Volume II: Filmography

THE GIRL STRIKE LEADER

July 8, 1910 (Friday)

Length: 1,000 feet

Character: Drama

Cast: Mrs. George W. Walters (poor factory woman)

Note: The release date was given in error as July 10, 1910 in Thanhouser's advertisement in the July 2, 1910 issue of The Moving Picture World.

ADVERTISEMENT, The New York Dramatic Mirror, July 9, 1910:

"Dealing with the most momentous of national problems - the labor question. Your patrons will like this solution. Please them!"

ARTICLE, The Moving Picture News, July 2, 1910:

"A happy solution to the vexed labor problem is supplied in The Girl Strike Leader, the Thanhouser release of Friday, July 10. It shows that if the owners of factories could investigate working conditions firsthand, that is by intimate association with the workers, labor questions would be in a better way of answer. In the picture under discussion a factory owner's son does the investigation stunt. In the guise of a common workman, he watches at the factory and sifts such labor troubles as he finds to the very bottom. He finds that not his father but the foreman of the factory, a mere salaried employee, is responsible for the feeling of unrest that prevails. Upon the discharge of the foreman, the wheels commence to run smoothly. A stirring 'strike' and a pretty love affair do much to make the picture the success that it is."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, July 9, 1910:

"Hal Stephens, a wealthy young man, devotes all his time to enjoying himself, thereby earns the disapproval of his staid old father. The elder Stephen sees the young man start off on an auto trip with some gay friends, and decides to call a halt. He notifies his son by telegram that it is time he went to work, and presents him with the factory. This arouses the merriment of his friends, but Hal declares that he will buckle down and go to work. He tells his father, however, that he desires to start incognito, and the father consents.

"Hal enters the factory and goes to work as an ordinary laborer, his identity being unknown to all. He meets Lou, a young working girl, and falls in love with her. The manager of the place, one Conners, tries to make love to Lou, and Hal protects her. There is an order put up reducing salaries 10%, and Lou induces the others to strike rather than to submit. The strikers, starved out, finally return to work, with the exception of Lou, who is defiant to the end. Hal finds her weeping on the steps of her home and tells her of his love. She agrees to marry him. After she has accepted him, he leads her to the factory, announces his identity, assumes possession, and restores wages to the old scale, after having discharged the rogue Conners."

Note: This synopsis was reprinted verbatim in Thanhouser's advertisement in the same issue of The Moving Picture World.

REVIEW by Walton, The Moving Picture News, August 20, 1910:

"This film strikes home. It's human. We are glad, delighted, to see a young fellow who is leading a useless life go to work. It's good to find one who wallows in champagne leave his frivolous companions - 'cut it all out' - and go into labor amongst the people - the common unknowns who, by the sweat of their brow, make the money to buy the champagne, autos, and other 'necessities' of a wasteful life.

"Once amongst the people, he finds a brave, true-hearted girl such as he had never seen before. The situation has been lived in New York City. The strike and its miseries are not forgotten. Whoever arranged the story had a big, tender heart and knew what appeals to the masses. The glee with which the superintendent's discomfiture was hailed by the audience spoke volumes. We wish some of the pictures were not quite so vividly black and white. Mayhap the tenseness of the situation hit the cameraman. Be that as it may, one thing is certain - there is no melodrama, but scenes out of real life. Unfortunately the starvation end does not always have the right man to straighten things out. You struck the right note here, Thanhouser folk. You tell whereof we know. Preach to us! Talk to us like this and we, with the audience, will sit at your feet - gladly."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, July 26, 1910:

"One of those pictures which thrill one despite their improbability. It may go in stories but never in fact, that an owner of a factory marries one of his girl employees, and a strike leader at that; but even though that is true, one cannot but feel a thrill of pleasure to see this dramatic story work out to its conclusion. Of dime novel order, melodramatic in all the rest, it is interesting because it represents a final triumph of sturdy human qualities."

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