Volume II: Filmography

TWO LITTLE GIRLS

TWO LITTLE GIRLS Advertisement in THE THANHOUSER NEWS. Courtesy of Wallace Worsley, (F-110)

July 21, 1911 (Friday)

Length: 1,000 feet

Character: Drama

Cast: Marie Eline (forlorn, unknown stepsister), Julia Taylor

Note: The release date was given erroneously as July 31, 1911 in a review published in The Billboard.

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, July 15, 1911:

"Two Little Girls is the story of a sacrifice and a restoration - the one sad, the other happy. But that's what life is - sad and happy - bitter and sweet; and Thanhouser stories have made the reputation on their true-to-life qualities. The two little girls who figure so conspicuously are thoroughly lifelike; in fact their coming together was brought about by one of those quick friendships that make life worth living. An easy-going, natural, summer story that is especially welcome on the screen in these 'dog days' when the popular taste is for 'light' film fiction."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, July 15, 1911:

"A young wife, weary in the monotony of her existence, listens to the flattering speeches of a worthless man, and in a moment of weakness elopes, taking her infant with her. But she is speedily disillusioned, for the man for whom she has sacrificed her life turns out to be vicious, idle and ungrateful, and finally leaves her to fight the battle of existence with the world alone. She manages to keep a roof over the head of herself and child for awhile, but when a fire wipes out their home, she gives up in despair. Mother and child tramp away, intending to seek the aid of relatives in the city, but on the road the mother dies. Her last act is to give the child her locket, a gift from the husband in happier days, hoping that it may prove a talisman of fortune for her. In the meantime the husband has secured a divorce and in the course of time, weds again, a second wife being a widow with one child, a little girl. He has prospered financially, and it comes as a shock to him when he hears that his former wife and his child have perished in a fire that destroyed their home.

"The poor little girl, in the course of her wanderings, reaches the city and sees a number of happy, well-dressed children dancing about a May pole. She would have slunk away, but another child, who arrives in an auto, invites her to come in, and forces her to enter the playground. Later, affected by her story, the little girl takes the shabby stranger home with her, confident that the parents who love her will make her life happy for the child who has no one to care for her. Her expectations are realized, for the shabby child turns out to be the daughter of the rich man, and she is welcomed and made to feel that in her new home she has not only fond parents, but a loving sister."

REVIEW, The Billboard, July 22, 1911:

"This is a story with a plot, a new plot and one finely developed. It is enacted in a very clear, concise way and will never fail to hold the interest of even the most indifferent. The two girls are the daughters of the same man by different wives. The first has left him and he has lost track of the daughter entirely, until she is found by the daughter of his second wife in a most extraordinary manner. The two little girls play good parts, the Thanhouser Kid doing some especially fine work, and that when she is all alone in the picture. It is a touching story and well calculated to appeal to the better class of patrons as well as the ordinary."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, July 23, 1911:

"Possibly this photo-play was written around two actual events - the fire (utilized in a previous production) and the children's May party, delightfully pictured, with the tots dancing around their neighborhood pole. The story is interestingly told and is easy to follow, having to do with the marriage of a manly chap to a worthless scatter-brain sort of woman, who elopes with an equally worthless man, who proves false to her. She dies and the child is left alone in the world. In the intervening years the first man has married again, this time to a womanly woman, who proves a loyal wife. She presents him with a second little girl. One day by chance these two little ones meet, and the second girl takes the first to the May party, giving her cake and sweetmeats. Then she takes her to her home, and by a locket she wears, which her father had given her mother years before, she is identified. Of course, this locket business is as old as the hills, but it is excusable herein, for it is the best and the most logical manner of working out the tale. The first child, the clever little regular member of the Thanhouser Company, does some exceedingly precocious work in this picture play, while the other child proves a close second. The elders are commendable and the offering is excellently presented."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, August 5, 1911:

"This is one of the prettiest pictures that has appeared, in this reviewer's estimation, in many a long day. The Thanhouser company is strong on poetical plays with children in important parts and Marie Eline is the little queen of trumps. It is quite impossible to describe the quality which makes Two Little Girls what it is. The Thanhouser Kid is simply wonderful in her portrayal of the unknown stepsister, a pathetic little figure, ragged, weary, almost starved, watching from afar the children's May party and the dance around the maypole. You see, the other, younger sister had found her, made friends with her as children will, and had promised to bring her out a piece of cake. She had a tiny locket about her neck with her father's picture in it. Her father supposed both her and her mother, whom he had divorced, dead. When the other sister comes from the party and takes her home, the locket is a means of identification."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, July 26, 1911:

"John's wife elopes with another man, taking her infant with her. Her lover proves faithless and leaves her. Seven years afterward her home burns down and she seeks refuge in an elderly couple's home, where she dies, giving the locket with her first husband's picture to the child. The little girl runs away on hearing she is to be sent to an asylum. She meets John's daughter by his second wife on her way to a May party. This little girl takes her home, where her identity is discovered, and she is taken into the family. The story is smoothly told and the May party of children introduced is a pleasant diversion."

# # #