Volume II: Filmography

THE NYMPH

May 30, 1916 (Tuesday)

Length: 2 reels

Character: Drama

Director: Fred A. Kelsey

Assistant director: Lord McCaskill

Scenario: Philip Lonergan

Cast: Barbara Gilroy (the nude bathing girl; the "nymph"), Robert Vaughn (her fiancé), Thomas A. Curran (the artist), Inda Palmer (the nymph's aunt), Arthur Bauer (the nymph's uncle)

Location: Florida

Notes: The Florida Metropolis, April 6, 1916, reported that Fred A. Kelsey had arrived the week before and had begun directing this film. The same periodical on April 12th reported that production was in progress.

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, May 27, 1916:

"The prudery of society folk and their refusing to listen to the explanations of an innocent girl, forms the basic theme for The Nymph, a charming Thanhouser-Mutual two-act drama, starring Barbara Gilroy. Miss Gilroy is effective in the role of a simple fisher maiden who lives alone with her father on an island off the coast. Later, as a member of the younger society set, she continues her good work and leaves the impression of having given a perfect characterization. A young girl, the story reveals, lives with her father on a small island off the coast. Visitors are infrequent. As she is swimming one day, an artist, attracted by the scenery, watches the girl sporting in the water. The model of his dreams presents herself in the girl. At last he can paint his masterpiece! On her way home, the artist overtakes her and asks her to pose for him, offering her large pay. She indignantly refuses, and he is compelled to abandon his painting of The Nymph. Several weeks later the girl starts north to visit wealthy relatives. While there she meets and is wooed by a young man of a rich family.

"The artist, who is well known in the city, meets the girl at her relatives' home and recognizes in the handsomely gowned debutante the girl of his dreams. He asks her to marry him. She gently refuses. In a fit of jealous rage, he determines to be revenged. One day he invites the girl and her aunt and uncle to an exhibition of his works, and displays in the most prominent position a painting of The Nymph - a nude girl standing at the water's edge. The face was her own. The artist, with a look of surprise, explains that he did not think she objected to the showing of a picture for which she had posed. The girl protests in vain. The evidence was so plainly against her that they refused to listen to her and ordered her to return to her home. Her fiancé had faith in his sweetheart and goes to the artist and compels him to tell the true story. With proofs of the girl's innocence, he calls on her relatives and then goes to his fiancée's home to make her his bride."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, June 10, 1916:

"A two-reel number, by Philip Lonergan, featuring Barbara Gilroy, Thomas Curran, and Robert Vaughn. It is the story of an artist who finds a fisher girl bathing off the rocks. He paints her picture in the nude, after she has indignantly refused to pose for him. Later he exhibits it in the city, and the girl's fiancé takes a very proper revenge, by punishing the artist and slashing the picture. Miss Gilroy is attractive in the part of the girl. This is not an especially strong subject, but tells a good running story and holds the attention well throughout."

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