Volume II: Filmography

NOBODY LOVES A FAT WOMAN

August 15, 1911 (Tuesday)

Length: 1,000 feet

Character: Comedy

ADVERTISEMENT, Moving Picture World, August 12, 1911:

"Whether this actually or always applies is a debatable point, but after seeing the picture can see why our fat lady felt it did. Poor Fatty! No one had any use for her, she figured. But she was wrong. Somebody had. But it wasn't Jack, our hero. He had use for just one other girl in the entire world. So he naturally had no eyes for Fatty, even though she was worth $50,000 to him. This, with a few real, funny misfortunes, decided her in the view that furnishes the title."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, August 12, 1911:

"Jack Darcy finds it is hard to make a living in a great city, no matter what certain rich men may say, and is naturally overjoyed to receive word that he has inherited $50,000, left by a great uncle, who had severely neglected him in life. There is only one unpleasant string attached to the gift. To win it, Jack must, within one year, wed the daughter of the uncle's friend, a woman he has never met. That condition does not seem so terrible until Jack has met the lady fair. She has a kind face, but she looks like twins. Jack makes a great hit with her; she causes Jack an awful shock. He would have given up the task at once had it not been for the lawyer, who tells him that he has a year to think it over, not to be hasty. Also, one can never tell what a woman will look like in a year, and this lady fair may look even better, and it is certain that any change will be improvement. So Jack, while not committing himself, decides to suspend judgment. The daughter of the uncle's friend does the best she knows how to train down. She wants to be a slim athlete, and goes through torturing training, without result.

"The lawyer, with an amiable desire to get Jack accustomed to the woman, invites both to a house party at his seaside home, and there Jack decides to stop becoming an heir. He sees a young girl who has all the grace he admires in a woman. She is an excellent swimmer, too, and when in a race she easily defeats Jack and several other men, he realizes that even $50,000 is not much money under certain circumstances. And this belief is intensified when he sees the fat girl in a bathing suit, nearly dies of exhaustion on trying to rescue her in deep water. He goes to the lawyer, and firmly informs him that he does not want the money, it can go to a charity or any other old thing. The lawyer questions him, and finds that his mind is made up. Then he produces a codicil to the uncle's will, to be enforced only if the young man refuses to marry the girl. In that case, the uncle says, he admires the boy's manly spirit, applauds him for his refusal to accept dictation - and doubles the legacy. All of which shows that sometimes it pays not to be mercenary, and that virtue is occasionally well paid. But as nobody loves a fat woman, the outcome of the matter did not exactly please the daughter of the friend of Jack's great uncle."

REVIEW, The Billboard, August 19, 1911:

"There is a very clever and interesting little plot running through this story, but the incidental events introduced form the gist of the comedy, and a very good comedy it is. Because of a considerably large dowry incident to the fat woman's wedding, she has a very much younger and more proportionally built suitor than herself. Vanity aroused by the graceful aquatic performance of a goddess of skin and bones, makes her determine to become a diving Venus. Her suitor has tolerated her heretofore, but now he rebels and, ordering the fat woman to 'fade away,' goes after the slender swimmer. Another incident in the plot serves to make it doubling interesting - especially for the suitor; while in many incidents at the seashore and in the water are humorous in the extreme and, as photographed, are possessed of good scenic qualities. A good, wholesome, well played comedy is the best description for the production here."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, August 20, 1911:

"Hilarious is the sort of comedy offered in this photoplay, which relates of the almost-marriage of a handsome young man to a grossly fat woman, all because the youth's uncle had decreed in his will that if the nephew contracted this match he would inherit a good fortune. The film shows some of the experiences the man passes through during his brief engagement. They are invited to a house party at a seaside resort, and here the corpulent one tries to mimic all of the graceful swimming and diving feats of a veritable Venus of the waves. The pictures showing this girl, as well as others, in the water, are entertaining aside from the story and make for novelty in the film. The muchly tried swarm is obliged to flee from his loving though too weighty 'Blossom' - for such she is called - and takes to the water, where he is joined by the nymphlike maiden. A reading of a second letter from the uncle discloses the fact that because of the young man's stamina, as shown in his determination to wed whom he pleases regardless of money or inheritance, the bulk of the old gentleman's fortune is willed to the nephew. Thus does the film end joyously for all save poor big 'Blossom,' and thus it is proven that 'nobody loves a fat woman.'"

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, August 26, 1911:

"This assertion may not be accepted readily or thoroughly. In fact, this picture's great weakness is the sympathy excited by the fat girl who is the unhappy heroine of it. The hero treated her shamefully. His uncle left a will giving him $50,000 if he married her. He tries to love her, but it comes hard; the affection is all the other way. Like a handsome youngster who has not yet grown up to know how not to be a cad he dismisses her brutally after having paid court to her for several weeks at a seaside resort mostly. Some very good pictures of swimming are shown. The swimming adventures of the fat girl are amusing. The story has a German rather than an American flavor. The photography is very good."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, August 23, 1911:

"Unique features of a swimming contest and the like are cleverly worked into this amusing comedy. Billy [sic; the synopsis says Jack] can inherit his uncle's fortune only if he shall marry Blossom, the fat and buxom daughter of his uncle's friend. They go to the seashore, where Billy falls in love with a 'diving Venus.' Blossom attempts to supersede this fairy-like creature of the waves, but her attempts cause Billy to relinquish her forever, fortune and all. Then the solicitor brings forth another note, declaring his legacy doubled because Billy had proven that he had mind of his own."

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