Volume I: Narrative History

Chapter 2 (1909 Into the Film Industry): Actors and Actresses

Actors and actresses in the 1909-1910 years were apt to be drawn from the citizenry at large. Muriel Ostriche, who went on to achieve great renown as a film actress with Thanhouser, related that one day in 1911 she was approached on a New York Street by W. Christy Cabanne, who was employed in motion pictures and who invited her to come to the Biograph studio for a screen test. At the time she was a high school girl and had never been before a motion picture camera. Only a few Thanhouser actors and actresses in the early days had appeared in films earlier.

Not just anyone could be an effective motion picture player, however. Dramatic ability was required, and men and women cast in leading parts had to be versatile and athletic as well. Except for youngsters, older people, and those who played certain character parts, motion picture players had to be able to do expertly such things as swim, ride horseback, run, jump, fight, and engage in daredevil tactics. If there is a common thread to the recollections in later years of actors and actresses of this period in motion pictures, it is that their work was fraught with danger and brushes with death and, like a cat, having nine lives helped.

Edwin Thanhouser knew that the stage represented a great pool of talent and, moreover, he had the reputation to attract talent in an era in which many stage players felt that motion pictures were fit only for peep shows and penny arcades. Appearing in such was tantamount to destroying one's reputation, but over a period of time many great figures from the American stage were seen in Thanhouser films.

Anonymity was the rule with players, and publicity and advertising did not identify them. A typical Thanhouser poster of the era gave the name of the company, the title of the film, an artist's rendition of a key scene, and a line or quotation describing the action depicted. Not mentioned were the players, director, or scenario writer. The situation was the same throughout the industry. At Biograph, for example, director D.W. Griffith was not mentioned on posters or in advertising, nor were key players such as Mary Pickford, the Gish sisters, and Blanche Sweet.

It was not until about 1912 that players' names were seen with frequency in the trade press. Dozens of Thanhouser films were shown, reviewed by the press, and seen by the public, all without any publicity given to the players, except on an occasional basis. The first break in the wall of anonymity came in the summer of 1910 in advertising for the film The Two Roses, when young Marie Eline was billed as "The Thanhouser Kid." Other players remained unknown, and perhaps they wanted it that way. However, by the end of the year, Thanhouser was furnishing photographs of players to theatre owners for use in lobby displays.

Even trade reviewers had to guess who was being seen on the screen. Rather than guess wrong, the typical writer of the day simply criticized the acting of a certain role without stating the identity of the player involved. An example is provided by the August 5, 1910 release of The Restoration, reviewed by The New York Dramatic Mirror in its August 13th issue. The reviewer knew the roles but not the names of the Thanhouser players:

A lapse of memory involves the action here, and a chance meeting dissolves it. A man, having been sandbagged, returns to consciousness without a shred of memory. He becomes engaged to the daughter of his benefactor. Meanwhile, his own little daughter, whose mother had died, runs away from the orphanage to which she has been confined, and sets out to find her father. Adopted by her father's fiancée, she succeeds in finding him and restoring his memory. The manifest absurdity of this plot lies in the adoption. No girl just betrothed would ever adopt a runaway orphan. The Thanhouser heroine is a very attractive young lady and always appears to advantage in such congenial roles as this one. The hero also does straightforward and creditable work. In the lesser roles, the servant girl and the heroine's father showed capability.

As Thanhouser films became better known, the reviewers became more informed, and by the next year, 1911, players besides the Thanhouser Kid were mentioned with regularity.

The policy of anonymity changed at many studios when The Motion Picture Story Magazine, which made its debut in 1911, quickly found that gossip about the lives of players was its most popular feature. By 1914, Kraus Manufacturing Company, the American Colortype Company, the Kline Poster Company, and others had flooded the country with postcard portraits of movie personalities. Magazines and newspapers carried film news and reviews, and the "star system" was in full force. Note