Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 9: 1916 December Events

On December 1, 1916 Exclusive Features, Inc., a states-rights distributor, released in five reels Pamela's Past, an expanded reissue of Pamela Congreve, a film produced by Thanhouser in 1914. The picture starred Maude Fealy, Mignon Anderson, and other players who by December 1916 had long since departed from the Thanhouser studio.

The New Rochelle Pioneer reported on December 2nd that on the preceding Thursday evening W. Eugene Moore, chief director at the New Rochelle studio, and his assistant, Leo Wirth, and several department heads staged an event at the Columbus Hotel in Port Chester.

The larger part of the crowd preceded those who were to be surprised and concealed themselves in a side room off of the main dining room. On the pretext of going for an automobile ride with a possible spaghetti dinner at John's, Mr. and Mrs. Thanhouser were coaxed away from their hearthstone and as quickly as a high-power automobile can cover the intervening distance, found themselves at the Columbus Hotel, where host John Macri had everything in order - with great bouquets of chrysanthemums.

In the December 9th issue of The Moving Picture World J.A. Berst, vice-president of the Pathé Exchange, stated that 1916 was a year of great accomplishments for the firm. He noted that features for the Pathé program were now being produced by Astra, Thanhouser, Arrow, and Balboa, and that the Pathé serials were a great success. For 1917 seven different serials were being planned.

The same issue told of the New Rochelle studio's plans for the coming year:

Mr. Thanhouser is contracted to release two five-reel pictures a month through Pathé, and he promises that the 24 releases in 1917 will be of a quality even better than that of the Pathé Gold Rooster plays now in the hands of exchanges.

The December 23rd issue of The Moving Picture World included this item:

With its quota of Gold Rooster plays for February, March and April either entirely completed or well under way, the Thanhouser Company is in the enviable position of not having to work against time in order to have its pictures ready for release by the Pathé Exchanges. A director's best work can only be done when he is unhurried and free from the worry that delays of several days would otherwise cause him.

On the same date The Motion Picture Mail informed its readers that G.T. Bindbeutel, earlier the editor of Motor Print, had been named to succeed Jerome Beatty, who in recent times had served as publicity director for Thanhouser, following the departure of Leon J. Rubenstein. Beatty went to McClure Pictures.

Around this time there was a great debate concerning whether films should be shown on Sundays in New York State. On December 30th The Moving Picture World printed Edwin Thanhouser's comments on the situation:

Edwin Thanhouser, president of the Thanhouser Film Corporation, has this to say: "Motion pictures to me are animated books, presenting thought. Libraries are open on Sunday for the reading of books - or anyone may read a book in his home or office or on a bench in a park. At least, no law has been passed as yet to prohibit reading on Sundays, either in public or in private, of books or Sunday newspapers. To my mind there would be just as much consistency in closing up public libraries on Sunday as to close motion picture theatres.

"One intent of the 'blue law' makers is to keep people in their neighborhoods on the day of rest - away from bad influences. Motion picture theatres do this. They keep whole families in the home vicinity and are one of the greatest powers for family unity we have. Finally I would like to bring your attention to the moral potency of most picture plays. Even in trifling plots that sometimes are encountered in the film plays, there invariably is some substance in the form of a demonstrated lesson. One should leave a motion picture theatre in a profound thought or in a spirit of exultation, and I believe most producers are now appreciating this.

"There should be no immoral subjects in motion pictures, books, newspapers or magazines - and we are approaching the day when this will be so. Until then Monday's motion picture should be the same as Friday's or Sunday's, for the photoplay is a conveyance of thought, as I have said, and the public's capacity for thought is the same every day." Note

The New Rochelle Pioneer printed this filler on December 30th: "Edwin Thanhouser has had a request by a prominent clothing house to loan Wayne Arey, Boyd Marshall, and Harris Gordon for use as models for advertising illustrations 'because they are handsome men of a natural American type.' Regrets were sent."