Volume II: Filmography

CONDUCTOR 786

August 23, 1912 (Friday)

Length: 1 reel

Character: Drama (per Thanhouser); comedy (per some reviewers)

Cast: Riley Chamberlin (the conductor), William Garwood (his son), Jean Darnell (his son's wife), William B. Wheeler (superintendent), 20 employees of the Westchester Electric Railway Company

Notes: 1. This film met with a favorable reception, and a number of related films were subsequently released, including The Benevolence of Conductor 786 and The Gratitude of Conductor 786, as well as films in Thanhouser's Falstaff series. 2. A Falstaff film released on June 17, 1916 had as its original title, Conductor 786, but when it was realized that this title had been used nearly four years earlier the name of the 1916 film was changed to Doughnuts. 3. The title of this film was listed erroneously as Conductor 663 in The Moving Picture Story Magazine in the issues of November 1912 and June 1914. In a review in The New York Dramatic Mirror, August 28, 1912, the title was given as Officer 786.

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, August 17, 1912:

"Here is a picturesque character and a true one - the conductor who gets gray, and the road's serviceman gets so accustomed to his job he just can't quit it. 786's son tries to force him to quit, since said son has won money and social standing. Father can't be forced or persuaded, and his stubbornness holds your close attention."

ARTICLE, The Moving Picture World, August 17, 1912:

"In Conductor 786 a strong comedy vein develops. The old conductor has a son who is a big league ball player and wins a woman with some money and no sense. The groom fears to have the bride learn his father's occupation. Unable to persuade his father to give up the job he loves, the son persuaded the superintendent of the road to do him the favor of discharging his own parent. 'If you love me,' said the son to the superintendent, 'Fire father!' But the superintendent has a hard job doing it. He really tells the old man that his services are no longer needed, but all father's old friends on the line get together and see the superintendent about it. The scene [accompanying the article] shows the indignation meeting in the railroad man's office. While it was going on, the old conductor stood meekly by, with tears in his eyes. This latter circumstance settled the superintendent. He ordered the veteran to take out his car as usual. You couldn't blame the official. He was between so many fires that he just didn't know how to move!"

ARTICLE, The Evening Standard (New Rochelle), August 21, 1912:

"William B. Wheeler, superintendent of the Westchester Electric Railway Company, will take a day off tomorrow, something unusual for him. They had war maneuvers in Connecticut last week, but Wheeler and his trolleymen are to take Glen Island by storm. He posed for superintendent in Thanhouser's 900 foot reel, Conductor No. 786, which will be run off at the island. The story is thus told: "The old conductor has a son who is a big league ball player and wins a woman with some money and no sense. The groom fears to have the bride learn the father's occupation. Unable to persuade his father to give up the job he loves, the son persuaded the superintendent of the road to do him the favor of discharging his own parent. If you love me, said the son to the superintendent, fire father. But the superintendent has a hard job doing it. He really tells the old man that his services are no longer needed, but all of father's old friends on the line get together and see the superintendent about it. While the indignation meeting is going on in the railroad men's office, the old conductor stands meekly by with tears in his eyes. This latter circumstance settles the superintendent. He orders the veteran to take out his car as usual. He was between so many fires that he just didn't know how to move.

"'Just like Wheeler.' all the boys will say when they see it. The Westchester Railway Superintendent and 20 of the road's employees posed for the reel at the Westchester car barn, Pelham Dale Avenue and Wilkes Lane...."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, August 24, 1912:

"This is the story of an old conductor, whose chief pride was his record of long and faithful service to a street railroad company. His son, however, had achieved wealth and had married a girl of position. The son tried to induce his father to leave his place and come with him to his hotel. The father finally consented, but the first morning slipped out of the hotel and took out his regular run. In order to make sure of getting his father away from the car the son asks the superintendent of the line to dismiss him. That official acquiesced. The old man was broken-hearted. His comrades joined him in an appeal for reinstatement, which was granted. On the conductor's first trip out the car stopped to take passengers aboard. The conductor saw his son and with him the woman he blamed for his troubles. He gave two bells, and the car went ahead without them. The conductor called back a polite invitation to take the next car - which meant that, in a crude fashion, he had cut off his son."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, August 25, 1912:

"Riley Chamberlin plays a character part in the title role of this photo play exceedingly well. He is a street car conductor who has a son who is a baseball player. The son is taken on by one of the big league teams and in a few weeks he begins to live in the lap of luxury. His wife and himself wish the old man to give up his job as a conductor and invite him to join them at the hotel where they are stopping. He does so, but the new life is too confining to the easy going old man and he returns to his humble home. Then the son arranges by letter to the superintendent of the road to have his father discharged that he may support him. This breaks the old man's heart, and his fellow workers are on the point of going on strike because of the apparent injustice, when the superintendent shows the son's letter. The old man declares he can work as long as the road will have him and he gets his job back again. The next time he meets his son and daughter-in-law when they attempt to board his car, he informs them to take the next one, and gleefully passes by enjoying his triumph. It is the delightfully human portrayal of the title role which makes it so pleasing a play, though the support is good and the staging is fine. Genuine trolley cars are used and a car barn with a crowd of real trolley car conductors and motormen adds to the atmosphere. These chaps prove themselves excellent actors and their work is most commendable. The baseball scenes are another fine addition."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, August 24, 1912:

"Riley Chamberlin plays the conductor in this comedy-drama, for such it is. It may have been intended for drama, but Chamberlin has injected some real infectious laughter into it. Chamberlin is well supported by the Thanhouser company; also, and this is unusual, he is supported by a crew of streetcar men, who come very near to the real thing in the actor business. The baseball grandstand scene is far from new, but Chamberlin and his associates make it well worthwhile. His action, when he is introduced to his daughter-in-law and has undergone scrutiny through a lorgnette, and pulling an imaginary bell cord for 'go ahead' must be seen to be appreciated."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, August 28, 1912:

"The film is a real novelty and one possessing much comedy of a very clean sort. Riley Chamberlin as the old conductor gives a particularly pleasing characterization of a part that has been adorned with many opportunities for fun making on an intelligent plane. Mr. Chamberlin is funny to look at, anyway, and added to this in the present instance he has brought out all there is in the part without descending to cheap tricks of the stage. The story itself is an amusing one, concerning the son of the old conductor, who is picked up by a big league team as a pitcher, leaving the old man alone in the home. Jack, the son, a year later marries the 'swell' girl and tells his father that he must move to the hotel where the young couple live, as he does not want his wife to know that his father is a streetcar conductor. But the old man, proud of his distinction of being the oldest conductor in the line, secretly keeps his job and steals out of the hotel in the early morning to report for duty. That afternoon Jack and his wife board the car in which the old man is working and becomes very angry with him. But their request that he leave his job are unavailing, so finally the son writes to the superintendent of the road, explains the case to him and asks him to discharge the father. This is done, but the other conductors threaten to strike if the popular old man is not taken back, and the superintendent accedes to their demands. And when later Jack and his wife try to board his car, Conductor 786 tells them to take the next one. The cast is well balanced and the settings good."

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