Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 9: 1916 Thanhouser Tidbits

Throughout the month of January numerous tidbits of Thanhouser information appeared in the local papers. The Florida Metropolis reported on January 24th:

Ernest Warde, of the Thanhouser Company, arrived last night with a large company of players. They will remain in this city for some time, making a big picture in which the Baroness DeWitz is featured. Mr. and Mrs. A.C. Grimmer, the parents of George Grimmer, manager of the studio here, arrived yesterday from New York. They expect to spend several months with their son.

The Florida Metropolis carried this item on January 25th:

Director Ernest Warde of the Thanhouser Film Corporation, accompanied by the noted Thanhouser star, the Baroness DeWitz, arrived in the city Sunday from New Rochelle, New York. The company expects to stay here permanently, as the new studio of the Thanhouser people has recently been completed and used daily by their other players. With director Warde is his assistant, Frank Gereghty, and his cameraman, Mr. Bauman.

The Baron DeWitz Note was also in the party as well as the 12-month-old son of the couple. The young baron crossed the Atlantic in December to join his parents in New York and made a great a hit with the passengers on the trip across and was called "The Polar Bear." On arrival in New York the future baron was not only met at the pier by his mother and father, but by a large staff of newspaper and newsweekly Note photographers who had been tipped off by a wireless of the small but noted personage aboard.

The Baroness DeWitz has just completed a three-reel Than-O-Play called The Valkyrie, a Danish fairy legend...some of the scenes of which are to be taken aboard the Langley yacht at Palm Beach.... Others with director Warde's company are Thomas Curran, James Murray, and Gladys Dore. The party was met at the Union Station by George A. Grimmer and W. Ray Johnston, executive of the local Thanhouser studio....

The Sunday Times-Union, January 30, 1916, served up a generous measure of Thanhouser news and gossip:

The quaintest novelty that has yet hit the moving picture industry is the way the titles of the Thanhouser Falstaff comedies alliterate. If anything could give them the face value of comedies, their titles do that trick. Here are a few of them, which were produced under the direction of William A. Howell, the Falstaff director now in Jacksonville: Cousin Clara's Cookbook, Bing-Bang Brothers, The Soap Suds Star, Snowstorm and Sunshine, Perkins' Peace Party, Ambitious Awkward Andy, Maud Muller Modernized, and Theodore's Terrible Thirst.

Lloyd Lonergan is the man at the Thanhouser studio who devises them, and the public has been quick to catch on. The theatre men have taken the opportunity to spring many puns on their audience because of these titles, and in a letter to Mr. Thanhouser one man says 'Long Live Lloyd Lonergan's Linguistic Librettos.'

Director W. Eugene Moore finished during the past week his five-reel feature, The Oval Diamond. Mr. Moore has been at work at this feature ever since the company arrived in Jacksonville December 20. Mr. Moore's next subject is The Water Devil. The cast includes such well known Thanhouser players as Harris Gordon, Louise Bates, Sully Guard, William Burt, Violet Hite, and Barbara Gilroy. George Foster Platt, one of the Thanhouser feature directors, likes Jacksonville so well that he has leased a beautiful bungalow at 2325 Pearl Street for five months. All members of the company attended a housewarming at the new home of Mr. Platt on Wednesday last.

Louise Bates, formerly the Falstaff star, has been transferred to W. Eugene Moore's Thanhouser company. Her first vehicle will be The Water Devil, a five-reel Masterpicture. Co-director Leo Wirth of the Thanhouser Company has established quite a reputation for himself in musical circles in this city. It is rumored that he will shortly devote his time to directing the Hotel Seminole Orchestra. Harris Gordon, the Thanhouser star, was seen hobnobbing with Adam Kessel, president of the New York Motion Picture Keystone-Triangle Company, in the lobby of the Hotel Mason. Wonder if there will be changes in the colony here?

Ray Johnston of the Thanhouser Company has been commissioned by Mr. Moore to cast an alligator for the next feature, The Water Devil. He prefers one with picture experience (not comedy), age no objection. Arthur Bauer, who is the principal 'heavy' of the Thanhouser company, has 86 scenes in Mr. Platt's new picture, The Evil Woman, Note and is supposed to drive a real classy automobile. Not satisfied with the car suggested for the part, Bauer got hold of Mr. George Benson, representative of the Cadillac Company in Jacksonville, and personally purchased a brand new Cadillac Runabout. Bauer believes in having his scenes according to his liking. He can now be seen sailing smoothly along Main Street evenings learning 'how it's done.' Harris Gordon, Louise Bates (Mrs. Harris Gordon), and Barbara Gilroy are to be featured in W. Eugene Moore's next feature, The Water Devil. Don't know which plays the title role. Note

The Sunday Times-Union, January 30, 1916, printed an interview with W. Eugene Moore:

"Jacksonville presents many advantages to the producer of the motion picture," said W.E. Moore to a reporter in the director's offices of the Thanhouser plant on Eighth Street. "The photographic value of the light here is far superior to that of Los Angeles. You will notice in the photodramas produced in the far West a peculiar hardness in the shadows; many times a man's hat will shade and entirely obliterate his eyes and the entire upper portion of his face. This is caused by the lack of moisture in the atmosphere. Moisture diffuses the light and softens the shadows. In California it is sometimes necessary to go directly against photographic rules and face your camera toward the sun in order to avoid these hard shadows, but here, where the humidity is greater, this disadvantage does not exist, making it possible for us to take all day regardless of the position of the sun.

"You also offer us a wider variety of scenery than any other place in America. In my next script, The Water Devil, it is necessary for me to show locations presumably in New York, Southern Mexico, and others in Florida. I have no difficulty in finding the locations, and I have found the people extremely courteous in extending the privilege of using their homes and places of business for this purpose.

"In the North at this time of year we are troubled with that mysterious quality of photography known as static, which renders film in which it appears practically valueless. Many people advance theories as to the cause of this phenomena, but the experts only know that it exists and it is more frequent in cold weather. We find very little trouble with it here." Mr. Moore is himself a native of the South, hailing from Chesterfield, Virginia, Note where he maintains a residence. He has been producing for Thanhouser for the past four years, having been affiliated with Edwin Thanhouser, the president of the company, for the past 13 years, having directed and played the leading roles in Thanhouser's stock company in Milwaukee.... Mr. Moore expects to remain in Jacksonville for some time as he has just started a new story, The Water Devil, featuring Louise Bates, Harris Gordon and Barbara Gilroy. His photographer, Alfred Moses, is considered one of the most expert in his profession, Mr. Moore's assistant, Leo Wirth, has made many friends during his stay. He is very fond of music and has become quite a favorite with the musical set in Jacksonville.