

A subsequent review of Gold in The Moving Picture World seems to describe the scene in question:

A two-reel offering of the made-up type which does not get over very strongly, yet proves quite entertaining in its way. The old mountaineer, fearing the bank is not safe, draws his fortune out in gold. A renegade learns of this and goes to the mountaineer's home after pushing him down a high cliff. The placing of the gun, with string attached, before the girl, was melodramatic and not very convincing business. The young surveyor comes and saves the girl. The gun then goes off and kills the renegade and exposes the hiding place of the gold at the same time. The photography is good and the offering fairly strong. Note

The Master Hand, the Princess release of September 18th, featured Reenie Farrington and Boyd Marshall. "This plot has been used before and is here handled only fairly well," commented The Moving Picture World. Then followed The Mettle of a Man on the 20th.