Volume II: Filmography

THE CITY OF HER DREAMS

November 18, 1910 (Friday)

Length: 1,000 feet

Character: Drama

Location: Some scenes were filmed in New York City

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, November 12, 1910:

"It is a city picture, a town picture, a village picture, a wilderness picture - a picture that will attract attention wherever a projection machine can be put up. Why? Because it portrays something we all have in common and portrays it well. Who has not dreamt? Who is not interested in dreams? The picture tells of the dream as no other descriptive agency ever, ever could; and the cowboy of the plains and the clerk of the city will be enthralled throughout the telling."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, November 19, 1910:

"Ella Brown is the only child of a poor widower. Their home is in a small town in the Middle West, and Ella has never seen New York, although she has always wanted to go there. Her father, finding times hard, decides to take a chance in the gold fields of Alaska, and when the play opens, is about to start there. He leaves Ella in the care of an aunt, a sour old person who runs a boarding house, who promptly makes a drudge out of the girl. As she has no other relatives, there is nothing for her to do except submit.

"Sitting in her room one evening, tired after a day's hard work, she looks at her two treasured magazines, one showing views of her pet city and the other giving the latest fashion. The girl is filled with a longing to travel and wear pretty clothes, and falls asleep. In her dream she is transported to New York, where she finds enough money to enable her to buy all the pretty things she admires. Ella greatly enjoys her visit, and is extremely unhappy when she wakes up. But she finds that her dream will become reality before long, for her father has returned from the gold fields with a fortune and a desire to fulfill all the wishes of his pretty daughter."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, December 3, 1910:

"A clear presentation of the visions of a child who wanted to go to the city. The vision is, perhaps, a bit more beatific than the actual city, but it unquestionably represents the imagined city of those who have never seen it. The awakening was rude, but happily the vision becomes real when the father appears with sufficient money to take the dreamer to the city for which she has longed. The acting and mechanical work on this picture are both of excellent quality."

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