Volume III: Biographies

REITZ, Al *

Actor, assistant director (1914-1916)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: Albert ("Al") L. Reitz appeared in Thanhouser films from 1914 to 1916.

Biographical Notes: Albert ("Al") L. Reitz appeared in supporting roles in Thanhouser films from 1914 to 1916. His name was usually omitted from publicity. It is believed that a notice about an "Al Reich" in the New Rochelle Pioneer, December 5, 1914, pertained to Al Reitz. This weekly New Rochelle newspaper often misspelled players' names. In New Rochelle city directories he was listed variously as Alex and Albert, and sometimes his last name was misspelled as "Rietz." It was stated in 1911 that he was a collector by profession and lived at 262 Huguenot Street. By 1914 he was listed as an actor and lived at 19 Centre Avenue. By 1915 he had moved to 21 Lincoln Street, where he was also situated in 1916.

The New Rochelle Pioneer, May 22, 1915, told of his preferences: "Al Reitz said he would rather do ten singles that a four-reeler. Al is John Harvey's assistant director, and to assist the human dynamo is some job, because if one isn't on the jump ahead of Harvey all the time, he will find that Mr. Harvey is working at such a speed that he is overlapping, and to have everything ready and waiting, Al had to go without his sleep. He is just about got rested after the heavy work of last week."

After Howard M. Mitchell began work as a Thanhouser director, on July 6, 1915, Reitz became his assistant. The New Rochelle Pioneer, June 3, 1916, announced that Al Reitz was among nearly two dozen important players, directors, and cameramen whose employment was terminated by the studio on Saturday morning, May 27, 1916, as part of an economy move.

The New Rochelle Evening Standard, Mary 15, 1917, printed this news: "Al Reitz, a former Thanhouserite is to again venture on the sea of matrimony. He is now at Glendale, California working with the Kalem Film concern there and met his bride while she was picking lemons in her father's grove, part of which Al and his Kalem constituents were using to stage a movie scene. Her name, Al tells Benjamin F. Ruskin, clerk to the health board, in a letter received yesterday, is Lora Eyrand, and she lives in that part of the sunny state known as Tropico, although she is a native of Canada and her father owns a large fruit plantation there. All this Al admits in his letter. The marriage ceremony will be performed by Howard M. Mitchell, a former Thanhouserite and member of the Relief Engine Company as best man and Mignon Anderson, a former Thanhouserite as bridesmaid. Morris Foster, Miss Anderson's husband, has consented to attend the ceremony, and Benjamin F. Ruskin and Sidney Bracy, another ex-Thanhouser man who was playing at the Little Playhouse, Mount Vernon, have received invitations, although they hardly plan to grace the affair with their presence."

Thanhouser Filmography:

1914: Beating Back (released by Direct-From-Broadway Features 6-9-1914), Gold (9-15-1914), The Harvest of Regrets (9-27-1914)

1915: The Patriot and the Spy (6-7-1915), Ambition (12-21-1915)

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