Volume II: Filmography

FOOLISH FAT FLORA

Advertisement from Reel Life, December 25, 1915. (F-872)

(Falstaff)

December 30, 1915 (Thursday)

Length: 1 reel (1,030 feet)

Character: Comedy

Scenario: Lloyd F. Lonergan

Cast: Arthur Cunningham (featured player; as Flora), George E. Mack (Flora's husband), Charles Emerson (automobile owner), George T. Welsh (gardener)

Notes: 1. This film was also listed as Foolish, Fat Flora (with comma after first word) in several notices, including in the title to the synopsis published in Reel Life, December 25, 1915. 2. The title was listed erroneously as Foolish Fate Flora in several schedules in The Moving Picture World (e.g., issue of January 22, 1916).

ADVERTISEMENT, Reel Life, December 25, 1915:

"Arthur Cunningham as Flora will floor you."

SYNOPSIS, Reel Life, December 25, 1915:

"Every time Flora tests the scales she finds her weight has increased. At last she drops an Indian club out of the window on the gardener's head. His hose slews around, the stream of water hits Flora's husband, who fights the gardener, the gardener loses a job, and the husband gains a cold - but poor Flora is not deprived of a single fraction of a pound. Flora reads an article explaining that the way to 'shed fat and acquire a figure' is to 'dress on the floor, work on the floor, and eat and sleep on the floor.' Flora has all the furniture moved out of the house. Horrified neighbors have her arrested. At the door of the jail she meets her husband. He is accused of wrecking an auto tire with a plate. Flora's husband proves that it was all the fault of his wife. Nevertheless, both are locked up. Flora rejoices. Prison fare, she has heard, is very bad, and she is happy in the belief that life behind the bars will train her down."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, December 25, 1915:

"This is a take off on the fat woman who tries to grow thin. The comedy is an amusing one and free from vulgarity. Flora, much distressed because of her rapid increase in weight, takes to following advice which she finds in a newspaper, which suggests the use of the floor for eating, sleeping, and the performance of all the daily domestic duties."

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