Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 7 (1914): Zudora in Trouble

After the first few episodes trade papers no longer reviewed Zudora, except to reprint extracts from the synopses supplied by the studio. The mysticism of the film was lost on most viewers, and audiences found the plots of each episode to be confusing and disconnected. Little public interest was aroused, and within several weeks of the serial's launching it was evident that the film was in trouble.

Gamely, Thanhouser ran advertisements telling of the success of the serial. That in Reel Life, December 19, 1914, is typical:

ZUDORA STOPS TRAFFIC ON SOUTH JACKSON STREET MORE THAN THREE HOURS. The Monroe Theatre appeared to be the Mecca of all the people in town last evening, the sidewalk in front of the show being completely filled with men, women, and children from shortly after seven until long after ten o'clock. At one time the press was so great that Chief of Police Blunt had to interfere.

The tremendous crowd, the largest in the history of the show house, was occasioned by the showing of Zudora, the Thanhouser series picture so extensively advertised in the Chicago Tribune. The management states that over 1,600 people saw the picture, and undoubtedly many hundreds more were unable to get in at all. As it was, the show ran until almost midnight.... Do you want crowds like this? For booking arrangements of this crowd-getting motion picture serial, apply at once to Thanhouser Syndicate Corporation's representative....

It fell to Variety, the most candid of the trade journals, to tell the truth. The December 19, 1914 issue informed readers that:

THANHOUSER REWRITING 'ZUDORA' NOT PLEASING: Commencing with the sixth episode of Zudora, the latest Thanhouser serial, instructions have been issued at the New Rochelle plant to rewrite the scenario. In the revision considerable change will be made in the characters and story as at first outlined, according to report. The Thanhouser people were notified by exhibitors, it is said, that unless the weekly installments of the picture were bettered, further service beyond the fifth episode would be declined. This, together with the apparent faults in the serial, is said to have brought about the decision to practically commence a new picture, after a large investment had been made for the Zudora series. The same title may be retained. Thanhouser is said to have netted nearly $500,000 Note on its first serial, The Million Dollar Mystery. This happened when its president, the late Charles J. Hite, was living. With his death, according to the story, many changes were made in the operation of the Thanhouser plant, with correspondingly conflicting results.

On January 1, 1915 Variety told more:

LOEW CANCELS 'ZUDORA.' Owing to the failure of the Thanhouser Co. to improve its weekly release of the Zudora serial, the Loew Circuit this week canceled the booking for the installments in 22 of the Loew theatres, filling in the gap by another serial. The Thanhouser concern is said to have promised the exhibitors the Zudora feature would be improved after the fifth installment, previous sections of the film, since its first release, having failed to satisfy in many respects.

The situation went from bad to worse, although all during this time Thanhouser maintained that Zudora was a box office sensation. Beginning with Episode 9 the title was changed to Zudora in The Twenty Million Dollar Mystery, an attempt to ride on the coattails of Thanhouser's previous serial. Later, the title was changed to The Twenty Million Dollar Mystery, with no mention of Zudora. After Episode 10, the scenarios were written by Francis Worcester Doughty, a popular novelist and screen writer who had been called in to "straighten" the plot. Lloyd F. Lonergan, who had written the earlier episodes, was now in greener, or at least different pastures, as related by an article by Wid Gunning Note in The Evening Mail, December 5, 1914:

Lloyd Lonergan is through at Thanhouser. That may not mean much to you until I tell you that Mr. Lonergan has been writing almost all of the Thanhouser films for the past two years. There has been a reorganization at the plant recently, however, following the accidental death of C.J. Hite, the former president, and this week Mr. Lonergan was told that a new brain was to conceive and edit Thanhouser films. Again I say, things do happen in this business. Note

The Moving Picture World, December 19, 1914, gave additional details:

Lloyd F. Lonergan, author of The Million Dollar Mystery and of almost every Thanhouser photoplay from the inception of that concern, has quit his position as producing manager of the Thanhouser establishment to become a writer of features for the Universal Eastern stars. He is now spending much time in conferences with Julius Stern, Note manager of the Imp studio, with Ben Wilson, William Garwood, and Miss Mary Fuller, for whom the latter stars he will create his first Universal stories. The acquisition of Mr. Lonergan, whose record of Thanhouser successes has placed him in the front rank of American scenario experts, is considered one of the most important the Universal has made of late.

After Episode 10 the directorship was changed from Frederick Sullivan to Howell Hansel. Changes in the story, title, author, and director were to no avail, and Zudora and its retitled later episodes were an unmitigated failure. Finally, the curtain came down on the last installment, Episode 20, on April 5, 1915.