Ken Wlaschin and Stephen Bottomore - Moving Picture Fiction of The Silent Era, 1895-1928

Moving Picture Fiction of the Silent Era, 1895-1928
Author(s): Ken Wlaschin and Stephen Bottomore

Source: Film History, Vol. 20, No. 2, Moving Picture Fiction (2008), pp. 217-260
Published by: Indiana University Press
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Film History, Volume 20, pp. 217-260,2008. Copyright ? John Libbey Publishing
ISSN: 0892-2160. Printed in United States of America
Moving picture fiction of

the silent era, 1895-1928
An annotated bibliography by Ken Wlaschin with Stephen Bottomore
Fiction about (or involving) moving pictures be There have been several previous attempts to
gan to be written almost as soon as writers document film-related fiction, but they have mainly
became aware of the new invention. Early sto limited themselves to American fiction and were pri
ries often involved seeing someone in a news marily concerned with novels. These include: Nancy
film in a theatre, but there were also stories about Brooker-Bowers, The Hollywood Novel and Other
people using cinematograph equipment, or working Novels about Film, 1912-1982 (New York: Garland,
in various sectors of the industry. Much of the early 1985) ; Anthony Slide, The Hollywood Novel, a Critical
fiction was written for children (magazines in Britain, Guide to Over 1200 Works (Jefferson, NO:
books in America) but pulp detective writers also McFarland, 1995); and John Parris Springer, Holly
embraced the theme and the first movie novel was a wood Fictions: The Dream Factory in American Popu
1909 Nick Carter detective story. The Italians, with a lar Literature (Norman, OK: U. of Oklahoma Press,
vibrant early movie industry, were also quick to write 2000). There are also bibliographic works which
fiction about it, including the first movie novella in cover film fiction in other languages, for example,
1907. Franz-Josef Albersmeier, Die Herausforderung des
The number of movie-related stories increased Films an die Franz?sische Literatur (Heidelberg: Carl
greatly in the 1910s when they began to be featured Winter Universit?tsverlag, 1985). These have been
in movie fan magazines like The Pictures in Britain consulted for cross-checking purposes, but most of
and Photoplay in America, and multiplied exponen the works below are described for the first time. Other
tially when large circulation magazines like The Sat scholars have contributed to this project, and we
urday Evening Post and Cosmopolitan found the should especially like to thank Anthony Slide, Richard
genre popular with readers. Brown, Nick Hiley, R.-F. Lack, Richard Koszarski,
This bibliography, with brief annotations, is the Sabine Lenk, Simon Popple, the late George Pratt,
first to survey moving picture fiction of all lengths and Deac Rossell, Andrew Shail, and Ansje Van
types in Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Beusekom.
the USA, with odd entries too from Australia, Bel Illustrations from Ken Wlaschin Collection
gium, Denmark, the Philippines, Poland, the Nether (pages 221, 224, 237, 241, 243, 246, 247, 248, 252,
lands and Switzerland. The work of many authors is 256 [both], 258); Bottomore Collection (pages 218,
represented, including some well-known writers, in 219, 220, 226, 228, 233, 235, 236, 238 [both]; Rich
cluding Gorky, Kipling, A.A. Milne, Eugene O'Neill, ard Koszarski Collection (pages 230, 245).
Sinclair Lewis, Anita Loos, Katherine Mansfield,
Galsworthy, Iba?ez, Pirandello, Evelyn Waugh, Scott Ken Wlaschin is the author of Encyclopedia of Opera
Fitzgerald, Agatha Christie, Earl Stanley Gardner, on Screen, Encyclopedia of Great Movie Stars, Ency
clopedia of American Opera, Faber Book of Movie
and Edgar Wallace.
Verse (with Philip French) and Bluffer's Guide to the
Items are listed in the entries chronologically Cinema. He was director of the BFI's National Film
by year and then within years by author. Nationalities Theatre and London Film Festival from 1969 to 1984,
director of the AFI's National Film Theater and Los
of stories are given in the entry if not obvious from the
Angeles Film Festival from 1986 to 1993 and head of
place of publication; if in English that usually means
AFI's film preservation department from 1994 to 2002.
it is from the US or the UK. We have excluded poems, Email at beachwoodprs@earthlink.net.
fiction which is about television rather than cinema, Stephen Bottomore is a historian specialising in early
and most works which are only partly about cinema. cinema. Email to sbottomore@fastmail.fm_
218 FILM HISTORY Vol. 20 issue 2 (2008) An annotated bibliography by Ken Wlaschin with Stephen Bottomore
1895 Henri van Muyden [Gorgibus], 'Cabotzet ? l'Exposition'

(Swiss short story in Le Papillon, 12 August 1896, p. 130).
Brander Matthews, The Kinetoscope of Time' (Short
M. Cabotzet tells a friend (in slang) about his recent trip
story in Scribner's Magazine, December 1895, pp.
to the Geneva exposition. One of the attractions he
733-44, and Tales of Fantasy and Fact, New York: Harper,
mentions is the cinematograph, which word he finds
1896; reprinted in Spellbound in Darkness, Greenwich,
hard to pronounce.
Ct.: New York Graphic Society, 1973). A man watches
moving pictures of the past through a kinetoscope and
is offered a view of future scenes. He declines. (Note
1897
Anon, 'Seen in an Animatograph' (Short story in The
that W.K.L. Dickson's History of the Kinetograph, Kine
toscope and Kineto-Phonograph was published in 1895.) Funny Wonder, 17 April 1897, pp. 1-2). A detective
investigating a murder goes into an 'animatographe'
show and sees a film, 'Street scene in Edinburgh' which
reveals the suspect at the crime scene at the time of the
murder. The film is shown in court and the suspect found
guilty.
Gabriel Aubray, 'Devant le Cin?matographe' [Section of
'Lettres ? ma Cousine'] (Short story in La Quinzaine, 15
January 1897, pp. 264-280). A fictional diary writer
muses on the new cinematograph as a metaphor for
how our every action may be seen and recorded for
eternity by 'somebody or something' up there.
Oskar Blumethal and Gustav Kadelburg, Hans Hucke
bein (stage play premiered in Berlin, 16 October 1897).
A wife sees her husband kissing a woman in an actuality
filmed at the seaside and is outraged. She later discovers
it was a publicity stunt arranged by the actuality producer.
English version the same year as Number Nine, or, The
Lady of Ostend.
Federico Chueca, Andreis Ru. Villoldo and Enrique P.
Enr?quez, Fotograf?as Animadas, o, El Arca de Noei
[Animated Photographs, or the Chest of No?] (Spanish
musical. Madrid: R. Velasco [or Zozaya], 1897). In the
twelfth scene Don Cine and Don Tele discuss which of
their two inventions is the best (cinema or telephone),
and Don Cine then shows a couple of films. These films
were shot specially for the play, which was staged in
July in a Madrid theatre.
William James Coffin, The Cannibal and the Kine
toscope' (Short story in Bradford Daily Argus, 28 April
1897). Mr. Jones from Orange, New Jersey brings a
Kinetoscope to the kingdom of Cannibalia, and by show
'The Kinetoscope of Time' (1895). First page of story from
ing the King some moving pictures - such as a prize
Scribner's Magazine. fight and a skirt dance - gains his regard and protection.
1896 Dagonet (George R. Sims) - 'Our Detective Story' (Short

story in English newspaper The Referee, 24 January
Anon, 'In the Dark' (Short story in Pick-Me-Up magazine,
1897). A man sees his wife cuddling with another man
16 May 1896). in a newsreel filmed in Spain and is able to get a divorce
Peter Carin, Le Cin?matographe: Monologue Comique using the film as evidence.
(Paris: Librairie G. Baranger fils, 1896). The narrator E. Ensell, 'Lebenden Photographien' (German short
describes how the cinematograph has revealed to the story in Bremer General-Anzeiger, 31 March 1897). Agirl
world his indiscretions with two loose women. loves a young man but her father disapproves; so a film
Maxim Gorky, 'Revenge' (Short story in Nizhny Novogrod is taken of the daughter in the company of the young
Newsletter, Nizhny Novogrod, Russia, 7 July 1896). A man; her father is taken to see it, and he finally realises
prostitute is thrown into despair after watching the 1895 that the couple look good together, and so relents.
Lumi?re film Repas de b?b? which shows the kind of Tom W. Kitchner, The Victimograph' (Short story in The
family life she will never be able to have. Music Hall and Theatre Review, 13 August 1897, p. 7).
Moving picture fiction of the silent era, 1895-1928 ^_ FILM HISTORY Vol 20 Issue 2 (2008) 219
Professor Gullem films scenes of people kissing and in AN IDYLL OF THE CINEMATOGRAPHE.
other compromising situations for his'Victimograph'film B? lire. IJuxhv Mansrogh.
IUmiruitd ly J. Barxak? Dayk.

show, and one humiliated spectatorthen challenges him j
to a fight. The narrator tells us: 'No man's past actions KILE are some people who ment was added to Mark Rolieon's adver
require a course of education tisements in the London dailies?
will bear reproduction, especially when they are brought Wore an idea penetrates to Cinematographic Slid? of private individual*
their brain ; there are others
forward for the amusement of his fellow creatures.' who clutch greedily ?t a dis
taken without their knowledge, and forwarded
wscrctly to any quarter of Urn globe.
(?very wuiie ? ? ret m cae
air, and are institut to realise the service After fifteen years of hard lalionr beneath
H.S. Rogers, 'A Caution to Clerks; or, What the Cinema which it may render to themselves. au Indian sun, John Webb found himself in
ihtk ttotlson belonged to the latter class. the position to fulfil his engagement to item
tograph Did' (Short story in Photographic Life, 14 April He was ? private detective, moderately suc Hay. Fifteen Tears before he had said
cessful in business, jet cherishing a grudge * good-bye" to lhaay in the drawiug-room
1897, pp. 249-250). A wife tires of life with her humble against fate, inasmuch as he found himself
at a constant disadvantage ?8 compared
of the old house at Liverpool, and again in
the cab?because she run down to the gate at
husband and takes up with former friends. One day with his broutera of the
magazine?. ] jords and ladies
husband and wife go to the Empire music hall and see conmiltcd hiui in his office,
bnt showed no disposition
to take him to their social
a film of her with another man, his arm around her. After bosoms ; there was no intel
ligent young gentleman ready
viewing this film, the wife disappears, then a year later to share his midnight jour
an unknown woman is found drowned. neys and play the part of
(UWMtout, freo of charge ;
while, so far from being
pressed to relate his experi
Miguel Zamaco?s, 'Flagrant D?lit' (French short story in ences, his friends yawned
and showed unmistakable
Journal Amusant, 10 July 1897). A man asks a police signs of boredom when he
threatened a recital. Bat, as
commissaire to investigate his possibly unfaithful wife, has been said, Mark Robsou
was a sitarp fellow, and his
and they use a 'cin?matographe perfectionn?' to get day was coming. He stndied
aie newspapers assiduously,
evidence. But ironically the film reveals that the commis digesting the news of the
nations with anundcronrrenb "Slie no down U> the ?uto." *i V ^~
saire's wife also is deceiving her husband. of qnestioniug as to how he
could make any partieular event serve his ?ie lost moment and refused to l>e left be
own ends, which, as orery sensible persou hind?and again on the landing-stage, and
1898 knows, is the only spirit by which a business

man can hope to malee his way in the world.
And suddenly he had a brilliant inspiration.
again?oh, the knell-like sound of that bell !
?when the very last moment had come,
and the tender was abont to retnm to the
The diicmatogruphe was the novelty of the shore. He had leant over the side of the
Anon, 'Cinemat?grafo Sagasta' (Spanish short story Mark
in Robson flocked with the rest; and it
hour ; all the world was flockiug to see it ; vessel gazing at D.iisy as the tender bobl>ed
up and down, und Daisy had held ont her
Diario de L?rida, 23 August 1898, p. 1). This satirical
was while watching the entrance of the Czar
and Czarina into Park that ho suddonly
arms to him with a gesture of longing so
child-like and winsome that he had groaned
clapped his hands together, to die amaze doud, and hiddeu his head iu his hands.
piece imitates a film lecturer's chat to relate the content
ment of the beholders, took up his hat and Fifteen years ago ! And he had written to
of six supposed films about the war in Cuba, depicting rushed hurriedly from the building.
Two days later a large-typed announce
Daisy oik? a week ever since : " My own pre
cious darling!" "Darling Daisy!" "Deawwt
m86
surrenders, bribery and treachery by Spanish officials.
At the end of the story, censorship is imposed when'An'aIdyll of the Cin?matographe' (1898). First page of story from
police officer and four guards, sabres in hand, destroy
Windsor Magazine.
the screen'.
wall. Later the protagonist finds that a gang of criminals
Anon, 'A Silent Witness' (Short story in Ally Sloper's Half
are responsible, projecting a film of the hand for pur
Holiday, 3 December 1898, p. 508). A wife goes to a film
poses of extortion.
show and in a view of a procession sees her husband
pictured with a local barmaid. The humiliated wife leaves Comte d'Osseville, 'Le Cin?matographe: Monologue
him, threatening to sue for divorce. D?di? a Mm. Lumi?re' (French monologue in Bulletin de
Mrs. Henry Mansergh, 'An Idyll of the Cin?matographe' la Soci?t? caennaise de Photographie, 1899, pp.
119-120). The narrator visits a seaside resort with his
(Short story in The Windsor Magazine, February 1898,
illustrated by J. Barnard Davis, pp. 363-68). A woman mother-in-law, who is filmed without her knowledge as
she bathes in the sea. Some months later in a cinema
hires adetectiveto film herfianc? in India who is returning
to England after fifteen years. She is worried he may tograph show they see the film, to the great embarrass
ment of the mother-in-law.
have changed. The detective offers the same service to
the fianc?.
Fernand Meynet and Marie Geffroy, TAuvergnate (French
play (unpublished), 1899). A femme fatale commits a
1899 murder, and an innocent suspect is arrested for the
crime. Fortunately a cinematograph happened to be
Grant Allen,'Hilda Wade: The Episode of the Guide Who
Knew the Country' (Episode Ten of serial in The Strand,filming the scene, and in the final act the film is shown
December 1899, pp. 685-95). An Englishman in Tibet in a courtroom, exonerating the innocent. A film was
creates azoetrope with photographs of Buddhist monks,actually screened during the performance of this play
'a living picture like a cinematograph'. It is turned auto(at Theatre de la R?publique, Paris).
matically by a water wheel in a stream and 'piles up
Walter Herries Pollock, 'The Phantasmatograph' (Short
Karma for all the village'. The monks consider it a 'great
story in Longman's Magazine, May 1899, pp. 58-69). An
and glorious religious invention' and go down on their
knees to it. inventor improves on the cinematograph and develops
away of photographing thought, a 'phantasmatograph.'
A.S. Applebee, The Awful Story of Heley Croft' (Short He demonstrates by creating realistic scenes from
story in Chamber's Journal, May 1899, p. 397). An image Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and Scott's Waverly but
of a sinister hand keeps appearing mysteriously on a dies recreating Gounod's Faust.
220 FILM HISTORY Vol 20 issue 2 (2008) An annotated bibliography by Ken Wlaschin with Stephen Bottomore
Cecil Raleigh, Hearts Are Trumps (Play. 'Printed, not emperor so he can film it to advertise his kinematograph.
published', 1899). An aristocrat, Lord Burford, is secretly It goes wrong and the kinematograph lens gets shot.
filmed dancing with a music hall performer. To his great
embarrassment, the film is then shown in the 'Frivolity 1902
Music Hall'. When the play was performed at Drury Lane George R. Sims, Biographs of Babylon: Life-Pictures of
in the Autumn of 1899, actual films (provided by the London's Moving Scenes (Short stories. London:
Biograph company) were screened. Chatto, 1902). Only one story is directly concerned with
Bab Trebor, 'Biograph Pictures' (Short story in The Owl motion pictures, but the author says all the stories are
Magazine, August 1899). like movies being shown on a screen: 'Because in the
Biograph we watch the human figures pass and repass
1900 and their lips are dumb, because in the "scenes" they
work together to make they are often ignorant of each
George Edward Farrow, The Cinematograph Train' (Se
other's presence, I have called these pictures of Babylon
rial story for children in The Sunday Strand, February to
June 1900). A boy, Bobbie, is thrilled to see a train "Biographs"...
on So much by way of note upon the pro
gramme, that you may read it before the lights go down,
the screen when he goes to the cinema for the first time
and in the darkened house the first of the series of
and then magically finds himself travelling on it to fairy
"Biographs of Babylon" is shown you on the sheet.'
land. He wakes up and realises the whole experience
George
has been a dream. Apart from the framing story there is R. Sims, The Side-Show Pianiste' (Short story
nothing about the cinematograph. Published in book in Biographs of Babylon). A woman plays piano for silent
form in The Cinematograph Train and Other Stories. films at an Earl's Court theatre and an Italian sings Italian
London: R. Brimley Johnson, 1904. songs during the screenings of afilm titled Italian Scenery
and Italian Life. He becomes obsessed with her and is
Maurice Normand, 'Devant le cin?matographe'/ln Front
fired but then shoots her during a performance. She
of the Cinematograph (Short story in L'Illustration, 24
survives but will never again play 'Santa Lucia.'
February 1900; English translation in Soldiers of the
Queen, March 1995, pp. 18-21 ). An Irish woman watches
the Boer War film War in the Transvaal at the Olympia
music hall in Paris and thinks she sees her soldier fianc?
killed. But the battle may have been faked as he is still
alive.
Garrett P. Serviss, The Moon Metal (Science fiction novel.
New York: Harper, 1900). A scientist shows an interna
tional congress a film about the destruction of civilization
on the moon and persuades them to use moon metal
instead of gold as the world's financial standard.
Sutphen Van Tassell, The Cardinal's Rose' (Short story
in Harper's Weekly, 22 September, 6 October, 13 Oct.
29 Oct, 27 Oct, 3 November, 10 Nov, 17 Nov. etc to
December 1900). The hero (in America) happens to see
an actuality film of the Calais mail boat and notices a
theft being committed. By scrutinising a billboard in the
film and by using a lip reader, he works out that the
criminals are in Paris, and sets off from New York to try
and solve the crime.
1901
Anon, In the Biograph (Play. 1901-1903). A vaudeville
sketch adapted from The Lady of Ostend [qv, 1897],
which was performed by Wilfred Clarke and his company
in several different American cities from 1901 to 1903.
W.D. Nesbit, The Cinematographic Cupid' (Short story

in New Orleans Democrat, 6 August 1901, p. 14). Amus
ingly describes a Spanish-American war film and a small
town's reaction to it.
Raymond Rayne, 'Colonel Rankin's Advertisement'

(Short story in The Strand, December 1901, pp. 767-76).
Rankin hires a man to pretend to shoot the German Biographs of Babylon (1902). Book cover, colour.
Moving picture fiction of the silent era, Ijg^l^^^^^^^^^ ,rx.____FH^jjigTOFr^
1903
Rafael Abell?n y G?mez and Luis Constante Moya, El
Fonocromoscop (Musical. Madrid: Velasco, 1903). In
this seven scene play, the first scene represents the front
of a cinematograph show, with an organ, ticket booth,
entrance doors, and placards with seat prices and titles
of the film 'views'. This, the 'Great International Fonocro
moscop', boasts a combined film and phonograph
system.
Herman Babson, 'Jim' (Short story in The Pilgrim, Janu
ary 1903, pp. 13-14+). An old man becomes upset
watching a film about the Spanish-American War, for it
pictures his son whom he knows was killed in the war.
Reprinted in 1909 and 1913 as 'Jim, A Christmas Motion
Picture Story'.
Gelett Burgess and Will Irwin The Picaroons: A San
Francisco Night's Entertainment: Part X: The Biograph
Theatre' (Short story in Pearson's Magazine, November
1903 and The Picaroons, New York: McClure, Phillips &
Company, 1904). Not really a movie story though it is
set in a run-down movie theatre called the Biograph that
has live acts as well as pictures. A visitor pays his dime
but is interested in a performer, not the pictures.
Fran?ois De Nion, 'Le Cin?matographe' (French short
story in Petit Journal suppl?ment illustr?, 18 January
1903, p. 18). John, an Englishman who fought on the
British side in the Boer War, marries Marie, a French
woman. One day they go into a cinema and see a film I ' ' ?ergwini I'ritcliar'l.* *\w *?vk, '1 An '?i* y?n '?vtKi't oh*n$c<'<5 ywtr tnitxi.'" I
of Boer prisoners, and among them Marie is shocked

'Mrs. Bathhurst' (1904). Illustration from Windsor Magazine.
to see her brother who had fought on the Boer side and
then went missing. What's worse, John is depicted obsessed with watching a film titled Home and Friends
commanding a firing squad to execute these prisoners.
fora Tickey in which a woman he knows, a Mrs. Bathurst,
Marie faints.
is seen coming off a train. Then he deserts.
Paul d'lvoi [pseudonym of Paul Deleutre (1856-1915)],
L.W.L, 'A False Friend: A Story of the Cinematograph'
'La Justice du Cin?matographe' (Novel. Paris: G. Fayard,
(Short story in Talking Machine News, February 1904, p.
C.1903). A criminal disguises himself as a police chief
201). Arthur Russell marries his maid, who is a flirt. One
to get away with serious crimes. In a courtroom scene,
day he goes to a music hall with an old friend, Gretton.
tell-tale film images (with sound) establish his guilt. This
A film of a railway platform reveals Gretton and Mrs R in
was part 18 in a 60-part series of novels, Les Lavar?de.
a compromising attitude. Russell collapses with a heart
1904 attack, but the fickle Mrs R leaves Gretton for another
man within a year.
O. Henry, The Vitagraphoscope' (Short story in Cab
Arthur Henry Sarsf ield Ward [later wrote as Sax Rohmer],
bages and Kings, 1904). In the section of the story titled
The Green Spider' (Short story in Pearson's Magazine,
The Vitagraphoscope (Moving Pictures)' there are three
October 1904, pp. 428-35; reprinted in Victorian Tales
plot summaries: The Last Sausage' (a starving artist
gets rich), The Writing on the Sands' (a man andofa Mystery and Detection, Oxford University Press, 1992).
A scientist is apparently killed and eaten by a giant green
woman write words in the sand on a beach at Nice) and
The Wilderness and Thou' (a couple watch an elderly spider on the eve of his announcement of a medical
Indian trim the grass on a grave and then walk away breakthrough, but he had faked his death using a cine
matograph to create the spider image.
close 'for, after all, what is the world at its best but a little
round field of the moving pictures with two walking
together in it?'). 1905
Rudyard Kipling, 'Mrs. Bathhurst' (Short story in The Anon. [William Murray Graydon], The Adventures of
Windsor Magazine, September 1904, with illustrations Gordon Fox, Detective: No. 12 -The Case of the ?1,000
by Victor Prout, pp. 376-86; also in Traffics and Discov
Film' (Short story for boys in The Boys' Friend, 24 June
eries, New York: Doubleday, 1904). A sailor becomes 1905).
222 FILM HISTORY Vol 20 Issue 2 (2008) An annotated bibliography by Ken Wlaschin with Stephen Bottomore
Alfred Benjamin Cooper, 'What a Cyclist Saw in a Cine house depicted in the film, and from this traces the
matograph' (Short story in Lloyd's Weekly News, 26 criminal and his gang to London, and there confronts
November 1905, p. 22). Gilbert Ennerdale's bicycle is them.
stolen by a pair of con-artists. Two months later he goes
to a film show and on screen sees the same pair. He 1907
contacts the police who trace the thieves and arrest Anon, A Fairy Tale of aCinematagraph [sic]' (Short story
them.
in Moving Picture World, 19 October 1907, pp. 522-524).
Bernard Espinasse and Brandon Ellis, A Silent Accuser At Mr. and Mrs. Henry Fisher's house a film camera and
! (Play at Crown Theatre, Peckham, London, July 1905). other apparatus has been found: apparently it was for
A murder is committed one night and Coco Valient is spying on the couple, placed there by a former girlfriend
suspected. But Coco has invented a special cinema of Mr Fisher whom he gave up for his present wife.
tograph that can film in the dark, and in a later court Pedro Ba?os y Fernandez, Jos? Manzano and Francisco
scene the film is shown which unmasks the real mur
de San Felipe, Pel?culas Madrile?as: Sesi?n Cinema
derer, despite the latter firing a pistol at the projector. togr?fica ... (Spanishmusical. Madrid: R. Velasco, 1907).
Stage directions called for a crash of glass as if the A principal character is called 'Cinemat?grafo', there is
projector lens had been shattered, and the screen be discussion of films, and four 'Madrid' films are shown.
I came 'starred', 'as if at that moment the cinematograph
machine had been shattered by the bullet'. Guillaume Apollinaire, 'Un beau film'/A Beautiful Film
(French short story published in Messidor, 23 December
William H. McMasters, 'Misdeeds of Arthur Swain, Polite 1907). A murder is committed so it can be filmed, the
Crook: He Biographs a Bank' (Short story in Sunday first portrayal of a 'snuff film. A parody of M?li?s's film
Herald (Boston), 19 March 1905, magazine section, p.5). Histoire d'un Crime (1906) reconstituting a murder.
A group of criminals pretend to be making a film in the
Gertrude Coleman, 'Girgenti, Italy' (Short story in Views
streets as a ploy to mask a bank robbery.
and Films Index, 2 November 1907, p. 5). A Sicilian
A. MacClure Warnock, The Romance of a Cinema immigrant who runs a food stall in Coney Island, sees a
tograph' (Short story in Novel Magazine, July 1905, pp. sign outside a moving picture theatre for his home town,
523-525). Bernard is in love with Eleanor but one day Girgenti. He pays a nickel and goes in, but the sight of
she mysteriously disappears. Some time later he hap familiar streets, even his own home, pictured on the
pens to see her in a film of the Coronation procession, screen overexcites him; he becomes hysterical and dies
and manages to trace her. They soon get married, and of heart failure.
the first thing they do afterwards is go to a cinematograph
show. Walter L. Cossar, An Unerring Witness' (Short story in
The Show World, 21 December 1907, pp. 60-61). A
1906 motion picture camera records a murder committed by
gypsies, and the film is then shown in a law court, thus
Albert Dam, Meilern de to soer/Between Two Lakes
acquitting an innocent man and condemning the guilty
(Danish novel. Copenhagen, 1906; reprinted 1987outsiders.
by
Forlaget Hovedland). In the section titled 'Living Pic
Gualtiero Fabbri, Al cinemat?grafo [At the Cinema
tures', filmmakers engage in a nasty duel while a roman
tograph] - (Italian novella. Rome: 1907. Reprint edited
tic movie about a love affair is screened in a lakeside
tent. by Sergio Raffaelli for Associazione italiana per le ricer
che di storia del cinema, Rome: 1993). The first movie
Vicente Romero, Jos? Gonzalez Ampuero and Jos? novella, 71 pages featuring a young intellectual who
Rafart, Su Majestad El Cine [His Majesty the Cinema] describes the movies (including the 1905 epic La presa
(Spanish musical. Madrid: A. Marzo, 1906). No details di Roma) and audiences in a Roman cinema he attends
of plot. regularly. He is attracted to a woman he meets there.
Ivan Strannik, 'Le Cin?matographe' (French short story James Huneker, The Magic Lantern' (Short story in
in Le Figaro, 4 February 1906). A Russian soldier wit Century Magazine, July 1907, pp. 417-421). An Arab
nesses a man being bayoneted during the Russo-Japa warrior in the desert uses a kind of magic lantern to
nese war, and is then haunted by visions of the dead project phantom warriors to confuse his British foes. The
man whenever he sees war news films. This visual British become demoralised and are then easy prey for
reminder of a traumatic event from his past eventually real-life Arab soldiers.
sends him mad.
Jer?nimo Jim?nez, Guillermo Perr?n y Vico and Miguel
I Lawrence White Jr. [publishing house pseudonym], de Palacios Brugeras, Cinemat?grafo Nacional (Spanish
| Tracked across Europe; or, the Clue of the Moving musical. Madrid: Sociedad an?nima Casa Dot?sio,
Pictures: A Story of Gordon Keith, Detective' (Short story 1907). The Congreso de los Diputados, a government
in Brave and Bold, Street and Smith, 28 July 1906). A building in Madrid, is transformed into a movie palace
detective sees a film in a Paris caf?-chantant which called the Cinemat?grafo Nacional for satirical pur
shows a criminal whom he is seeking. He locates the poses. The cinema organ is decorated with the faces of
Moving picture fiction of the silent era, 1895-1928 FILM HISTORY Vol. 20 Issue 2 (2008) 223
politicians and seductive women dressed like film reels Penny Illustrated Paper, 15 February 1908, pp. 12-13).
sing about the attractiveness of cinema. This is actually A man calling himself Christofenof?) comes to see the
an anti-cinema work that intends to show that films are action-oriented solicitor Barr, wanting a film to be taken
bad for society. of a certain 'spectacle', which it emerges will be an attack
on a visiting sovereign (an ally of Britain). Barr manages
Ram?n L?pez-Montenegro, Al Cine! [To the Movie Show]
to prevent the attack, and has C's henchmen arrested
(Spanish musical. Madrid R. Velasco, 1907). The action
in the act.
takes place in a cinema theatre, 'una barraca-cine
mat?grafo' (the playscript has a diagram of this), and Pierre Souvestre, 'De Derri?re la Crois?e' (French short
stage directions suggest that the film show be simulated story in Phono-Cin?-Gazette, 15 October 1908, pp.
using a magic lantern, or with real screen movies if the 758-759). An old lady, Mme Trunne, sees strange go
theatre 'has the capacity for if. One character is a lecturer ings-on in her neighbourhood. The malefactors are
who comments on the films. arrested, but they explain to the police that they are just
'honest actors' who were playing scenes for a film.
Laura Bogue Luffmann, 'Seen in the Biograph' (Short
story in The Red Kangaroo and Other Australian Short Adrien V?ly, 'Le Cin?matographe' (French short story in
Stories. Sydney: J. Fairfax & Sons, 1907, pp.232-238). Le Sourire, 8 February 1908). Two men and a pretty girl
A girl in England is attracted to Australia after seeing go to a cinematograph show. As the films are shown,
'biograph' scenes of farming in the distant country. She one of the men sneaks his arm around the girl, only to
emigrates, and in the new land falls for a local man, later find another man's arm around her already. Later he
realizing that it was he who was featured in the biograph accuses his friend of being the rival, but the latter denies
scenes of farming. it, leaving open the possibility of a third man !
1908 1909
Sidney Drew, The Rival Cinematographists' (Serial novel Anon, The Secret of the Cinematograph' [in series,
for boys in The Boys' Friend, 12 December 1908 - 10 'Secrets of Great Cities']' (Serial story in The Boys'Friend,
April 1909: approx 18 episodes 1908-1909). While film 9 October 1909, p. 301). A villain schemes to film anew
ing in the jungle, the heroes, Roy Maitland, George Dane
kind of lace-machine, in a criminal attempt at industrial
and cameraman Dan Dowser, have to deal with their espionage. He manages to film the machine, but a heroic
unscrupulous rivals, led by the wicked Spaniard, Gonprojectionist hears of the plot, involves the police, and
zalvo Perez. This story was reprinted (and revised?) inmanages to set the films alight.
1915 in The Marvel, and in Boys' Friend Library series,
Auguste Emile Bergerat, 'Le Crime du Moulin au Moulin
1916. The latter book cover shows a cinematographer
du Crime' (Short story in Contes de Caliban. Paris:
filming tigers that are fighting.
Charpentier, 1909). A crime seems to be progress, but
Jean Giraudoux, Au Cin?ma' (French short story in Le then it emerges that it is an acted crime, for a film is
Matin, 14 December 1908, p. 4). Jacques gets work as being made at that moment.
a circus cyclist in America, while his lover Marguerite
Nick Carter (Frederic Van Rensselaer Dey), The Man in
stays in France. One day she sees a film of him perform
the Biograph; or, Nick Carter's Nearest Approach to
ing his act, and alarmingly he then takes a bad fall. Later
she learns with relief from a letter that he did this as Error'
a (Short story in New Nick Carter Weekly, 30 January
stunt for the cinema. 1909). A pick-pocketing incident is revealed in a film
view of a street. Though it turns out that the film was a
George Hibbard, 'Alarums and Excursions' (Short story drama, the pickpocket was real, robbing his victim as
in Munsey's Magazine, July 1908, pp. 511-518). A girlthe actors were performing.
sees a strange battle taking place in the rural fields of
Nicholas Carter and Chickering Carter, The Moving-Pic
her home town of Clovertop. This turns out to be a
ture Mystery; or, Nick Carter's Blindest Trail' (Short story
'kinetoscope' fake, supervised by a war correspondent
in New Nick Carter Weekly, 13 February 1909). Actors
who has witnessed the war in person. Romance blooms
are being abducted while filming, and Nick Carter is
between the couple.
called in to find and rescue them, with great success.
Karol Irzykowski, A Man in Front of the Lens (Polish
Nick Carter (publishing house name used by Frederic
one-act play. 1908). The main character is a 'cinema
van Rensselaer Dey), Shown on the Screen or The Moving
tographic genius', Aron Ithaker. Irzykowski was also an
Picture Mystery - Crime novel. New Magnet Library No.
important early film theorist. His major works include
1260. New York: Street & Smith, 1909). The first movie
Death of the Cinematograph: A Pioneer Theory of Film
novel, 320 pages in 30 chapters. Detective Nick Carter
Sound (1913) and The Tenth Muse: Aesthetic Consid
solves two connected cases involving moving pictures.
erations of Cinema as a Work of Film and Literary Theory
In the first a young man is seen in a film of a street scene
(1924).
picking pockets and his reformed pickpocket father is
Henry T. Johnson, The Adventures of Brandon Barr, horrified. Nick discovers that the son is an actor asked
Solicitor'. Episode 15, 'A Plot That Failed' (Short story in by his film company to play a pickpocket in the movie.
plans to film a shooting incident, and eventually man

ages it, though in desperate circumstances.
B.M. Bower (pseudonym of Bertha Muzzy Bower Cowan
Sinclair), 'Like a Knight of Old' (Short story in The Popular
Magazine, 15 August 1910). A cowboy named Percival
gallantly rides to the rescue when he sees a movie crew
staging a gunfight he thinks is real. Filmed in 1916 as A
Modern Knight with Art Accord as the gallant knight.
Charles Dormier [or Dornier?], 'Le Cin?matographe'

(French short story in Le Penseur, February 1910, pp.
56-60). A travelling cinema show visits a village, and the
films include one set in the American west, depicting a
man stealing a bag of gold, who is then chased and
hanged. An old woman is in the audience and recognizes
her son (who went to America to make his fortune) as
the thief. She dies from the shock.
Stanley J. Fay, The Punishment That Fitted the Crime'

(Short story in Punch, 10 August 1910, p. 106). An actor
overly fond of self publicity is sentenced in court to "seven
days' cinematograph", which he discovers means being
filmed in his most intimate moments, and the films then
exhibited. He wakes - it has all been a dream.
George Grossmith, 'Hullo, London' (Musical at Empire

Theatre, London, 1910.). Topical musical revue, with a
stage set representing a picture palace, and plot refer
ences to film.
Shown on the Screen (1909). Book cover, colour.
S. Clarke Hook, The Celestial Cinematograph Company
In the second case the same actor is kidnapped with an (Novelette serialized in The Pluck Library in 1910). The
actress while they are making a film about a kidnapping. Celestial Cinematograph Company' (20 & 27August);
Nick rescues them and finds out that she is heir to a 'Ra, Rob & Robert's New Picture' (3 September); The
fortune. Rubber-Faced Man's Contract' (10 September); 'Ra,
Rob & Robert's New Drama' (17 September); 'A Costly
Gilbert Parker Coleman, 'A Strange Witness' (Short story Cinematograph Picture' (24 September).
in Green Book Album, January 1909, pp. 179-186).
Rafferty is on trial for murder, and things look black until Rupert Hughes, The Great Cinematographic Crime'
his lawyer obtains a film which shows that the victim (Short story. New York, 1910). A film crew working on
killed himself. Rafferty is acquitted, but in a twist to the location is actually a group of criminals in disguise.
story, it later emerges that the film was faked and that Jarro (Giulio Piccini) - Le novelle del cinemat?grafo
Rafferty did indeed kill the man: but it was an accident, [Cinematograph Stories] - (Italian short stories.
and anyway he can't be tried twice for same offence. Florence: Bemporad, 1910). Five tales of the cinema,
four told as mysteries: 'Al cinemat?grafo: un delitt? in
1910 un baule' (At the Cinematograph: A Crime in the Trunk);
Anon, The Harbottlograph' (Short story in Answers,'Nuovi
5 quadri cinematografici' (New Cinematographic
Scenes);'Un lettera perduta al cinemat?grafo' (A Letter
January 1910, p. 340). Harbottle hears that cinema
Lost at the Cinematograph); 'Cinematografisti fra i can
theatres are the coming thing, so he decides to open
his own. But he shows unpopular films and is an incom nibali: o come si pu? diventar milionari al cinemat?grafo'
(Cinematographists Among the Cannibals: or How One
petent lecturer: the audience rises in anger, wrecks and
loots the theatre, and belabors Harbottle. Can Become a Millionaire at the Cinematograph); and
'II mistero del manoscritto' (The Mystery of the Manu
Anon, 'A Motion Picture Bug' (Short story in Film Index,
script).
29 January 1910, p. 20). A man is mysteriously filmed
Anita Loos, The Moving Pictures of Blinkville' (Short story
wherever he goes, and this constant intrusion brings him
in Moving Picture News, 9 July 1910, pp. 5-6). As a ploy
to the brink of despair and threatens to disrupt his
to drum up business for their failing film show, Curley
marriage.
and Frank pretend to take shots of local people. A huge
Edwin Bliss, The Marksman' (Short story in The Popular
crowd gathers that evening and they show an old parade
Magazine, 1 June 1910, pp. 60-76). The Sparks Film Co.film, pretending it's the locally taken reel. The audience
is taken in, and speculators offer the manager big money the screen husband, but relatives of his wife gang up on
to sell the film and the well-patronised theatre. him and defeat his plans.
James Oppenheim, 'Saturday Night' (Short story in Pay
1911 Envelopes; Tales of the Mill, the Mine and the City Street.
Anon, 'Daddy Matthews' (Short story in Picture Theatre New York: B.W. Huebsch, 1911, pp.65-87). Lilith, mid
News, 20 December 1911, pp. 5-6). An old man sees a dle-aged and still living with her mother, finds out that
film for the first time: the excitement is too much for him an old flame, Henry, is now playing piano at the 'Nico
and he dies. land' Theatre. She goes there and sits through the films
several times till closing time, then goes to say hello...
Anon, Adventures of a Cinematograph Actor' (Serial
novel in Fun and Fiction from 11 November 1911 to June but in the intervening years Henry has changed, and
become a cynical alcoholic... Lilith goes home to her
1912). About Harry Dangerfield, who as well as being a mother.
cinematograph actor is also an action hero who under
takes risky missions anywhere, at any time. J.G. Peede, Tootles and the Motion Pictures' (Short
story in Green Book Album, December 1911, pp.
Edwin Bliss, 'In the Service of the Film' (Short story in
1327-1332). Tootles, a film star, is attacked by leopards
The Popular Magazine, 15 April 1911, pp. 160-172).
while filming a scene, but is saved by the timely action
Cameraman Whipple is commissioned to film a lynching
of the cowboys on set.
in Arizona, but the lynched man is freed before he can
be hanged. Whipple as filmmaker has apparently failed... W. Pett Ridge, 'Moving Pictures' (Short story in Table
except he reveals at the end that he had a higher aim, d'Hote, London: Hodder, 1911). A man pays to enter a
for he himself helped to free the condemned man. dark room and watch moving pictures of the past, future
and present. There is no indication of how the pictures
Alphonse Courlander, 'Romantic Lucy' (Short story in
are created though a pipe is involved.
London Opinion Summer Annual, approx May 1911, pp.
93-95). A girl is infatuated with a handsome leading Max Rittenberg, 'Bioscope Brigands' (Short story in
man, and so loses interest in her boyfriend. But then the Weekly Tale-Teller, 11 January 1911). Described in an
boyfriend takes her to see a film in which this actor plays advertisement as An adventure of the inimitable Mr.
a villain, and her passion for her screen idol is promptly Banyard.'
extinguished. Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain, Juve Contre Fan
Andr? Couvreur, 'La Faillite de la Science' (French short tomas (French novel. 1911). A film-related sub-plot oc
story in Cin?-Journal, 3 June 1911, pp. 17-18). A scientist curs in chapter 25: Inspector Juve and journalist Jerome
is engaged to the daughter of a millionaire. But the day Fandor come across an armed bandit in the street and
before the wedding they go to a film show, and the Juve shoots him, but it turns out that the wounded man
movies include shots of bacteria - hugely enlarged on is an innocent actor, Bonardin, whom the arch-criminal
screen - which were filmed in his lab. She is disgusted Fantomas had forced to pose for a supposed film.
with his work and cancels the wedding.
Karl Hans Strobl, 'Die Tochter Der Rothaut' (German
R.D.Crombie, 'From the Brink' (Short story in The Modern short story in Licht-Bild-B?hne, 25 February 1911, pp. 4,
Man, 29 July 1911, p. 3). Aman meets a young woman 6). In Wyoming a man has what seems to be a real-life
in a film show in central London. She asks him home adventure among American Indians, but finally he no
(it's clear that she's a prostitute) and he comes as far tices that afilm camera is trained on the action. He meets
as her door, then tells her he wants to help her escape the director, who states confidently that The Daughter
from her immoral life. of the Redskin' will be a great film.
Lloyd Kenyon Jones, The Metamorphosed Bi-Focal Michael White, 'In League with the Queen of Afghanistan'
Drama' (Short story in Green Book Album, July 1911, pp. (Short story in Green Book Album, May 1911, pp.
191 -199). The hero of the story invents a movie camera 1061 -1068). Dick illicitly enters cinema-starved Afghani
(capable of stereoscopy and colour), and happens to stan, aiming to show films to the Amir. He puts on his
film two men whom the police then recognise on screen show, but one of the films includes a scene of Americans
as counterfeiters. dismantling a statue of King George III, and this causes
a diplomatic incident, with the British and US authorities
A.A. Milne, The Diary of a Cinema Actor' (Short short
paying him to leave the country.
story in Punch, 25 October 1911, p. 294). A failed stage
actor starts a new career with the Grand Auto-Bio-Cine
matograph Company but finds it dangerous. He quits
1912
when asked to star in the film Gored by Wild Bisons. Phebe Albany, The Cinematograph and Cecily' (short
short story in The Bioscope, 13 June 1912, p. 797). About
Tom P. Morgan, 'Hefty Mitchell's Offence' (Short story
lovers quarrelling and then meeting again in their favour
in Puck, 23 August 1911). A hen-pecked husband, Amos,
ite cinema.
sees a film of a husband in a similar situation who gets
his own back on his wife. Amos tries to do the same as Anon, The Breaker of Hearts' (Episode of series The
December 1912, p. 9). To hide the affair he is having, a

man tells his wife that he goes away on business. Then
he and his wife go to the Palace Theatre and in the
programme is a film of Henley in which he is depicted
in a boat with his mistress. The story ends inconclusively.
Anon, 'Mr. Chivers' Aunt: A Moving Picture Story' (Short

story in The Bioscope, 1 August 1912, pp. 309/311). A
man has to have films taken of himself in order that his
aunt can keep track of him.
Anon. [William Alan Williamson], The Case of the Cine
matograph Actor'. (Crime novel in The Union Jack #
430, 6 January 1912). A cinema-related adventure of
series-detective Sexton Blake.
Victor Appleton (Stratemeyer syndicate house name),

Tom Swift & His Wizard Camera or Thrilling Adventures
while Taking Moving Pictures. (Novel for boys. New York:
Grosset & Dunlap, 1912). The first American movie novel.
Tom Swift invents a movie camera that takes pictures
automatically. He is hired to film events around the world
and has many adventures.
Rudolf Bernauer and Rudolph Schanzer, Filmzauber
[Film Magic] - (German operetta libretto. Munich: Drei
Masken-Verlag. Staged in Berlin 19 October 1912; li
bretto copyrighted in 1913.). A runaway aristocrat gets
involved with a film company making a movie about
Napoleon. This was the first stage musical with a motion
picture theme.
Mrs. H. J. Bickle, 'Love and the Bioscope: A Heart-Thrill
ing Story of a Deserted Bride' (Short story in Golden
Stories, 8 June 1912, pp. 705-19). A woman sees her
tOU HAD THE CAMERA GOIXG AGA??? ?OW,-~^1? 193p?
/**? JSW* and His Wizard Camera long-lost lover on the cinematograph screen. The maga
zine cover shows her staring in astonishment at the
Tom Swift and His Wizard Camera (1912). Frontispiece. screen.
Sign of the Twisted Tooth' in Fun and Fiction, 15 June Stacey Blake, 'Mightier Than the Sword: How the Solo
1912, pp. 213-215). Violet is seduced by the unscrupu mon Islanders Were Beaten by the Cinematograph'
lous Stavely but then learns he is already married. She (Short story in London Magazine, December 1912, pp.
later meets a good man, Stewart, but Stavely still wants 502-510). An attack on a ship by a group of native
her, and discredits Stewart by hiring an actor to play him islanders is foiled by the protagonists managing to
in a film romancing another girl. A benevolent organisa project a film of another ship-based battle.
tion, The Twisted Tooth', forces Stavely to confess Sybil Clare, 7ir?e Face in the Film (Novelette serialized in
everything to Violet and he is last seen heading to The Pictures, 1912).
Canada in disgrace.
E.J. Edgar, The Boys of the Old Brigade' (Short story in
Anon, 'Freddy's Ruse' (Short story in The Bioscope, 26 The Bioscope, 12 December 1912, pp. 773/774). A lonely
September 1912, pp. 967/969). A story about an uncle old caretaker goes into a cinema for the first time, and
who gets the wrong idea from seeing a film of someone on screen there happens to be a war film depicting a
in a similar situation to his own, for the movie depicts a battle in which he fought. He is transfixed, even crying
skinflint uncle and a deserving nephew. out at one point. Afterwards he meets an old soldier
Anon, French short stories published in l'Echo du cin friend outside, who invites him to join his family for
ema, 1912. 'Kiko I: Empereur' (26 April, p.5): a man Christmas... and offers also to help him find a better life.
working in the film-industry who later becomes a king. E.J. Edgar, The Uplifting of John' (Short story in The
'LaGeste'(10May, p.1): acouple who find newromance Bioscope, 31 October 1912, pp. 327/329). A drunk goes
in their relationship through going to the cinema. 'Le into cinema and sees films of microscopic life in huge
Pass?' (7 June, p.1?): a reminder of loved ones through close-up, and as a result decides to abandon drinking.
seeing a film.
E.J. Edgar, The Living Picture' (Short story in The
Anon, 'A Living Picture' (Short story in London Mail, 28 Bioscope, 5 September 1912, pp. 715/717). A couple
watch a film of a horserace, but then he is seen in the between a giant scorpion and a praying mantis. After a
film - at the race-course with two other girls. time they come off the screen and attack the audience.
F. Howel Evans, The Cinema Girl #1 - The Mean White' When the scorpion attacks the man, he wakes up.
(Short story in Cassell's Saturday Journal, 18 May 1912). Edgar Pfahler, The Film's First Aid' (Short story in Top
Notch, 15 November 1912).
F. Howel Evans, The Film That Was Destroyed' (Short
story for boys in Chums, 17 February 1912). Epes Winthrop Sargent, 'Evadne and the New Director'
(Short story in Green Book Album, March 1912). The
Julius Grinnell Furthmann, 'Oh Henry Charles !' (Short
problems of working with Evadne, a child star.
story in Green Book Album, October 1912, pp. 658-662).
A love story, set in the motion picture distribution busi Epes W. Sargent, A Motion Picture Hero' (Short story in
ness. Green Book Album, August 1912, pp. 261-265). An actor
forced to leave the stage for lack of a good voice moves
Montague Glass, The Moving Picture Writes' (Short
to filmmaking, but is scarred in a studio fire. The incident
story in The Saturday Evening Post, 6 January 1912, and
has one positive outcome, for at last he realises that he
in Competitive Nephew, New York: Doubleday, 1915). A
should play character parts, not matinee idol roles.
Jewish businessman, who likes to compare moving
picture plots with real life, does a costly good deed. Epes
He W. Sargent, The Photo Star' (Short story in Green
Book Album, September 1912, pp. 451 -456). A man falls
is reminded of 'a fillum by the name The Return of Enoch
Aarons, where an old feller stands outside on the streetfor a film star, Flossie Florede, only to discover when he
and looks through a winder, and he sees a happy marriedgoes to see her in her studio that she's an absolute
couple mit children sitting in front of a fire'.
shrew.
Ruby Estella Stimson, The Movies (1912). A stage sketch

S.S. Gordon (pseudonym of Gordon Stanley Shaw), The
set in a movie studio, with a leading lady, leading man,
Cinematograph Scouts' (Short story for boys in Chums,
7 December 1912). director, cameraman, etc. It includes a section where a
scene is being shot in studio, complete with mistakes,
Willard Howe, Five stories published in Photoplay maga
retakes, etc.
zine in 1912 showing the merits of moving pictures. In
AnneComelisVeth, 'Het Bioscope Theater' (Dutch short
The Passing of O'Sullivan's Saloon' (March, pp. 45-48),
a moving picture theatre does better business than story.
a One of series, 'De Allerlaatste Avonturen Van Sir
Sherlock Holmes' in Prikkel-idyllen. Bussom: Van
saloon so the saloon's owner turns it into a movie theatre.
Dishoeck, 1912, pp. 1-4). Sherlock Holmes and Watson
In 'How Willie Won' (May, pp. 77-79), a boy wins a school
geography test because of the things he has seen in meet
the a producer and agree reluctantly to have their
moving pictures. In The Saving of Cranberry Center' adventures filmed. The next morning they see their
(June, 78-82), a man saves his village from dying names
by advertised on posters all over town.
opening a moving picture theatre. In The Mind and the
R.A.J. Walling, 'Cupid and the Cinema' (Short story in
Miner' (September, pp. 68-71) a mine owner's sonSunday Chronicle, 17 March 1912, p. 2). A girl is peeved
opens a moving picture theatre despite his father's
when her Navy boyfriend fails to meet her, and so she
opposition and everything improves. In 'What the Picgoes to the cinema with another man. But on screen is
tures Did' (December, pp. 88-91), a financier who dis
a newsreel of military preparations, and she realises the
likes Christmas is changed by seeing moving pictures
boyfriend must have gone to war. Ridden with guilt, she
on Christmas eve and decides to adopt a poor child. walks out of the cinema, leaving her new companion
behind.
Edward Verrall Lucas, London Lavender (Novel. London:
Methuen&Co., 1912). Chapter 12 of this novel is about
Douglas Walshe, The Secret of the Cinema (Novelette
making British westerns: it features a producer whoserialized in Answers Library starting December 1912,
complains that the industry in Britain is not as well
illustrated by W. Taylor). The magazine cover shows a
developed as in America or on the Continent. policeman and a woman watching afilm in which aman's
clothes catch on fire from a blaze he has started.
Georg Okonkowski, Die Elfte Muse/The Eleventh Muse
(Libretto for musical. Premiered in Hamburg in 1912).
1913
Revised by Julius Freund and staged in Berlin in 1913
as Die Kino-K?nigen. Phebe Albany, The Call of the Wild' (Short story in The
Ole Luk-Oie (Ernest Swinton), The Sense of Touch' Bioscope, 8 May 1913, pp. 415/417). Jack returns to
London from America, goes into a cinema and is sur
(Short story in The Strand, December 1912, pp. 620-31,
prised to see a film of himself, shot in California. This
and The Great Tab Dope and Other Stories, Edinburgh:
William Blackwood, 1915). A man goes into a movie makes him long to return there, to his girl, Lucy; and
theatre to see a novelty called 'Life-Repro.' After finally
he he does so, the story tells us.
suffers through normal films, a showman introduces the Anon. [Rowan Hill], 'Romeo to Ragtime' (Mini-screen
new system which includes 'reproductions' with sound, play in Punch, 9 April 1913, pp. 286-87). Romeo and
smell and taste as well as image. The film shows a battle
Juliet re-imagined as a western movie set in Dead Man's
lands and set up a motion picture theatre in the resort

of Seaside Park. They succeed despite a rival's com
petitive theatre. (Reprinted in 1926 in paperback by
Garden City as The Movie Boys at Seaside Park or The
Rival Photo Houses of the Boardwalk.)
The Moving Picture Boys or The Perils of a Great City
Depicted (Novel for boys. New York: Grosset & Dunlap,
1913). First of a series of books about Joe and Blake,
two orphan boys who decide to make movies. They
begin in New York City by helping create a 'moving
picture newspaper' that shows what is happening in the
city, including fires and train wrecks. (Reprinted in 1926
as The Movie Boys on Call or Filming the Perils of a Great
City.)
The Moving Picture Boys in the West or Taking Scenes
Among the Cowboys and Indians (Novel for boys. New
York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1913). The young moviemakers
go to Arizona where theyfilm cowboys and Indians, cattle
stampedes and other western events. (Reprinted in 1926
as The Movie Boys in the Wild West or Stirring Days Among
the Cowboys and Indians.)
The Moving Picture Boys on the Coast or Showing Up
the New Perils of the Deep (Novel for boys. New York:
Grosset & Dunlap, 1913). The young filmmakers are
hired to film sea dramas on the Pacific and Joe finds his
long-lost father near San Diego while filming a sea wreck.
(Reprinted in 1926 as The Movie Boys and the Wreckers
or Facing the Perils of the Deep.)
The Moving Picture Boys in the Jungle or Stirring Times
Among the Wild Animals (Novel for boys. New York:
Grosset & Dunlap, 1913). The boys go with Joe's father
\7%0 Motion Picture Omms* Ffrst Vmturt. _?PagV 123. to Africa to film wild animals and search for his sister.
The Motion Picture Chums'First Venture (1913). Frontispiece.
They rescue her and get wonderful pictures on a safari.
Gully, Ohio, with the Capulets and Montagues as rival (Reprinted in 1926 as The Movie Boys in the Jungle or
ranchers and the dialogue in cowboy lingo. The musical Lively Times Among the Wild Beasts.)
accompaniment is ragtime piano and minstrel songs. The Moving Picture Boys in Earthquake Land or Working
Anon. [Max Rittenberg], The Fallen Star' (Short short Amid Many Perils (Novel for boys. New York: Grosset &
story in Punch, 11 June 1913, pp. 466-67). A cinema Dunlap, 1913). The young filmmakers are sent to a West
actor tells of his fall from stardom as 'Captain Reckless' Indian island to film a volcano and have dangerous
after his face is ruined in a stunt. He becomes a star adventures during the filming. (Reprinted in 1926 as The
again as a comic named Fathead but has another Movie Boys in Earthquake Land or Filming Pictures Amid
ruinous accident. He is reduced to the degradation of Strange Perils.)
writing cinema plays. Bastia and Heuz?, 'Au bout du film' (French musical
Victor Appleton: revue, Paris, 1913). Topical revue set in the film world.
The same pair wrote another review this year: 'De film
The Motion Picture Chums' First Venture or Opening a en aiguille'.
Photo Playhouse in Fairlands (Novel for boys. New York:
Grosset & Dunlap, 1913). First in a series about three William Blair, The Woman Tempter: Wherein the
enterprising boys who open motion picture theatres. Bioscope Plays a Part' (Short story in Pearson's Maga
Their first is in the town of Fairlands and it goes well zine, October 1913, pp. 383-390). A thief is unmasked
by a film.
despite problems caused by enemies. (Reprinted in
1926 in paperback by Garden City as The Movie Boys' Marion Bowlan, Minnie at the Movies (Monologue. Chi
First Showhouse or Fighting for a Foothold in Fairlands) cago: T.S. Denison & Company, 1913). Minnie, a typical
The Motion Picture Chums at Seaside Park or The Rival film spectator, tells us frankly the kind of films she likes
and dislikes.
Photo Theatres of the Boardwalk (novel for boys. New
York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1913). The chums leave Fair Robert Carlton Brown, My Experience as a Film Favorite
Moving picture fiction of the silent era, 1895-1928 FILM HISTORY Vol 20 Issue 2 (2008) 229
(Novel serialized in Photoplay, November 1913, pp. Claims he's acting for a film. It later emerges that the
20-26-April 1914, pp. 103-09). This novel pretends to escapee was a real criminal, the jewel thief Hamilton
be the memoir of a 'well-known photoplay actress' as Cleek.
told to Brown but is undoubtedly fiction. The 'film favorite'
Arnold H?llriegel (pseudonym of Richard A. Bermann),
describes her life as she moves from small town movie
Die Films der Prinzessin FantochefThe Films of Princess
fan to big time movie fame as an actress in New York Fantoche (Novel. Published in Geneva in 1913 and
City. (In the same year Brown published a novelization reprinted by Aviva in Berlin in 2005). Actress/filmmaker
of the serial What Happened to Mary.)
Marie Dupont in the guise of female criminal Princess
Nick Carter (publishing house name used by Samuel C. Fantoche baffles the police of Geneva as her adventures
Spaulding), A Moving Picture Mystery or The Call That are shown as a weekly serial in the local movie theatre.
Was Answered (Crime novel. New Magnet Library, Lon It turns out to be a clever promotion stunt.
don: Street & Smith, 1913). Another adventure of Nick S. Clarke Hook, 'Pete's Picture Palace' (Short story for
Carter.
boys in The Boys' Friend, January 1913).
Sybil Clare, The Spell of the Screen, A Serial Story of Caleb Keenan, The Picture That Saved Bill Mountjoy'
Cinema Life (Novelette serialized in The Pictures, (Short story in Path?'s Cine Journal, 18 October 1913,
1913-1914). A girl runs away from home to seek her pp. 29-30). Bill thinks the girl he loves has been killed
fortune in London in films. She discovers she is the
in a railway accident, but by chance he sees her in a
spitting image of a famous film actress and is asked to film, proving she is alive. Later they are re-united.
impersonate her.
Luis de Larra, Joaqu?n Valverde and Tom?s L?pez Tor
Albert Dorrington, The Wolf-Film' (Short story in London
regrosa, La ?ltima Pel?cula (Spanish musical. Soc. de
Magazine, October 1913, pp. 253-256). A cameraman Autores Espa?oles (or G. Velasco), 1913). A satire of
is so keen to get a shot of a wolf that he endangers his silent cinema. The character Camelo has afilm company
own young child in the attempt. called Camelo y Compa??a which makes films in sound
E.J. Edgar, The Cinema Peacemaker' (Short story in and colour, including a mythological one titled La Danza
The Bioscope, 22 May 1913, pp. 567/569). Two lovers de los Dioses. Several of its films are shown.
quarrel, then independently go to the cinema and see Jose V. Marino, 'Paralelismo' (Philippine short story in
a film of a quarrel between two lovers where the man Renacimiento Filipino, 14 June 1913, pp. 1604-1605). A
ends up leaving for Africa. The house lights come up couple watch a melodramatic film about infidelity. Their
and the couple reunite, brought to their senses by the emotions are stirred, and they can't help but see parallels
film.
with their own lives. (English translation in Philippine
Julius Freund and Georg Okonowski, Kino-K?nigenfThe Short Stories in Spanish, 1989).
Cinema Queen (Libretto for musical with music by Jean John Woodhill Meadows, The Cinema Cub' (Short story
Gilbert. Premiered in Berlin, 8 March 1913. Songs, syn in Weekly Tale-Teller, 29 March 1913, pp. 8-12). Ayoung
opsis and photos published in Jean Gilbert-Album, Ber film cameraman steals a march on his older colleagues
lin: Globus Verlag, 1913). A narrow-minded moralist by filming shots of action in the Balkan Wars, then gets
wants to repress movies but is foiled by a clever film the footage past the censors in the field.
actress.
Lee Pape, The Film Woman' (Short story in People's
Regis Gignoux, 'D?fiez-Vous du Cin?' [in series Contes Ideal Fiction Magazine, December 1913).
sur l'?cran'] (French short story in Le Journal, 26 Decem
ber 1913, p. 7). A couple go to see a film show, which Hal Ravenglass, The Cinematograph Fire' (Short story
includes views of microbes. As the organisms writhe and for boys in Chums, 22 March 1913).
fight on screen, the girl turns to the man and seems to Franz Scott, Die Kino-Prinzess. Geschichte Eines Armen
see his face infected with bacteria. Panic-stricken, she M?dels [The Cinema Princess. Story of a Poor Girl]
rushes out of the show, goes home and locks herself in, (German serial novel. Dresden Mignon-Verl., 1913). A
waiting to be struck down by the illness ... girl is taken up by a professor of acting, who turns her
into a great actress; in the end she debuts in afilm which
Bonnie R. Ginger, The Prodigal Nephew's Aunt' (Short
tells the story of her own life. Published in book form in
story in The Delineator, September 1913, pp. 7-8). An
1914.
unsmiling old lady in a Maine village has never forgiven
her prodigal nephew for leaving her but she goes to the Frank Shaw, 'Backhand's Treasure' (Short story in
picture show every time the program changes. When he Cassell's Saturday Journal, 1 November 1913). While in
returns he wins her over by telling her he has a moving Chile the protagonists go into a cinema and in one of
picture business in Oregon. the films they recognise a suspect, Pendragon, with
other criminals.
Thomas W. Hanshew, Cleek, the Man of the Forty Faces
(Novel. London: Cassell and Co. ,1913). The first chapter Andrew Soutar, 'In the Nick of Time' (Short story in
is cinema-related. A constable sees an escaping crimi Chums, 10 May 1913, pp. 638-639). About the adven
nal and apprehends him, but frees him when the man turous experiences of a film company making British
230 FILM HjSTORY^^ssue2 (2008)^ An armrtata^
Larry Peyton as Montague and Dixie Stratton as Man
ners. A print of this film exists.).
The International Cup' (12 July 1913). Titan Studio boss

wants director Montague to make a picture about polo
to cash in on the publicity around an international com
petition. Montague hires an Englishman who seems to
know about polo.
'Man-Afraid-of-His-Wardrobe' (26 July 1913). A New
York stage star known for playing cowboys is hired by
the studio boss and sent west to star in western movies.
It doesn't work out. (Filmed in 1915 by William Bertram
for Mustang-American with Acord as Buck, Anne Little
as Manners and Larry Peyton as Montague.)
'Water Stuff' (1 November 1913). An old and virtually
derelict sailing ship is used as the set for a movie and it
is such a success that sea stories become the rage. At
one point Buck has to rescue an actress who can't swim.
(Filmed in 1916 by William Bertram for Mustang-Ameri
can with Acord as Buck, Larry Peyton as Montague and
Dixie Stratton as Manners).
'Desert Stuff' (6 December 1913). Producer-director
Montague decides to make a real desert picture with
camels from a circus but a newspaper article about wild
camels causes problems.
The Girl on the Film (1913). Cover of libretto, colour.
George Wolley, The Picture Actress Woman' (Australian
westerns. The story is vividly illustrated on the maga short story in The Photo-Play, 11 January 1913, pp.
zine's cover. 18-19). About a film actress; no further details.
M. Sp., 'Kino-Aufn?hme' (German short story in Lustige 1914

Bl?tter, 1913, p. 10). A tale of criminality and film exhibi
tion. Edward C. Adams, The Lion Hunters: A Story of Wildest
Africa' (Serial novel in The Boys' Journal, 20 June on
James T. Tanner, The Girl on the Film (Libretto for musical
wards, 1914). A filmmaking expedition films tribesmen
with lyrics by Adrian Ross, an adaptation of German
and a variety of dangerous wild beasts. This serial (which
operetta Filmzauber by Rudolf Bernauer and Rudolph
continued for several weeks) was probably influenced
Schanzer, with music by Walter Kollo, Albert Sirmay and
by a genuine African film expedition of this era led by
Willy Bredschneider. London: Chappell, 1913). A run
Hans Schomburgk.
away socialite gets involved in the making of a Napole
onic film. Anon. [R. F. White], The Ideal Film Plot' (Mini-screenplay
in Punch, 25 February 1914, pp. 149-50). A satirical
Guy Thome, [Series of six stories featuring Charles
screenplay titled The Firebrand's Redemption features
Barrett, known as 'Cinema Charlie'] (Serial in Weekly
a cowboy, a woman and a comic involved with Indians,
Tale-Teller, 14 June-19 July 1913). Charlie joins a film
chases, war scenes, airplanes and a happy ending.
production company where he soon becomes the right
hand man of the director, Mr. Cohen. He helps catch Anon, 'With the Slavers: The Making of a Thriller for the
spies by filming them, he survives plots involving filmic Moving-Picture Circuit' (Short story \nPuck, 16 May 1914,
ghosts and madness, and the series ends with Charlie p. 15). A film company is making films about white
taking over the company after Mr Cohen's death, and slavery, until the head office tells them such films aren't
being knighted for his services to Britain. wanted any longer because they're causing legal prob
Charles E. Van Loan, Buck Parvin and the Movies: Stories lems. (Written in the form of a 3 scene drama, with a
'cast' including a writer, director, leading lady, leading
of the Moving Picture Game (Short stories first published
man, and 'camera man').
in The Saturday Evening Post; some reprinted in book
form, New York: George H. Doran, 1915). Anon, (R. F. White), 'A New Art' (Parody in Punch, 28
The Extra Man and the Milkfed Lion' (5 July 1913). An
October 1914, pp. 365-66). Synopsis of a 19-chapter
detective novel titled Love and Diplomacy written in a
extra falls in love with leading lady Myrtle Manners and
tries to rescue her from a lion. He ruins the scene and florid cinematic style.
almost kills the tame lion. (Filmed in 1915 by William Anon, 'A Moving Picture Plot' (Short story in Illustrated
Bertram for Mustang-American with Art Acord as Buck, Bits, 14 November 1914, pp. 3-4, 6). A young woman
is at a loose end until the manager of a movie theatre 23 December 1914, p. 4). Ri dg way wants to play a trick
offers her a job as companion to his film-mad daughter. on the silly, aspirant actresses who audition for films. He
The daughter begins writing a script based on her father writes to one of them at random, offering her a film role,
and this woman becoming betrothed, and sure enough but on meeting her finds that she's actually a sensible
this seems about to happen. girl - and very beautiful.
Victor Appleton: J.S. Cox, 'Love and a Film-Faker: A Humorous Tale of
The Motion Picture Chums on Broadway or the Mystery the Bioscope' (Short story in Pearson's Weekly, 31 Janu
ary 1914, p. 818). Polly Wilson'stwo suitors wantto prove
of the Missing Cash Box (Novel for boys. New York:
themselves to her. One of them has himself filmed as
Grosset & Dunlap, 1914). The chums close their Seaside
he supposedly rescues a drowning man; but the other
Park theatre and open a new one on Broadway in New
suitor goes one better by pretending to be a French film
York City. It goes so well they send a friend to take charge
of their theatre in Fairlands while another friend goes producer and revealing to Polly that the rival's rescue
was faked.
west to open his own theatres. (Reprinted in 1926 as
The Movie Boys on Broadway or the Mystery of the Missing George Allan England, 'Out of the Real' (Munsey's Maga
Cash Box.) zine, January 1914, pp. 730-38). While watching films
'The Motion Picture Chums' Outdoor Exhibition or the at the Gem Opera House in Maine, Elmer Blake falls for
the lead actress in the films of the IXL company. He visits
Film That Solved a Mystery (Novel for boys. New York:
Grosset & Dunlap, 1914). The chums create an open air their impressive studio in New York, but is disappointed
summer movie theatre, the Airdrome,' in Riverside and returns to his home town girl when he finds the
actress aging and no longer pretty.
Grove. A rival film exhibitor tries to sabotage this enter
prise but is unsuccessful and the theatre thrives. (Re Frank Howel Evans, The Picture Girl' (Short story in Royal
printed in 1926 as The Movie Boys' Outdoor Exhibition I Magazine, February 1914, pp. 313-318). Talented ac
or the Film That Solved a Mystery.) tress Effie joins a film company as they shoot films in
The Motion Picture Chums' New Idea or the First Educa 'Fiddleton Park', north London. While making an African
tional Photo Playhouse (Novel for boys. New York: subject, a lion threatens to attack members of the com
pany, but Effie's calm assurance saves the life of a
Grosset & Dunlap, 1914). The chums form a partnership
to make educational films and set up a theatre on Boston previously jealous rival actress.
Common to show them. A rival is foiled in his plans to H.S. Hall, 'When the Indians Came' (Short story in St.
stop them. (Reprinted in 1926 as The Movie Boys' New Nicholas magazine, April 1914, pp. 494-97). Two boys
Idea or the First Educational Photo Playhouse. ) see Indians in the hills but their uncle says Indians left
the area years ago. When he goes with them to look,
Victor Appleton:
they get chased by war-whooping Indians. They turn out
The Moving Picture Boys and the Flood or Perilous Days to be actors in a motion picture. The director complains
on the Mississippi (Novel for boys. New York: Grosset & they messed up his scene.
Dunlap, 1914). The young filmmakers are sent to Han
nibal, Missouri, to film a Mississippi River flood and Ludwig Hamburger, Durch den film/Because of Film
rescue members of a film company trapped in it. They (Novel. Berlin, 1914). The problems of starting a career
in the movies in Germany in 1914.
face perils but succeed on all counts. (Reprinted in 1926
as The Movie Boys and the Flood or Perilous Days on the Glen H. Harris, The Drunkard's Reclamation' (Short
Mississippi.) story in The Bioscope, 16 July 1914, pp. 263/265). Tom
James S. Barcus, The Governor's Boss (Novel & play. Barker is cured of the demon drink by seeing a temper
ance film.
New York, 1914). A crooked political boss is filmed and
recorded as he sets up a scheme to frame an honest Laura Lee Hope (Stratemeyer syndicate house name):
governor. Filmed in 1915 with ex-New York governor
The Moving Picture Girls or First Appearance in Photo
William Sulzer, who was impeached in 1913, as star.
Dramas (Novel for girls. New York: Grosset & Dunlap,
Vivien Barrington, Laura Leonard-Heart Specialist (Nov 1914). First in a series about Ruth and Alice DeVere, the
elette serialized in Photoplay, July 1914, pp. 75-83 - 'moving picture girls,' whose stage actor father has lost
December 1914). Movie star Laura Leonard uses her wit his voice so he has to work in the silent movies. In this
and wiles to connect lovers and solve their heart prob book the girls begin to make 'parlor dramas' with him.
lems. Each episode features a different set of lovers.
The Moving Picture Girls at Oak Farm or Queer Happen
L. Frank Baum, Aunt Jane's Nieces out West (Novel. ings While Taking Rural Plays (Novel for girls. New York:
Chicago: Reilly & Britton, 1914). In the first chapter, Grosset & Dunlap, 1914). The girls and their father join
'Caught by the camera', the two girls see a film being the New York City-based Comet Film Company during
made in the streets, and at first think the action is real. filming at a New Jersey farm and cope with villains
Frederick H.U. Bowman, 'Fate and the Film Actress' seeking treasure.
(Short story in The Film Censor and Exhibitor's Review, The Moving Picture Girls Snowbound or the Proof on the
Film (Novel for girls. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1914). against her, she finally triumphs and marries the leading
The girls and their father travel with the Comet Film male star of the company.
Company to New England to shoot snow and ice scenes
A.A. Milne, 'Mr. Punch's Holiday Film' (Satirical mini
and get caught in a blizzard. The girls use a film to clear
screenplay in Punch, 8 July 1914, pp. 48-50). A movie
their father of charges made in a crooked lawsuit.
is 'gummed together' using bits of discarded film bought
The Moving Picture Girls Under the Palms or Lost in the from a bankrupt company. It is given a connective story
Wilds of Florida. (Novel for girls. New York: Grosset & by a hackwriter that features kidnappings with airplanes,
Dunlap, 1914). The movie girls and their father travel to duels on windmills, lions attacking acrobats, angry alli
Kissimmee in northern Florida to film scenes with alliga gators, hungry sharks and a few vicious mosquitoes.
tors and swamps. They rescue two lost girls.
Carl Quistgaard Muusmann, Filmens Datter; Artistrornan
The Moving Picture Girls at Rocky Ranch or Great Days (Danish novel. Kobenhavn: E. Jespersen, 1914). Novel
Among the Cowboys. (Novel for girls. New York: Grosset about the film world.
& Dunlap, 1914). The movie girls and their father are
Balder Olden, Scharten (Shadows) (German serial novel.
sent West by the Comet company to film western scenes
1914). Freddy sees an actress in afilm drama and falls
with cowboys and Indians. A spy from a rival film com
in love, calling her 'Hilde'. He travels to Denmark to find
pany causes problems.
his beloved, and meets a girl whom he initially thinks is
Jack Hulbert, The Cinema Star (Libretto for English 'his Hilde', but eventually realises is not. Deeply disap
musical with lyrics by Harry Graham. Adaptation of pointed he returns to Berlin, where he finds the real Hilde,
German operetta Kino-K?nigen by George Okonkowski who had coincidentally applied for a job in the house of
and Julius Freund with music by Jean Gilbert. London: one of his friends. (Published as a book, Berlin: C.
Chappell, 1914,36 pages). A moralist tries to get movies Dunker, 1917).
banned but stops after he is compromised by an actress.
Eugene O'Neill, The Movie Man (Play. New London,
F. Tennyson Jesse, 'Cupid and the Cinema' (Short story 1914). This one act comedy was clearly inspired by
in Grand Magazine, September 1914, pp. 381-393). A Pancho Villa's liaisons with film companies in the Mexi
can war. Some of the scenes - e.g. waiting until the
film actress is also a jewel thief, and the jewels she has
stolen are discovered during the filming of a chase cameramen are ready before launching an attack, or
comedy. Set in France. before scheduling an execution - are loosely based on
genuine reported incidents.
Robert Kerr, Loree Starr - Photoplay Idol (Novelette
serialized in Photoplay, February 1914, pp. 87-94-June Edouard Osmont, 'Le Cin?ma Chez les Kwick-Kwick'
1914, pp. 119-25). The rise to fame of a movie star in (French short story in Le Journal, 30 January 1914, p.
New York City. After failing to make it as a stage actor, 7). An explorer, Colonel Entrepierre, goes to central
he begins work as an extra with a movie company and Africa and shows films to a much-feared tribe, the
bluffs his way into leading roles while writing his scenar Kwick-Kwick. The locals are impressed by the actors in
ios. Despite problems with a director's wife, he succeeds the fiction films, but not by real-life people in the news
and marries. films, and so Entrepierre's claim that Poincar? is Presi
Sinclair Lewis, Our Mr. Wrenn: The Romantic Adventures
dent of France is not believed. Accused of lying, the
explorer is slain and eaten.
of a Gentle Man (Novel. New York; London: Harper &
Brothers, 1914). The protagonist, William Wrenn, dreams Henry C. Rowland, The Movie's Man (Novelette publish
of travelling overseas, and as a temporary substitute ed in The Popular Magazine, 1 March 1914).
watches travel films at the Nickelorion Moving-Picture
Henry C. Rowland, The Film Hunters (Novelette publish
Show.
ed in The Popular Magazine, 22 September 1914).
Robert Emmet MacAlarney, All the World's a Fillum'
Maxwell Scott (pseudonym of John William Staniforth),
(Short story in The Popular Magazine, 1 June 1914). No
The Film Detective (Novella serialized in The Boys'Friend,
details of plot.
Amalgamated Press, 25 July-31 October 1914). The
Glen Macdonough, The Oueen of the Movies (Libretto cover for the first episode shows a cinematographer
for musical with lyrics by Edward Paulton and Mac filming an underwater scene inside a glass cage. Nelson
donough. Premiered in New York, 12 January 1914. Lee is the film detective with Nipper as his assistant.
Adaptation of German operetta Kino-Konigen by George
C.L McCluer Stevens, 'Lizerann's Gentleman' (Short
Okonkowski and Julius Freund with music by Jean
story in Royal Magazine, February 1914, pp. 371-374).
Gilbert.) A narrow-minded professor tries to get movies
A mysterious stranger takes an East End child far into
banned but is foiled by an actress.
the countryside. They enter a strange glass building,
Stephen Marlow, 'Polly of the Pictures' (Short story in and she is robed in finery while a man cranks a strange
Tit-Bits Novels, 28 March 1914, pp. 1-25). Polly Field is machine. It's all a mystery to her, but she is well paid.
spotted by a representative of the Jason Motion Picture Back in the Mile End Road a while later she sees a placard
Co. and becomes a film actress. Though a villain plots for a film, A Slum Child in Fairyland', which she goes to
M^^gCjt^re^jon oHh^ ,fc Wfc. ? ? .... ,. w .,. . ,-, FILM HISTORY Vol. 20 Issue 2 (2008) 233
see with her parents, and at last she understands what 1914, p. 162). An old lady who is hostile to cinema, later
happened. realises that for a young couple the cinema might mean
a great deal - offering a chance to escape from their
C. Gordon Thomson, 'Love in the Cinema' (Short story
families for a time, and to be alone.
in Pall Mall Magazine, March 1914, pp. 390-92). Behind
the secluded last row of shilling seats in the Picture Hall R.L. Ward, Through Light to Life: A Real Life Story' (Short
a couple discover each other and then move to more story in Pictures and the Picturegoer, 25 April 1914, pp.
respectable seats up front. 234/236). A little girl living in abject poverty in London is
W. Harold Thomson, The "Pictured" Wife' (Short story obsessed with the story of Cinderella. A film version of
in Pearson's Weekly, 3 January 1914, pp. 734-735). it comes to the neighbourhood and she determines to
Humphrey Clagg, a compulsive liar, tells an acquain see it despite being ill; soon afterwards she dies.
tance, Sadler, that he's married to a film actress, Helen.
Sadler is outraged because he himself is courting the 1915
girl. Later Humphrey admits the lie and Helen backs him
Anon, My Strange Ufe: The Intimate Ufe Story of a Moving
up, but Sadler storms off. Helen then thanks Humphrey,
Picture Actress (Novel. New York: Edward J. Clode, 1915.
because, she explains, Sadler's attentions were unwel
come. 'Illustrated with photographs of America's most famous
motion picture actresses.'). A young actress leaves the
Marchioness Townshend, The Wonderland Cinema'
stage to work in movies in New York and achieves major
stardom. This work pretends to be an anonymous mem
(Short story in Path? Cinema Journal, 3 January 1914,
pp. 23-24). A parody of 'Alice in Wonderland', but with
oir but is undoubtedly fiction, probably written by Clode.
Alice's adventures ending at a picture theatre. (Also known as The Love Story of a Movie Star; or, the
Heart Story of a Woman in Love).
Charles E. Van Loan, Buck Parvin and the Movies (Short
stories first published in The Saturday Evening Post,
Anon, 'Call of the Cinema' (Short story for boys in The
some reprinted in book form, New York: George Gem
H. Ubrary, 30 October 1915). Movie-oriented adven
Doran, 1915). tures of students at St. Jim's from classroom to cinema.
The cover shows a student playing the piano for a silent
'Author, Author' (1 August 1914). The author of a best
film
selling western novel interferes with the shooting of a while the screen shows a couple on a bridge.
film version for which he is 'advisor.' He has to be
frightened off by Indian actor Peter Lone Wolf acting
crazy. (Filmed in 1915 by William Bertram for Mustang/
American with Art Acord as Buck, Larry Peyton as Mon
tague and Big Tree as Peter Lone Wolf.)
'Snow Stuff' (9 September 1914). The new 'general
Western manager' of Titan Studios (he inherited stock)
arrives at a town in the Sierra Nevada where the company
is making an 'Alaskan' movie and makes a nuisance of
himself. He is filmed being a boor and relents. (Filmed
in 1916 by William Bertram for Mustang/American with
Art Acord as Buck, Larry Peyton as Montague and Dixie
Stratton as Manners.)
'Buck's Lady Friend' (14 March 1914). Buck becomes
enamoured of a 189-pound redhead named Georgine.
She claims to be too refined for him after he gets in a
fist fight with a man who flirted with her. (Filmed in 1915
by William Bertram for Mustang/American with Art Acord
as Buck, Larry Peyton as Montague and Sylvia Ashton
as Georgine.)
Charles E. Van Loan, 'For the Pictures' (Short story
published in The Saturday Evening Post, 19 October
1914, and collection Taking the Count, New York: Char
les H. Doran, 1915): A middleweight boxing champion
is paid to fight a rival boxer for a film but is tricked into
losing his championship. He regains it in another fight
for the pictures.
R.L. Ward, 'In the Firelight: A Story of What Might Have

Been' (Short story in Pictures and the Picturegoer, 4 April My Strange Life (1915). Dust wrapper, colour.
I Victor Appleton: I Madrid: Soc. de Autores Espa?oles, 1915). Comic fan

The Motion Picture Chums at the Fair or The Greatest tasy based around French serial Fantomas; two scenes
are set in or outside a cinema.
Film Ever Exhibited (Novel for boys. New York: Grosset
& Dunlap, 1915). The chums go to San Francisco to Laura Lee Hope: The Moving Picture Girls at Sea or A
exhibit films at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibi Pictured Shipwreck that Became Real (Novel for girls.
tion but their films are stolen. They decide instead to New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1915). The movie girls and
make films about the fair. (Reprinted in 1926 as The their actor father travel to the West Indies to shoot a film
Movie Boys at the Big Fair or The Greatest Film Ever about a shipwreck. The acting becomes real when their
Exhibited.) boat sinks.
The Mo ving Picture Boys at Panama or Stirring Adven tures Mrs John Lane, The Cinematograph. According to Ma
Along the Great Canal (Nove I for boys. New York: Grosset ria' (Short story in The Outlook, 27 March 1915, pp.
& Dunlap, 1915). The young moviemakers go to Panama 404-405). The talkative but shallow Maria tells the nar
to film construction of the canal and prevent a villain from rator that she's just seen a film version of 'Hamlet', and
blowing up a dam. (Reprinted in 1926 as The Movie Boys gushingly relates her thrill at experiencing Shakespeare
in Peril or Strenuous Days Along the Panama Canal.) as visuals only, without the boring words.
Edwin Balmer, The Celluloid Hero' (Short story in Every
Fannie Heaslip Lea, The Movie Girl and Little Patterson'
Week, 22 November 1915).
(Short story in Collier's, 13 February 1915, pp. 25-29).
Ladbroke Black, A Cinema Girl's Romance (Novel. Lon Crippled little Patterson kisses the movie girl so she slugs
don: 1915). Filmed by George Pearson for Samuelson | him but it is the beginning of a shipboard romance; he
in England in 1915 with Agnes Glynne and Alice de learns she enjoyed the kiss.
Winton as the stars.
Carlo Lombardo, La signorina del cinemat?grafo [The
B. M. Bower, Jean of the Lazy A (Novel. Boston, Little ? Cinema Girl (Libretto for operetta, an adaptation of Carlo
Brown, 1915). Cowgirl Jean mistakes a group of movie Weinberger's operetta Der Schmetterling. Leipzig: C.
makers for rustlers and ends up becoming the star of Schmidl & Co. 1915, 96 pages).
the movie they are making. Filmed by Universal in 1925
as Rid in' Thunder. Edith Huntington Mason, The King of the Movies' (Short
story in Photoplay, August 1915, pp. 47-54, 165).
Octavus Roy Cohen, The Movie Maid and the Martinet' Maurice Sebastian, the 'king of the movies,' has prob
(Short story in Every Week, 15 November 1915). lems when his star quits as he is about to begin filming
Johnstone Craig, The Picture Gang' (Short story in Schiller's Mary Stuart. He finds a younger woman to take
Photoplay, August 1915, pp. 91 -97). A fake movie crew her place.
pretends to shoot a film in a house while the owners are
Kenneth McGaffey, Mollie of the Movies (Novelette seri
away. Their attempt to steal the valuables is foiled by
alized in Photoplay, June 1915, pp. 102-05 - January
the butler who is a police detective in disguise.
1916). Mollie, a movie fan who sells ticket at a movie
Sidney Drew (Edgar Joyce Murray), Charlie Chaplin's theatre in Iowa, wins a beauty contest and goes to
Schooldays (Comic novel for boys serialized in The Boys ' Hollywood to become a movie star. She writes letters
Realm from December 1915; published as paperback back to her friend Clara Bell telling of her adventures
in The Boys ' Friend Complete Library series in May 1916). and the people she meets.
A totally fictional account of Charlie Chaplin's upbring
George Orcutt, Beauty to Burn (Novelette serialized in
ing. The book cover shows three boys dancing on a
Photoplay, January 1915, pp. 129-35 - June 1915). A
table top as students watch.
rich young woman with 'beauty to burn' joins a Chicago
G. Roydon Duff, 'Eileen' (Serial novel in Smart novels, movie company where the leading director falls in love
26 July 1915). A film-related plot; no further details. with her. Her stepfather tries to interfere but is foiled.
Percy K. Fitzhugh, Tom Slade, Boy Scout of the Moving Luigi Pirandello, Si Gira (First published in La nuova
Pictures (Novel for boys. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, antolog?a, June-August 1915; later published as novel,
1915). This first novel in the nineteen-book Tom Slade Milan: Tr?ves, 1916; republished asQuadernidiSerafino
series grew out of a movie directed by Edward Warren Gubbio operatore, Florence: Bemporad, 1925. English
for the Boy Scouts of America and released by World translation by C. K. Scott Moncrieff as Shoot! The Note
Film. The story does not concern moving pictures (it I books of Serafino Gubbio Cinematograph Operator, New
revolves around the adventures of a street tough who York: E.P. Dutton, 1926 and London: Chatto & Windus,
joins the Scouts) but the dust jacket shows a Boy Scout 1927). The first movie novel by a major author, a cine
troop in front of the Regent Theatre where the first matic counterpoint to Six Characters in Search of an
performance of the film The Adventures of a Boy Scout Author. An Italian cinematographer describes the actors
was shown.
and films he photographs in his absurdist journal while
Ricardo Gonzalez del Toro and Ger?nimo Gim?nez, lamenting tight production schedules and cost-cutting
I Cine-Fantomas [Fantomas Cinema] (Spanish musical. I measures.
Moving picture fiction of the silent era, 1895-1928.^.^ ^.>.^ __ ( ^._^FILM^
Wl^yflt^pip (Satirical story in Punch, 29 March 1916, p. 214). A visitor
BUCK AND
PARVIN to a place called Cinemaland describes its extrava
gances. Crime is rampant, the police are laughed at and
THE MOVIES its Western section is violent and anarchic.
wt
CHA?UES E. VAN I?AN Victor Appleton, The Motion Picture Chums' War Spec
tacle or the Film That Won the Prize (Novel for boys. New
York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1916). The friends, who now
operate seven motion picture theatres, agree to make
and exhibit a patriotic movie on the life of George
Washington. Despite problems with a rival, they succeed
and their film wins a prize. (Reprinted in 1926 as The I
Movie Boys' War Spectacle or the Film That Won the
GWM*R>?mMccmiin
Prize.)
Victor Appleton, The Moving Picture Boys Under the Sea
or The Treasure of the Lost Ship (Novel for boys. New
BuckParvin and the Movies (1915). Frontispiece and title page.York:Grosset & Dunlap, 1916). The young filmmakers
are sent to film underwater after a treasure ship is found.
Herman Scheffauer, The Battle-Film' (Short story Itinturns out to be highly perilous work.
Century Magazine, January 1915, pp. 466-474). A cou
? B.M. Bower, The Heritage of the Sioux (Novel. Boston,
rageous British cinematographer travels through the
Little Brown, 1916). Annie-Many-Ponies becomes jeal
Balkans and cranks away as war rages round him, until
ous of cowgirl Jean who has come to act in a Great
he is captured by the Turks and his films destroyed.
j Western Film Company movie.
Mabel S.C. Smith, Ethel Morton's Holidays (Novel for
B.M. Bower, The Phantom Herd (Novel. Boston: Little,
girls. Cleveland: Goldsmith Publishing, 1915). This book
Brown, 1916; first published as a serial in Photoplay in
was re-issued by World Syndicate Publishing in 1931 as
1916). A filmmaker in Los Angeles wants to make an
The Moving Picture Girls' Holidays though it does not
authentic Western but his studio won't cooperate. He
feature the Moving Picture Girls. strikes out on his own and makes a successful film at a
Charles E. Van Loan, This is the Life' (Short story in Thereal ranch.
Saturday Evening Post, March 1915 and Buck Parvin and
Marion Bowlan, '"Movie-ltis" - a Farce Monologue'
the Movies, New York: George H. Doran, 1915). Wealthy
(Monologue in City Types. Chicago: T.S. Denison &
Mrs. Gribble wants to become a movie star but director
Company, 1916, pp. 161-173). About a society patron
Montague makes it difficult after urgings from her hus
of movies, and in the course of this farce a producer
band. (Filmed in 1915 by William Bertram for Mus'Sam Goldfish' is mentioned.
tang/American with Larry Peyton as Montague and Adele
Farrington as Mrs. Gribble.) Cyrus Townsend Brady, 'Breaking In: The Story of a
Would Be Moving Picture Actress' (Short story in
Charles E. Van Loan, Buck Parvin and the Movies: Stories
Woman's World, April 1916). No details of plot.
ofthe Moving Picture Game (NewYork: GeorgeH. Doran,
1915). Fascinating stories about early movie-making Irving
in Cobb, The Eyes of the World' (Short story in The
Hollywood based around films made at Selig Studio withSaturday Evening Post, 15 April 1916, reprinted in Local
Color, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1916). A man
characters modelled on Art Acord (Buck Parvin), Hobart
Bosworth (James Montague) and Kathleen Williams becomes obsessed with moving picture acting after
appearing as an extra in The Prince of the Desert. He
(Myrtle Manners). The author worked with Bosworth who
annotated the Los Angeles Public Library copy of the feels he has been seen by the eyes of the world.
book to indicate the films and people that inspired theMarc Connelly, The Amber Express (Libretto for musical
stories. Originally published in The Saturday Evening with music by Zoel Parenteau. Premiered on Broadway
Post, 1913-1915. 19 September 1916). An American film company shoot
ing a movie in Italy runs out of money and the cast and
Frank B. Williams (aka Francis William Sullivan), The Star
crew are stranded.
ofthe North (Novel. NewYork: G. P. Putnam, 1916. First
published as a serial in Photoplay, September 1915-MayG?bor Dr?gely, Der Gatte des Fr?uleins (Stage play.
1916). Paul Temple, a movie actor on location in Canada
Premiered in Vienna, 1916; English-language adapta
with the Graphic Film Co., falls in love with a woman he
tion as Little Miss Bluebeard, by Avery Hopwood, pre
meets in the woods. But he is married and his wife won't
miered in New York, 28 August 1923). A film actress and
divorce him. a song composer get involved in a marriage mix-up on
a train journey. Filmed by Paramount in 1925 and 1930.
1916 Walter A. Dyer, Tom Sawyer of the Movies' (Short story
Anon. [Arthur Eckersley], The Truth about Cinemaland
in Gulliver the Great and Other Dog Stories, New York:
the lyrics for one of the earliest motion picture songs,

"Let's Go into a Picture Show" (1909).
Kenneth McGaffey, Pete Props, The Plaint of a Picture

Property Man (Novelette serialized in Photoplay February
- August 1916). A props man leaves stage work and
goes to work in a motion picture studio. He finds it much
more demanding, thinks the directors are crazy, and at
one point has to cope with giant snakes.
Neil Moran, 'Movie Men for a Day' (Short story in The

Argosy, June 1916).
Mary Roberts Rinehart, 'My Country Tish of Thee' (Short

story in Tish, Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin
Company, 1916). Adventurous spinster Letitia (akaTish)
is on holiday in Glacier Park when she learns that a movie
company is planning a fake hold-up for publicity. She
foils it when she discovers it is a real hold-up plot with
real villains.
Robert Shaler, The Boy Scouts with the Motion Picture

Players (Novel. New York: Hurst & Company, 1916). The
adventures of five boy scouts, including (in the last half
dozen chapters) their encountering a movie company
in the countryside making a film about film-making. The
boys help the crew, coping with incidents during pro
duction, including a fire; and finally the scouts triumph
as the film is shown in their home town.
J. L. Sherard, 'A Motion Picture Waterloo' (Short story in

The Argosy, February 1916).
77?e Mm/70 P/cft/ra G/f/s /a War Plays (1916). Frontispiece. Francis William Sullivan, The Glory Road (Novel serial
ized in Photoplay July 1916, pp. 25-44 - February 1917).
Century Co., 1916). A dog found watching a movie in a A woman makes a movie for Graphic Film in Hollywood
theatre is adopted by a movie studio despite his mis but the studio chief threatens to destroy it unless she
chievous way and becomes a dog star. gives in to his sexual demands. She refuses, the film is
released anyway and is a hit, but she decides to give up
Alice B. Emerson (Stratemeyer syndicate house name), movies for marriage. (Photoplay claimed this was 'the
Ruth Fielding in Moving Pictures or Helping the Dormitory first great novel written around the motion picture capital
Fund (Novel for girls. NewYork: Cupples & Leon, 1916). of the world - Los Angeles.')
Schoolgirl Ruth writes the scenario for The Heart of a
Schoolgirl, which is filmed to raise funds for a new school Charles E. Van Loan, 'Buck and the Biscuit Shooter'
dormitory. Ninth book in a series about a girl who (Short story in The Saturday Evening Post, 27 May 1916,
becomes a scenario writer, actress and director. pp. 11-14). While making a movie in the Grand Canyon,
Buck Parvin meets a pretty girl he thinks is a 'biscuit
Laura Lee Hope, The Moving Picture Girls in War Plays
shooter' (restaurant worker) and gets her a job as an
or The Sham Battles at Oak Farm (Novel for girls. New extra.
York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1916). The moving picture girls
act in films about the Civil War shot at Oak Farm. Anne Cornells Veth, 'Hamlit, of de Wraak V. D. Doode:
Stephen Leacock, 'Madeleine ofthe Movies' (Short story Filmdrama' (Dutch short story in Prikkel-idyllen. Bussom:
in Further Foolishness, New York: John Lane, 1916). A Van Dishoeck, 1916). About a supposed film version of
man describes his bafflement when he watches a film 'Hamlet' (narrated by a film lecturer). The text is accom
for the first time. The movie is Madeleine Meadowlark panied by numerous drawings to represent frames from
this film.
and he wonders why the characters don't talk. He learns
the meaning of the title cards but the scenes go by too
William Almon Wolff, Behind the Screen (Novel. Chicago:
fast for him to follow the plot.
A.C. McClurg, 1916; illustrations by Fred J. Arting.). A
Junie McCree, "Moving Pictures;" A Peep Behind the failed businessman invests in the fledgling movie indus
Doors of a Moving Picture Studio (Play, n.p., 1916?). No try at Fort Lee, N J. and becomes a success despite
details of plot. Junie McCree was a song writer and wrote crooked rivals. He wins the girl, too.
Moving ;< .j. FILMHjSTOT
**f&& tWOMUllll
*?*?. .*m?m.amp?h.^t^^W9l?9fpVB^
Hfl?HHiftflS?t IflMHUMJIfr <??!?**Mif *^ftis?wrtftiy " J*f*??
ing Perils in the Tropics (Novel for boys. New York: New
York Book Company, 1917). The three friends join an
expedition up theOrinoco River in Venezuela and make
a film about their adventures.
The Motion-Picture Comrades Producing a Success or

Featuring a Sensation (Novel for boys. New York: New
York Book Company, 1917). Last book in the Comrades
series.
Royal Brown, 'Miss Friday. Of Course' (Short story in The
Green Book Magazine, May 1917). A man stranded on
a desert island rescues a girl from black natives but later
finds it was only part of a movie scene. He calls her 'Miss
Friday" and eventually buys the film company so he can
direct himself.
Edmund Lawrence Burke, Johnny Get Your Gun (Stage

play. Produced in New York, 12 February, 1917). A
motion picture cowboy is asked by a prisoner friend to
go to his Florida home and impersonate him because
the friend's sister is about to marry a crooked count. He
does so and lassoes the crook. Filmed by Famous
Players in 1919 with Fred Stone as the movie cowboy.
Edmund Edel, Das Glashaus. Ein Roman Aus der Filmwelt
(German novel. Berlin, Wien: Ullstein, 1917). The globe
trotter Robert B?chner returns to Berlin at the outbreak
of the First World War. By chance he starts to work in
the film business and after a rapid ascent from extra to
h-WlliinilliuHlliiiMiiariiai .njMwmMMT.dMrf.?*??!m mi i.i?ilmiiffcniiifaililiyMliilllil?miiillir MI nii?n.?ffr ^til?^rrflftAtoniMtlfi? rnill- .??? director tries to reform the business and produce 'artistic'
The Glory Road' (1916). Cover of Photoplay Magazine, colour. movies, but his plan eventually fails.
Carl Einstein, Bebuquin Oder die Dilettanten des Wun
1917 ders [Bebuquin or the Dilettantes of Wonder] (German
novel. Berlin-Wilmersdorf: Die Aktion; Verlag der Wo
Anon, The Complete Film Actor' (Satirical story in Punch
Almanack for 1917). A stage actor is engaged for a filmchenscrhrift, 1917). Movie star Fredegonde Perlenblick
in which he will be beaten up by a professional boxer,
attracts attention by putting a flashing film marquee on
the roof of her limo. A German film about Einstein and
drive a car off a cliff into a waterfall and dive into a fiery
furnace. the novel was made in 2000.
Elmer Tracey Barnes (Stratemeyer syndicate house Alice B. Emerson, Ruth Fielding in the Saddle or College
name): Girls in the Land of Gold (Novel for girls. New York:
The Motion-Picture Comrades' Great Venture or On the Cupples&Leon, 1917). Ruth Fielding's first big scenario
Road with the 'Big Round-Top' (Novel for boys. New is produced by the Alectrion Film Corporation.
York: New York Book Company, 1917). Three friends Arnold Fredericks (Frederic Arnold Kummer), The Film
form a company, buy a movie camera and begin shoot of Fear (Novel. NewYork: W.J. Watt & Company, 1917;
ing a picture about a circus. First of five books in series. first published as a serial in All-Story Weekly, 17 March-14
Also published by Saalfield as The Moving-Picture Com April 1917). A female movie star is menaced by letters
rades Great Venture. threatening to disfigure her. Detective Richard Duvall
The Motion-Picture Comrades in African Jungles or Cam and his wife Grace solve the case masterminded by a
clever rival.
era Boys in Wild Animal Land (Novel for boys. New York:
New York Book Company, 1917). The three friends shoot Walter Frensdorff, Kinostern [Cinema Star] (German
a picture in Africa and run into danger filming wild novel. Stuttgart: Furstverlag, 1917). Lene Rieger rises
animals. from her humble life in Berlin to be a film star. But after
The Motion-Picture Comrades Aboard a Submarine or liberal helpings of sexual debauchery she returns to the
Searching for Treasure Under the Sea (Novel for boys. gutter in the end.
New York: New York Book Company, 1917). The three Montague Glass and Jules Eckert Goodman, Business
friends travel with Captain Shooks on his diving boat Before Pleasure (Stage play. Produced in NewYork, 15
Argonaut and film visits to sunken ships. August 1917). Potash and Perlmutter give up the textile
The Motion-Picture Comrades Along the Orinoco orFac business to make movies. Their first effort is a failure but
Duffy, 1917). A farcical sketch in one act about the

movies, in which afilm unit run by two 'smart' Americans
comes to film in an Irish rural area: but it later turns out
they're fakes.
E. Phillips Oppenheim, The Cinema Murder (Novel. Bos
ton: Little, Brown, 1917. First published as a serial in
Cosmopolitan in 1917). An actress is fired from a movie
after rehearsing a murder scene; the firing was arranged
by the film's backer who wants her to be his mistress.
He sends her to England to study acting and she
becomes involves with the Romilly brothers and a sup
posed murder. Filmed in 1919 by Paramount with Marion
Davies as the actress.
E. Phillips Oppenheim, The Hillman (Novel. Boston:
Methuen, 1917). A movie star and a man from the hills
fall in love but her relationship with another man causes
problems. Filmed by Vitagraph in 1917 as In the Balance
and in 1924 as Behold This Woman.
Edward O'Reilly. Short stories in Photoplay in 1917
featuring western movie villain Tim Todhunter, the ugliest
mug in the movies:
Temperamental Tim' (October, pp. 24-27). Tim is
brought to Hollywood to play the villain in a movie but
doesn't like it. He decides to leave but sexy Maybelle La
Tour gets him to change his mind.
The Film of Fear (1917). Book cover, colour.
'A Whack at the Muse' (November, pp. 70-73). Tim
a banker agrees to back them if they will make films
starring a famous vamp actress. Filmed by Samuel
Goldwyn in 1924 as In Hollywood With Potash and Per
lmutter, with Betty Blythe as the vamp.
Ben Hecht, The Movie Maniac' (Short story in The Smart

Set, November 1917, collected in Broken Necks and
OtherStories, NewYork; Haldeman-Julius, 1924). Acopy
reader on a Chicago newspaper becomes its film critic
and his personality changes as he adopts the theatrical
mannerisms of screen actors.
Clive Holland (pseudonym of Charles James Hankin

son), The Cinema Star (London: Grafton, 1917). Vera
Vane, an Oxford Street salesgirl, is spotted by the Mar
velograph Film Co. and becomes a big international film
star.
Rupert Hughes, We Can't Have Everything (Novel. New

York: Harpers, 1917) Kedzi Thropp rises from nothing
to movie stardom with the help of a rich man, but her
studio burns down with her film. She marries the rich
man and he discovers he has married the wrong woman.
Filmed by Cecil B. DeMille in 1918 with Wanda Hawley
as the actress.
Frederic Arnold Kummer, The Big Scene' (Short story
in Photoplay, November 1917, pp. 36-44, 112-113). A
movie actress engaged to a cameraman accuses him
of being a coward when he won't go with her to the war
front. When he has to shoot a war scene in a real trench,
he becomes a hero.
Thomas King Moylan, 'Movies' (Irish play. Dublin: James The Cinema Murder (1917). Frontispiece.
Moving picture fiction of the silent era, 1895-1928 FILM HISTORY Voi 20 Issue 2 (2008) 239
writes a screenplay featuring the Montague and Capulet 1918
gangs. In his story the rival gangsters Romeo and Joliet
Anon, 'Grinding the Crank: This Kind of Guy Is - Fishbalt'
are in love with Desdemonia.
(Short story in Moving Picture World, 23 March 1918, pp.
Jay Clay Powers, Money in the Movies: A Husky Dusky 1672-1673). About a film producer, Simon P. Fishball,
Mellow-Dramer (Play. Boston: Walter H. Baker & Co., and the scrapes he gets into. (Illustrated with cartoons).
1917). No details of plot. Victor Appleton, The Moving Picture Boys on the War
Harry L. Reichenbach. Short stories in Photoplay in 1917: Front or the Hunt for the Stolen Army Films (Novel for
boys. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1918). The young
The Big Fade-Out' (March, pp. 99-105). A movie pro
filmmakers travel to Europe to film war combat scenes
ducer falls for a girl from Louisville and stars her in a
for American propaganda pictures. When their films are
picture but then finds out she is married. Her movie
career ends. stolen, they go behind enemy lines to retrieve them.
(Reprinted in 1926 as The Movie Boys' Under Fire or the
The Flash Back' (April, pp. 103-09). A movie director Search for the Stolen Film.)
falls for a woman he hired to double for a star but she
Blanche Goodman, 'Viney at the Moving Pictures'
ruins the film by insisting on being in every scene. He is
(Monologue in The Viney Sketches. Franklin, Ohio ;
fired.
Denver, Colo.: Eldridge Entertainment House, 1918, pp.
Burton Stevenson, A King in Babylon (Novel. Boston: 68-73). A monologue about film-going in an African
Small, Maynard, 1917). Afilm company shooting a movie American community, presented in slang, and including
in Egypt finds itself becoming involved with events that the old chestnut of the audience running away from a
happened in ancient Egypt. Past and present merge as film of an approaching train.
the main actors appear to be reincarnations of a pharaoh Frederic Kummer. Short stories published in Photoplay
and his favourite. There is even a pharaoh's curse. in 1918:
Otto Stoessl, 'Der Kinematograph' (German short story 'Signing Up Cynthia' (January, pp. 45-47, 132-33). An
in Unterwelt: Novellen. M?nchen & Leipzig: Georg M?ller, English actor proves invaluable to his new company by
1917, pp. 1-52). No details of plot. bringing them the famous actress they need.
David Francis Sullivan, The Gas Girl (Novelette in Pho 'Beating Them To It' (February, pp. 27-29, 124-25). A
toplay, August 1917, pp. 53-60, 164-165 - September film company tries to keep a new movie secret but is
1917). A press agent persuades a female star to drive betrayed by the cameraman who sells their rivals a script.
a car alone from Los Angeles to New York as a publicity Actually he sold them a fake.
stunt. It goes well but her boy-friend keeps trying to
interfere. The Rejected One' (March, pp. 45-49, 113). A much
rejected scriptwriter finally get a movie made from a
Charles E. Van Loan. Short stories published in The scenario after he puts a famous writer's name on it.
Saturday Evening Post in 1917 featuring thrilling adven
The Devil's Camera' (May, pp. 35-38,109-09). A movie
tures at the Mammoth Film Corporation:
crew films a kidnapping that turns out to be real. Or was
The Thrill Shooter' (17 March, pp. 3-5,113-18). Director it? The kidnapped girl escapes and gets a movie con
David MacWade is the star 'thrill shooter' for Mammoth tract. A director figures it out.
and is able to film anything dangerous from railroad 'Jimmy Stars at Last' (June, pp. 27-29, 112-13). A bit
wrecks to plane crashes. part actor with no claims to fame goes to war and turns
The Stunt Man' (21 April, pp. 20-24, 79-81). Daredevil into a real hero.
Marco Marks is billed as 'the stunt man supreme' for The Test' (December, pp. 32-36, 104-05). An actress
Mammoth and will risk life and limb doing incredible gets kissed by a star while doing an audition test and
stunts.
her husband leaves her when he sees a photo. She
'Scene Two-Fifty-Two' (26 May, pp. 10-13,82-87). Mam becomes a star and gets him back.
moth star Jean agrees to do dangerous Scene 252 Charles McMurdy, 'Co-Stars' (Short story in Photoplay,
without using a double; it involves having a lion leap over February 1918, pp. 41-42, 124-26). A movie fan imag
her head.
ines he's as tough as William Farnum but gets beaten
The Fifth Reel' (18 August, pp. 6-9, 80-84). Director up when he tries to rescue a girl. However, she thinks
MacWade has trouble with a panther that won't stay still he is just like the tough guy who rescued Mary Pickford
in a film.
long enough to be photographed and his leading man
who wants to leave the company. Edward S. O'Reilly. Short stories published in Photoplay
in 1918 about western movie villain Tim Todhunter:
Maurice Vaucaire, La Demoiselle du Cin?ma (Novel.
Paris: Lafitte, 1917). No details of plot, but was translated 'Hydrant-Headed Reform' (January, pp. 48-50). Tim
into English as The Cinema Girl: A story of Paris life of reforms under the guidance of Tessie Trueheart and
to-day', 1919. nearly destroys all the rum palaces in town.
I 'Branded by Cupid' (February, pp. 71-73, 128-29). London: Methuen, 1925). The spectators watching a film
Celestial star Olive Green falls in love with Tim, praising program comment on what they see on the screen and
his'rugged strength.' He tells her about his wicked past, explain scenes to each other. When a title announces
she tells him hers. that Time's relentless Loom rolls ever on, entangling
innocent and guilty alike in its insatiable Weft,' a woman
'Revenge is Sweet' (April, pp. 45-47, 100). Tim gets
involved with a female extra and instructs her in the asks her husband if they are going to show it doing that.
various modes of expression he has learned in his time Victor Appleton, The Moving Picture Boys on French
at Celestial City. Battlefields or Taking Pictures for the U.S. Army (Novel
for boys. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1918). The young
Jose Maria Rivera, Cinemat?grafo (Phillipine one-act
filmmakers are in Europe filming the war, including
zarzuela in Tagalog. Manila: Compa??a llagan, 1918). A
American tank attacks and Germans attacking a Red
young couple has to meet secretly at the cinema. Pub
lished in 1920. Cross hospital. They are captured while filming behind
enemy lines but escape with their films.
Margaret Tumbull, The Close-Up (Novel. New York:
Harper, 1918). A woman joins a Hollywood film company Josephine Daskam Bacon, The Film of Fate' (Short story
as an executive and becomes its leading actress. The published in The Saturday Evening Post 15 March 1919;
man she loves is in the secret service looking for German j reprinted in Square Peggy, New York: D. Appleton, 1919).
spies and she wonders if her boss may be one of them. Society girl writes a screenplay about the children left
behind when men go off to war and gets involved with
Charles E. Van Loan, The Vamp' (Short story in The a soldier from Kansas while it is being filmed.
Saturday Evening Post, 14 December 1918, pp. 5-7,
76-82). Director Mickey Nolan creates a movie vamp Octavus Roy Cohen, Twinkle, Twinkle, Movie Star' (Short
out of a none-too-bright young woman and publicist Eric story in The Saturday Evening Post, 12 July 1919; later
Gilfeather makes her internationally famous. But there published in Come Seven, New York: Dodd, Mead,
are problems. 1920). Jasmine Poston pretends to be Florabelle Ga
zelle, a 'movin'-pitcher actress' with the Charcoal Film
Rob Wagner, Film Folk: "Close-Ups " Ofthe Men, Women, Corporation, and a man pretending to be its general
and Children Who Make The "Movies" (Short story col manager makes her fantasy come true.
lection. NewYork: The Century Co., 1918). Eight related
stories in which film people (a movie queen, a male film E. Hoskin and Coralie Stanton, The World's Best Girl
favourite, a director, a cinematographer, a scenario (Novel serialized in London Evening News, 1919). Filmed
writer, etc.) describe the ups and downs of working in in England in 1920 as The Romance of a Movie Star, with
the movies in Los Angeles. Violet Hopson and Stewart Rome.
Fannie Hurst, 'Heads' (Short story in Humoresque, New
1919 York: Harper & Brothers, 1919). Pelz's daughter drops
a coin heads up so Pelz buys a moving picture machine.
Anon, Her Double Ufe (Novelette serialized in The Picture
Show, 1 November - 13 December 1919). A girl By 1915 he is a wealthy moving picture king and she
saves
the life of a film producer's little girl and is offeredwatches
a job him sail to Europe on the Lusitania.
with his company as reward. Her boyfriend is notMaurice told Leblanc, Les trois yeux (Science fiction novel.
about her 'double life' working in the movies and First this published in Je Sais Tout, 15 July 1919; reprinted
creates problems. Paris: Lafitte, 1920. English translation by Alexander
Teixeira deMattos as The Three Eyes, New York: Macau
Anon, The Fellow Who Loved Violet Hopson (Novelette
serialized in Cheerio, 1919-1920; first instalmentlay,
fea 1921). A scientist creates a new cinematograph
tured in Picture Show, 29 November 1919 as insert, process.
pp. He coats a wall with a chemical he has made
and moving images appear. He watches scenes from
1-4). A country girl decides she wants to be a movie
actress after she meets an American producer the who
past, including the execution of Edith Cavell, but then
thinks she could be another Violet Hopson. the formula is stolen and lost. The images are actually
motion pictures broadcast by three-eyed Venusians.
Anon, The Talking Cinema' (Short story in Punch, 31
December 1919, p. 542). Bertram Boom, managing Belle Kanaris Maniates, Penny of Top Hill Trail (Novel.
New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1919). Movie star Penny
director of Movieland, Limited, and his producer Flickers
switches identities with a jailed thief in a Texas town for
are worried by the invention of talking cinema. Their
actors have the wrong kind of voices for sound, espea lark and deceives a sheriff who falls in love with her.
cially their cowboy star Mustang Mike who has Filmedan Is in 1921 with Bessie Love as Penny.
lington accent. Boom solves the problem by paying Elizabeth
hush York Miller, The Girl Who Dared (Novelette
money to the patentees of the new invention.
serialized in The Picture Show, July-August 1919). A girl
F. Anstey (pseudonym of Thomas Anstey Guthrie), pretends
The to be her selfish movie star sister and takes
her p
Cinema Habit' (Short story in Punch, 20 August 1919, place in dangerous scenes with lions even after she
I has been hurt.
I 168, reprinted in The Last Load: Stories and Essays.
Moving picture fiction O^^ FILM HISTORY Vol. 20 Issue 2 (2008) 241
Alice M. and C. N. Williamson, 'A Moving Picture in I
Belgium' (Film-related short story in The Minx Goes to
the Front, London: Mills 1919).
1920
Anon. [C.W. Cundy], 'Chippo's Scenario' (Parody
screenplay in Punch, 14 April 1920, pp. 290-94). Chippo
stumbles into a war film being shot on a beach and
invents his own scenario about what happened.
Anon, The Film Faker (Novelette for boys in Bulldog
Library, Newnes, 1920). An adventure of series character
Tubby Haig.
Anon, Lured by the Film (Novelette for boys in Dixon
Hawkes Library #34, 1920). An adventure of series
detective Dixon Hawke.
Anon. [Leonard H. Brooks], The Avenging Seven; or,
the Mystery of the Cinema'. (Crime novel. The Sexton
Blake Library # 117, March 1920). A Sexton Blake ad
venture.
Anon. [Robert Murray Graydon], The New President'.
(Crime novel. The Union Jack # 868 29 May, 1920). The
Tip Top Film Company, a criminal organisation in dis
guise, persuades Sexton Blake and his friends to portray
themselves in a movie. They are tied to pillars in a film
studio to enact an action scene, the studio is set on fire
and they are left to burn to death. Blake's dog Pedro
saves them by chewing through his master's bonds.
Anon, The Cinema Crook (Novelette for boys. Bulldog
Library, Newnes, 1920). Featuring series character
Die Filmprinzess (1919). Dust wrapper, colour. Tubby Haig.
Bree Narran, The Kinema Girl (Novel. London: Anglo B.M. Bower, The Quirt (Novel. Boston: Little, Brown,
Eastern Publishing Co., 1919). No details of plot. 'Bree 1920). A Hollywood actress who works mostly in West
Narran' was the pseudonym used by Australian writer erns visits a real ranch in Idaho and finds life there very
William N. Willis for his Anglo-Eastern novellas which different from how it is portrayed in the movies - and
usually featured sex and actresses. much more dangerous.
Edwy Searles Brooks, The Schoolboy Cinema Owners'
Rosa Porten, Die Filmprinzess (Novel. Berlin: Eysler,
(Short story for boys in Nelson Lee Library, 11 December
1919). Rosa, one of the first female scriptwriters, was
1920).
the sister of Henny Porten and acted with her in films
directed by their father. Her novel is a fictional version Leonard H. Brooks, The Avenging Seven, or the Mystery
of Henny's life with descriptions of the German cinema of the Cinema (Novel. Sexton Blake Library #117,1920).
world of the 1910s. An adventure of series detective Sexton Blake.
Raymond J. Brown, The Filming of Let-'er-go Gallagher'
Enrico Roma, La rep?blica del silenzio: racconto di
(Short story in The Popular Magazine, 7 October 1920).
costumicinematografici/The Republic of Silence: Stories
of Cinematographic Customs (Novel. Rome: Ugoletti, Irving Cobb, 'Mr. Lobel's Apoplexy' (Short story in The
1919). Saturday Evening Post, 17 January 1920; reprinted in
Sundry Accounts, New York: George H. Doran, 1922). A
Jane Siddons, 'At the Pictures' (Australian short story in movie vamp dies after finishing a film but the studio chief
The Lone Hand, 10 May 1919, p. 42). No details of plot. conceals her death so he can release the film. When he
EUoreMeo, Fantasio-Film. IIRomanzo del Cinemat?grafo. previews it, her avenging wraith appears on screen and
(Italian serial novel in the review In Renombra, 1919). A he orders the negative destroyed. When he discovers
narrative about film production, published in book form that a cinematographer who loved her arranged the fake
scenes, he has a stroke.
two years later (Milano: Italiana, 1921). The trials and
tribulations of the Italian film company Fantasio Film James Oliver Curwood, The Other Man's Wife' (Short
revolving around the making of a film titled La Donna dei story in Back to God's Country and Other Stories, New
mieipensieri and the 18-year-old actress who stars in it. I York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1920). This story is the credited I
source of the 1925 movie My Neighbor's Wife about a Maynard & Company, 1920). Boxing champion Kid
millionaire's son making a film in Hollywood with director Scanlan is hired by the Maudlin Moving Picture Company
Eric von Greed. However, the story itself has no movie to play himself in a movie about his rise to fame; it makes
content. him a star and his adventures are chronicled by his
manager. Inspired by the Hollywood careers of boxers
Alice B. Emerson, Ruth Fielding Down East or the Hermit
of Beach Plum Point (Novel for girls. New York: Cupples
Jack Dempsey and Benny Leonard.
& Leon, 1920). Ruth Fielding's new scenario is stolen Harry Charles Witwer, There's No Base Like Home
during a storm and she and her friends travel to Beach (Novel. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page &
Plum Point searching for it. Company, 1920). Star baseball pitcher Ed Harmon al
lows his French wife to act in movies but it creates
Clare Emsley, 'Hated by An Actress' (Novella for girls in
problems. The novel consists of letters from Ed to his
Peg's Paper, 11 March 1920, pp. 1-14). A Manchester friend Joe.
typist is hired to be a movie actress but this arouses the
hatred of the company's female star. She is nearly killed
when the star causes her horse to run wild. 1921
Frank R. Adams (Short stories in Cosmopolitan in 1921 ):
Emilio Ghione, L'ombra di Za La Mort: Romanzo Cine
matogr?fico [The Shadow of Za La Mort: Cinema The Good Little Bathing Girl' (August, pp. 59-64,
tographic Novel (Novel. Milan: Biette, 1920). Fictional 110-12). A good little bathing girl doesn't go riding with
autobiography by writer-director-actor Ghione explain a strange man in an expensive car, but a naive
ing the creation of his movie hero Za La Mort and how young movie star thinks she can handle the situation.
She can't but an admirer comes to her rescue.
he pretended to be an apache when he was in France.
Corinne Lowe, The Hope That Springs' (Short story in The Comedian' (November, pp. 54-56, 105-09). A
Photoplay, August 1920, pp. 36-39). A widow becomes movie comedian takes a girl from a garment factory,
a movie extra and finds hope in her new job. helps her become a star and marries her though he
knows she doesn't love him.
Mark Lee Luther, Presenting Jane McRae (Novel. Boston:
Little, Brown, 1921. Illustrated by James Montgomery Harold B. Allen, At the Movies (New York: Samuel French,
Flagg). Jane McRae becomes a movie star in NewYork 1921). A farce about cinema.
with the help of her director husband. When an old first Anon, Trapped by the Cinema (Novelette for boys. Dixon
love reappears, her life becomes complicated. Hawke Library #41, 1921). Featuring series character
Dixon Hawke.
Katherine Mansfield, 'Pictures' (Short story in Collected
Stories of Katherine Mansfield. 1920, pp. 119-128). The Louis Aragon, Anicet, Ou, Le Panorama (Novel. Paris:
plump Ada Moss is cash strapped and attempts to Gallimard; ?ditions de la Nouvelle revue fran?aise,
secure a lucrative film role, butfails. Eventually she meets 1921). This novel has several film-related aspects: a
a man and goes off with him, the implication being that character based on Charlie Chaplin, a complex scene
she has yielded at last to prostitution. at the cinema involving Pearl White, and a character
witnessing on screen the wedding of the woman he
Edith Nepean, The Secret Husband (Novelette serialized loves.
in The Picture Show, 13 March-24 April 1920). A movie
actress was secretly married to a wealthy man who has Stephen Vincent Benet, The Beginning of Wisdom
lost his memory. A film producer courts her not knowing (Novel. New York: Henry Holt, 1921). A poet-to-be de
she is already married. scribes his early life including a period he spent working
as a movie actor in Los Angeles in 1917-1918. He can't
Nina Wilcox Putnam, Two Weeks With Pay' (Short story
act, but he is photogenic and so becomes a minor star.
in 77?e Saturday Evening Post, 9 October 1920). A sales
girl on holiday is mistaken for a movie star and pretends Earl Derr Biggers, The Girl Who Paid Dividends' (Short
to be her, but this causes problems. Filmed by Realart story in The Saturday Evening Post, 23 April 1921; re
Pictures in 1921 with Bebe Daniels as the star. printed in Earl Derr Biggers Tells Ten Stories, Indianapo
lis: Bobbs-Merill Company, 1933). A chorus girl
Gordon Arthur Smith, 'Every Move' (Short story in The
becomes a movie star but her success jeopardizes her
Pagan. NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920, pp. marriage. When her husband becomes a successful
251-281). Austin Waide agrees to do a mysterious job
scriptwriter, the balance is restored. Filmed by Para
for a single day in exchange for a large payment. He is
mount in 1921 as Her Face Value, with Wanda Hawley
conveyed to a large building, is exotically costumed, as the star.
and steered toward a huge courtyard full of people. A
vamp-like woman at first flirts with him, then has her Earl Derr Biggers, 'Love in Hollywood' (Novelette serial
servants assault him. Finally a man shouts 'Finished', ized in Ladies Home Journal, April-June 1921).
and Austin finds out that it has all been for a moving Edwy Searles Brooks, The Cinema Strikers' (Short story
picture. for boys in Nelson Lee Library, 8 January 1921).
Harry Charles Witwer, KidScanlan (Novel. Boston: Small, Louis Delluc, La jungle du cinema/The Cinema Jungle
(Short stories. Paris: Editions de la Sir?ne, 1921). Four Marcel Nadaud, Mimi Trottin, Reine du Cin?ma (Novel.
teen stories about the movies from underwater filming Paris: Albin Michel, 1920 or 1921). No details of plot.
to the experiences of an extra: 'Le periscope;' 'Histoire Nina Wilcox Putnam, West Broadway (Novel. First pub
du chien du th??tre de prises de vue de la rue de t?te lished as a serial in The Saturday Evening Post, 1 May -
de bois;' 'M?moires d'un figurant;' 'L'alouette;' 'Histoire 21 June 1921; reprinted New York: George H. Doran,
d'un petit chat et de son ombre;' 'Cin?ma, corrida e 1921). A film actress travels to Los Angeles by car to
muerte;' 'La chien de Woodrow Wilson;' To be or not to
learn about the political situation and preach against
be;' 'Orchestre du cin?ma;' 'Kilgaroo;' 'Le cheval de Communism. 'West Broadway' is the theatrical term for
Faust;' 'Pellicule;' T?l?phone;' and 'Six-Pions'. the road from New York to California.
Edmund Edel, Der Filmgott (German novel. Berlin: Ehr Arthur B. Reeve, The Film Mystery (Novel. New York:
lich, 1921). Sequel to Edel's Glashaus [qv, 1917]; no Harper & Brothers, 1921). Detective Craig Kennedy
further details.
investigates the death of a movie star murdered while
Alice B. Emerson, Ruth Fielding in the Great Northwest acting before the cameras in a New York studio. A
or the Indian Girl Star of the Movies (Novel for girls. New second person is killed in the same way before Kennedy
York: Cupples &Leon, 1921). Ruth hires Indian Princess can solve the mystery.
Wonota from a travelling Wild West show and makes her Adela Rogers St. Johns, The Last Straw' (Short story in
the star of a movie. (Norma Talmadge played Indian Photoplay, May 1921). An egotistical movie star tells his
Princess Wetona in a 1919 film.) wife that he is going to have an affair with his female
Francis J. Finn, Bobbie in Movieland (Novel for boys.
New York: Benziger Brothers, 1921). Bobbie, who be
lieves his mother drowned, is cared for by a film come
dian who had been involved with her. He becomes a
successful child star but longs to return to his Catholic
faith. His first communion changes everything and he is
reunited with his mum.
Susan Glaspell, 'His Smile' (Short story in The Pictorial

Review in 1921; reprinted in The Best Short Stories of
1921, Boston: Small, Maynard, 1921). A woman obses
sively seeks out screenings of a detective film titled The
Cross of Diamonds which has a brief scene of her late
husband walking in the street. She finally learns from his
on-screen smile what she needs to do to keep him alive
in her memory.
Rupert Hughes, Souls For Sale (Novel. First published

as a serial in Red Book Magazine, September 1921 -June
1922; reprinted New York: Harper & Brothers, 1922). The
daughter of a puritanical minister who thinks movies are
sinful runs away to Hollywood and becomes a movie
star. She rejects her religious upbringing as the cause
of her unhappiness. Her mother joins her and finds
Hollywood a nice place for a family and not at all immoral.
Hughes wrote and directed a film version for Goldwyn
in 1923 with Eleanor Boardman as the star.
p?&liC MON?? TO ME, MR. MAN?" LOLLED ENID, **TALK THE
France Maillane, Nicole Aubry, Vedette de Cin?ma I_SHEKELS?THE GOLDEN SHEKELS] "_
(Novel. Paris: Librairie des lettres, 1921). No details of The Film Mystery (1921 ). Frontispiece.
plot.
co-star. He changes his mind after she threatens a
Irving Thomas McDonald, On His Toes ! (Novel. New scandalous divorce.
York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1921). A novel about film
production in and around New York and Fort Lee, and Adela Rogers St. Johns, 'Dog in the Manger' (Short story
also in the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Ange in Photoplay, September 1921, pp. 62-65). A handsome
les. The company's films include westerns, and they movie star's wife is considered the 'dog in the manger,'
employ one Douglas O. MacQuarry, 'the greatest mo but she knows that she is the only one who can keep
tion-picture director in the business'. him functioning.
Andrew Murray, The Case of the Cinema Star (Crime Edgar Wallace, Jack 0'Judgment (Crime novel. Boston:
novel. London: Sexton Blake Library #168, 1921). An Small, Maynard, 1921). A master criminal uses a box of
adventure of series detective Sexton Blake. nitrate films to burn down a house containing a corpse
made up to look like him, but masked avenger Jack wood to break into the movies and become involved
O'Judgment is not deceived. with a man known as the czar of the movie world.
Edgar Wallace, A Cinema Picture' (Short story first Robert W. Chambers, Eris (Novel. New York: George H.
published in McClure's, April 1921; reprinted in Bones Doran, 1922). Eris, a poor farmer's daughter, begins her
in London, London: Ward, 1921). Featuring Lt. Tibbetts, acting career in the New York film industry but fails. After
known as Bones. she goes to Hollywood, she becomes a star and marries
the journalist who helped her.
Henry Kitchell Webster, Real Life, Into Which Miss Leda
Swan of Hollywood Makes an Adventurous Excursion Irving Cobb, 'Movieland' (Chapter in the episodic novel
(Novel. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1921. Illustrated by J. Poindexter Colored. New York: Grosset & Dunlap,
Everett Shinn). Afilm star in the Pickford mode finds her 1922). Jefferson Poindexter visits a movie studio and is
private life almost as exciting as her movie life after she asked to take over the role of a black waiter from a white
meets a famous violinist who has never heard of her. man in blackface who is doing it wrong. He does it so
She hadn't heard of him either. well the studio boss asks for advice about making films
for black audiences.
1922
George M. Cohan, Madeleine and the Movies (Stage
play. Premiered in New York on 6 March 1922 at the
Frank R. Adams, 'Le Jongleur of Hollywood1 (Short story
in Cosmopolitan, September 1922, pp. 39-41,102-06).Gaiety Theatre). Georgette Cohan played Madeleine in
Herb, a leading actor at a film studio, entertains some
this comedy written by Cohan for his daughter. She plays
kids in a hospital and becomes romantically involveda beautiful young girl who is getting help from a movie
with a top star. They decide to marry. star but is frightened her father and brother will misun
derstand their relationship.
Anon, 'Breaking In' (Short story in Photoplay, March
Frank Condon, 'Behind the Curtain' (Short story in Pho
1922). The story of a writer's difficulties during the movie
toplay, June 1922, pp. 29-33). A rich man's son loves a
making process told as if it were a true story. It culminates
in his quitting. movie actress, so the father gets him to go on location
and peek 'behind the curtain' to learn what she is really
R.C. Armour, The Studio Murder (Crime novel. London:
like.
Sexton Blake Ubrary, Amalgamated Press, 1922). An
adventure of series detective Sexton Blake. Paul Dickey and Mann Page, Lights Out (Stage play.
Opened in New York 16 August 1922). After they steal
Earl Derr Biggers, 'Broadway Broke' (Short story in The
his suitcase of scripts, a scriptwriter collaborates with
Saturday Evening Post, 7 October 1922; reprinted in Earl
crooks on a screenplay about a criminal. The criminal
Derr Biggers Tells Ten Stories, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Mer
sets out to kill the scriptwriter when he sees the film.
rill, 1933). A retired theatre actress sells her plays to a
Filmed in 1923 by RC Pictures.
film producer and starts a new career acting in the
movies. Filmed in 1923 with Mary Carr as the elderly
Alice B. Emerson, Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence or
actress. the Queer Old Man of the Thousand Islands (Novel for
girls. Cupples & Leon, New York, 1922). Ruth writes and
John Young Brown, To the Moon and Back in Ninety
directs the film The Long Lane's Turning with Indian
Days, A Thrilling Narrative of Blended Science and Ad
actress Wonota but has problems with Chinese smug
venture (Science fiction novel. Providence, KY: Lunar
glers.
Publishing Co., 1922). Scientists travel to the moon in
an anti-gravity device where the explorers discover a Monica Ewer, The Film of Fortune (Novel. London:
huge number of weird Martians. They later find the Methuen & Co., 1922). About the making of a film - set
Martians were a hoax created by one of the explorers in London.
with motion picture equipment.
Edna Ferber, 'Not a Day Over Twenty-One' (Short story
Michael Burke (Russell Mallinson), The Film of Death in Gigolo, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page,
(Crime novelette in Jack's Paper, 7 November 1922). 1922). A 37-year-old stage actress reluctantly agrees to
go to Hollywood to make a movie, dislikes it intensely,
Edgar Rice Burroughs, 7??e Girl from Hollywood (Novel. and returns to New York and theatre life.
Munsey's Magazine, June 1922; reprinted New York:
Macaulay 1923). A woman from the Midwest has trouble Herman Gr?goire, La Le?on de Cin?ma (Belgian novel.
making it in Hollywood until she meets a director who Bruxelles: Editions de la Bataille litt?raire, c.1922). No
turns her into a drug addict and seduces her. After he details of plot.
corrupts another woman, who dies, he is killed by the
first woman's brother. William S. Hart and Mary Hart (as 'By Bill Hart's Pinto
Pony, edited by his master'), Told Under a White Oak
Dorothy Calhoun, Feasters in Babylon (Novel serialized Tree (Novel for children. Boston: HoughtonMifflin, 1922.
in Motion Picture Magazine, January 1922 - May 1923. Illustrated by James Montgomery Flagg). Western star
Illustrated by August Henkel). Two sisters go to Holly William S. Hart's horse Fritz describes the making of
Moving picture fiction ofthe silent era, 1895-1928 FILM HISTORY Vol 20 Issue 2 (2008) 245
Samuel Merwin, Hattie of Hollywood (Novel serialized in
Photoplay, July-December 1922). A young woman rises
to stardom in Hollywood but finds the demands of family
and work overpowering. She tries to escape by eloping
with a writer but her fame ruins their relationship; she is
a prisoner of Hollywood success.
Andrew Murray, The Case ofthe Unnamed Film (Crime
novel. London: Sexton Blake Ubrary #222, 1922). An
adventure of series detective Sexton Blake.
Maurice Nutbrown, 'A Secret Film' (Short story for boys
in Boys' Realm, 25 March 1922).
Jean Petithuguenin, l'Afrique Myst?rieuse; Roman V?cu
d'une Troupe de Cin?ma au Coeur de l'Afrique Sauvage
(Novel. Paris: ?ditions du Sphinx, 1922). No details of
plot.
Nina Wilcox Putnam, Laughter Umited (Novel. First pub
lished as a serial in Saturday Evening Post, 12 August -
23 September 1922; reprinted New York: George H.
Doran, 1922). A young woman, who begins by working
as a maid in Hollywood, becomes a successful film
actress because of her talent and decency.
Nina Wilcox Putnam, 'Making the World Safe for Junior'
(Short story in The Saturday Evening Post, 14 October
1922, pp. 12-15). Movie star Marie La Tour and husband
Jim decide their son can be a bigger star than Jackie
Coogan but can't agree what kind of movies he should
make.
Told Under a White Oak Tree (1922). Dust wrapper, colour, Adela Rogers St. Johns. Short stories in Cosmopolitan
in 1922:
films with his master. He writes well for a horse and has
The Tramp' (August). A Hollywood party girl wants to
a good sense of humour. be an actress but ends up like the other pretty girls who
Gaylord Johnson, The Sky Movies (Novel for children, don't find success, a tramp even to the man who loves
New York: Macmillan, 1922). An instructional book about her. Reprinted in Never Again and Other Stories, Garden
astronomy told in seven chapters (called 'reels') with City, NewYork: Doubleday, 1922.
movies shown on a spider web screen as visual aids. 'Starring Mrs. Tim Hale' (October, pp. 87-91). Fifty-year
Includes a flip-book movie, Jack and Jill in the Moon, old movie star Tim Hale decides to marry a 19-year-old
starlet. His friends are worried until his aunt shows up.
Will B. Johnstone, Above the Clouds (Libretto for musical.
Premiered at the Lyric Theatre in New York, 9 January The One Motto for a Married Woman' (December, pp.
1922). A Hollywood star goes east to straighten out 74-79). Mary Jo goes to Hollywood on her own and
problems at a school that is misusing her name. Grace learns that the motto for a married woman is 'Lead me
Moore played the star. not into temptation'
John S. Margerison, Reel and Ring series stories pub Adela Rogers St Johns. Short stories in Photoplay in
lished in Chums in 1922: 1922:
'Miss Dumbbell' (April, pp. 31-34). A pretty girl gets
'Reel and Ring' (16 September); 'A Fight for the Film'
ahead in Hollywood by pretending to have an aristocratic
(23 September, pp. 23-25); 'Your Face is Your Fortune'
background but then falls in love with a real aristocrat -
(7 October); 'A Busman's Holiday' (4 November); and or so she thinks.
'Double Punch' (4 December). The stories are about
professional boxers and the problems they have while The Last Straw' (May, pp. 27-31). The long-suffering
acting in movies. Producer-star Harold Lloyd is one of wife of a pompous movie star leaves him but he finds
those who complain. he can't live without her.
Daisy McGeoch, 'Picturing' (One-act play in Concert The Fan-Letter Bride' (August, pp. 28-32). A movie star
Cameos. NY: French, 1922). About the movies, including marries a girl who wrote him a fan letter. It is an attempt
a moment when a boy mistakes British Prime Minister to get revenge on a movie actress who rejected him.
Lloyd George for Charlie Chaplin. Joseph Louis Vance, Unda Lee Incorporated (Novel.
New York: E. P. Dutton, 1922; early version serialized in After some misgivings, he accepts his career as a comic
McCalTs in 1921-1922 as The Coast of Cockaigne). A actor and marries the girl who helped him succeed.
New York socialite leaves her philandering husband and George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly adapted the
goes to Hollywood where she becomes a movie star. novel for the stage and it premiered in New York on 13
She gets involved with a no-good actor and is nearly November 1922. It was filmed in 1924,1932 and 1947.
killed. She is reunited with her husband after he saves
Harry Charles Witwer, The Wages of Cinema' (Short
her life.
story in Cosmopolitan, October 1922, pp. 69-72,
Rob Wagner, Tessie Moves Along or The Girl of the 146-50). Country boy Malachi arrives in New York with
Movies (Novel. Serialized in Red Book Magazine, July $25,000 to invest and feels that Mirthless Comedy pic
December 1922; later Cleveland: Goldsmith Publishing, tures is a better deal than a broken-down prize-fighter.
1928). A young woman begins her acting career in
movies in New York in 1910 but does not have much 1923
success. After she goes to Hollywood she becomes a Frank R. Adams, The Double Quits' (Short story in Good
star.
Housekeeping, June 1923, pp. 78-80, 238-46). The
William Warren, 'Alice in Movieland' (Short story in Pho male double for a female serial star takes her place in
toplay, January 1922, pp. 81-85). Alice (of Wonderland the most dangerous scenes but when a tiger menaces
fame) jumps through a movie screen and meets a Movie him, she rushes to his rescue.
Hero, a Movie Heroine and a Movie Comedian.
Frank Adams, 'Scandal Street' (Short story in Cosmo
politan, June 1923, pp. 81-85,165-76). Actor Harrison
Halliday gets his break by agreeing to replace a star who
has died in the middle of a film but then has to pretend
to be the one who died.
Frank Adams. Stories in Photoplay in 1923:

'Celluloid Boulevard' (August, pp. 48-51). The Belle of
North Platte, Nebraska, goes to Hollywood to become
a movie star but fails. She tries to jump off an ocean pier
but is rescued and goes on to success.
The Stuffed Shirt' (October, pp. 44-48). A woman loves
a movie star who plays courageous he-men, but she
thinks he is really a coward.
Jack Alicoate, Extra (Stage play. Opened in NewYork at
Longacre Theatre on 23 January 1923). A publisher
decides to ruin the reputation of his weekly newspaper
The Movie News so he can cheaply acquire its stock.
He makes his incompetent son the editor, but the plot
; backfires when the son makes the paper more popular.
| Anon. [Oliver Merland], The Face in the Film (Crime novel.

| London: Sexton Blake Ubrary, Amalgamated Press,
I 1923). An adventure of series detective Sexton Blake.
Anon, The Masterpiece Film Series' (Satire in Punch, 2
January 1923, p, 9). A producer decides to film six
famous poems but has to 'improve' the plots first. He
adds a girl and a romance to "Ode to a Nightingale" and
turns "Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of
Early Childhood" into a film called Tim about a shepherd
boy.
Anon, The Mating of Pete Blair' (Satirical short story in
Merton of the Movies (1922). Frontispiece of 1924 Photoplay
Punch, 31 January 1923, pp. 112-13). Parody of a film
Edition. story set in the silent Yukon.
Anon, 'Humphrey and the Films' (Short story in Punch,
Harry Leon Wilson, Merton of the Movbs (Novel. First 21 February 1923, p. 190). The writer suggests making
serialized in The Saturday Evening Post, 4 February - 8 a film about his motor bicycle, 'Humphrey'. The heroine
April 1922; Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page, 1922). of the film will leap in his sidecar and ask to be rushed
A country boy goes to Hollywood hoping to be a western away from her pursuing enemies. Humphrey refuses to
star but finds success instead in parodies of westerns. start for a long time but the bad guys chasing on horses
Moving picture fiction of the silent era, 1895-1928 ..?j-^llll^JPf^Y_yp^_ffj|!. lggHj.S.?J?99??., ,?4:7
star, interferes with a movie being shot by Charlie
Chaplin. He gets his come-uppance via a fake contract.
Lucian Cary, Susie Takes a Chance (Novelette serialized
in Motion Picture Magazine, June-November 1923). A
young woman, paid to masquerade as a famous movie
star for publicity purposes, is asked to take over acting
in her place on screen.
George Randolph Chester. Izzy Iskovitch stories in The
Saturday Evening Post in 1923 describing the Hollywood
adventures of an ambitious young film producer. Most
were incorporated into the 1924 novel On the Lot and
Off:
'Named by Izzy Iskovitch' (21 April); 'Bigger and Better'
(12 May); The Boy Wonder' (26 May); 'A Tale of Three
Fillums' (16 June); 'Fried Eggs' (14 July); 'All for the
Ladies' (11 August); 'Isidor Iskovitch Presents' (8 Sep
tember); 'Fish Eat Fish' (13 October); 'Angel Child' (11
November); The Seven Garments' (1 December).
Agatha Christie, The Adventures of The Western Star'
(Short story in The Sketch, April 1923 and Poirot Inves
tigates, London: Lane, 1924). A movie star gets threat
ening letters about her famous diamond and asks Poirot
to investigate. A second diamond is involved.
Octavus Roy Cohen, 'Love and Let Love' (Short story in
Photoplay, September 1923, pp. 40-43). The actor who
plays a daring sheik in films is actually shy in real life but
he gets help from a box office girl who knows how to
'The St. Frank's Film Actors!' (1923). Cover of Nelson Lee
encourage him.
magazine, colour.
Frank Condon, 'Hollywood' (Short story in Photoplay,
don't seem to be getting closer. Finally after his owner January 1923, pp. 39-43). A young woman goes to
draws his six-shooter, Humphrey starts and they dash Hollywood to become a movie actress. She doesn't
to safety. succeed but her father and all the rest of her family do.
Anon, The Hate Film' (Satire in Punch, 28 March 1923,
Made into a 1923 Paramount film directed by James
Cruze.
pp. 294-295) A screenplay titled The Unwooing' is
intended to counter the idea that love and marriage are Frank Condon, 'Beefsteak and Onions' (Short story in
the sole purpose of life. A man demands that his wife Photoplay, December 1923, pp. 44-48). A famous cross
divorce him but she refuses to hate him even when he eyed motion picture comic get involved with a movie
throws her mother off the Brooklyn Bridge. He finally gets vamp.
her to hate him and beats her up.
Alice B. Emerson, Ruth Fielding Treasure Hunting or A
Richard A. Bermann, Bimini (German novel. Berlin: Moving Picture That Became Real (Novel for girls. New
Mosse, 1923). A film novel by the Hollywood-based York: Cupples & Leon, 1923). Ruth Fielding writes and
Bermann (see 1913 entry for H?llriegel). directs the film Treasure Trove in the Bahamas and
discovers a real Spanish treasure chest.
Matthias Blank, Die Filmprinze?: Kriminalroman (German
novel. Heidenau-Nord: Verlagshaus Freya, 1923). No John Galsworthy, 'Acme' (Short story in Caravan, New
details of plot. York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1923.) A 'literary genius'
pens a satirical skit about the movies which a friend
EdwySearles Brooks, The St. Frank's Film Actors (Novella thinks is actually the best scenario he has ever read. He
for boys in Nelson Lee Library, 9 June 1923). Travers sells it secretly to a studio and gives the payment to the
gets a movie camera and decides to make a pirate film writer knowing he will be angry. But no, the writer secretly
with members of Remove House and girls from the Moor likes movies.
View School. Disaster ensues.
DanaGatlin, Thistledown (Novelette serialized in Motion
Edwy Searles Brooks, St. Frank's in Filmland or The Los Picture Magazine, January - December 1923. Illustrated
Angeles Mystery (Novella for boys in Nelson Lee Library, by Harold Lund). A movie actress who pretends to be a
19 August 1923, pp. 1-29). The Boys of St. Franks visit waitress gets involved with a young millionaire who calls
Los Angeles where Handforth, who wants to be a movie her Thistledown.
248 FILM HISTORY Vol. 20 Issue 2 (2008) An annotated bibliography by Ken Wlaschin with Stephen Bottomore
I goes to see it every night. When the war ends and the
movie is no longer shown, she dies.
Roy Milton llif. Short stories in Photoplay in 1923:
'StarStuff' (July, pp. 63-67). A mother helps her daughter
get into the movies with the assistance of a comic actor.
'Be Yourself (November, pp. 71-75). An actress finds
that you cannot be yourself once you become a movie
star.
Frederick Kummer, The Studio Secret (Novelette serial
ized in Photoplay, April-September 1923). A man helps
a woman get a job at a movie studio on condition that
she finds out the star's secret.
Samuel Merwin, Theme with Variations' (Short story in

Red Book Magazine, February 1923). A writer gets con
flicting opinions about Hollywood on a train trip to Los
Angeles. A female reform group and macho movie men
almost convince him it is a corrupt and immoral place,
but a film director gives him a more balanced portrait.
He learns it has frontier characteristics because it is the
frontier of a new art form.
Katherine and Robert Pinkerton, Not in the Scenario

(Novelette serialized in Photoplay, November 1923 -
February 1924). Mystery story about a film company
making a movie on location in the Northwest.
Adolphus Raymond, Film-Struck; Or, A Peep Behind the
Curtain (Novel. London: Stanley Paul, 1923). A vicar's
daughter goes to London to try and enter the film
The Old Woman of the Movies' (1923). First page of story from business, but she has problems, and returns to her
London Magazine, colour. village.
Raymond Leslie Goldman, Twinkle Twinkle' (Short story Adela Rogers St. Johns. Short stories in Cosmopolitan
in 1923:
in Photoplay, March 1923, pp. 45-49). A pretty young
girl becomes the Queen of the Movies for two hours 'Maggie Qunanne' (February, pp. 94-98). Aaron Savage
doubling for an ill star. collects girls for his bathing beauties from around the
world but it is comedian Maggie Qunanne that makes
Ramon G?mez de la Serna, Cinelandia (Novel. Valencia: his films successful.
Sempera, 1923; reprinted by Valdemar in 1995. English
translation by Angel Flores as Movieland, New York: The Great God Four-Flush' (May, pp. 83-86). Gwynne
Macaulay, 1930). Movieland is an amazing place that Gunning is a star who knows she can't act, and that she
looks like a combination of Constantinople, Florence is only a beautiful clotheshorse dependent on her looks
and New York. All goes well until the death of a movie for her living.
actress known as the world's sweetheart causes a scan 'Dolls' (July, pp. 69-72). Mignon Variel has been a child
dal and this 'new Sodom and Gomorrah' is shut down. star for many years under the watchful eye of her mother;
her birthday is celebrated like a national holiday with a
C. Ranger Gull, Cinema City (Fantasy novel. London: fancy new doll.
Harcourt, 1923). British film mogul Alexander Georgious
Thumbs Down' (September, pp. 53-56). The world turns
builds a huge cinema city outside of London to create
thumbs down on movie star Dorothy Vicente, but in
his films. It has heavily guarded high walls and its biggest
star is the vamp Cleo Silver. Hollywood they speak of her with adoration.
'Borrowed Plumes' (November, pp. 43-46). Movie star
Vicente Blasco Iba?ez, The Old Woman of the Movies' Gordon Brown learns how to ride a horse from Nellie
(Short story first published in McClure's Magazine, No Brown who is unimpressed with his stardom.
vember 1923 and The London Magazine, Christmas
1923, pp. 655-70, then in The Old Woman of the Movies
Adela Rogers St. Johns. Short stories in Good House
and Other Stories, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1925). An old
keeping, 1923:
woman in Paris sees a newsreel film showing her dead 'Eyes of the Blind' (August, pp. 24-48). Hollywood, a
I soldier grandson sitting in a trench writing a letter so she I village brought up to gigantic proportion by the micro
scope of the world's attention, did not approve of Nancy Octavus Roy Cohen. Short stories in Photoplay in 1924:
Boyd. She didn't care. The Cookie Pushers' (August). Hollywood finds it has
A Hollywood Love Story' (September, pp. 76-79, something to learn from flappers.
190-94). An elderly producer loves the young woman 'Star or Wife' (September). A woman has to decide
he has made a star but eventually realizes he has to give between being a movie star or a wife.
her up to the young man she loves.
Octavus Roy Cohen. Short stories about an African
Charles Saxby, 'In Person' (Short story in Red Book American film company, the Midnight Pictures Corpo
Magazine, December 1923, pp. 53-57, 130-36). An ration, published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1924:
American cameraman in India is hired to film the visit of
the Viceroy to Maha-Quilon soon after rebel leader Rishi 'Every Little Movie' (30 August); 'Double Double' (27
Ramdien is captured there. September); The Bathing Booty' (4 October); A Little
Child'(180ctober);'lnsidelnflammation'(1 November).
Wilbur Daniel Steele, Arab Stuff (Short story in Harper's
These stories are included in the 1925 collection Bigger
Magazine, January 1923 and in The Shame Dance, New and Blacker.
York: Harper & Brothers, 1928). Movie stars in Algeria
doing research for a film get involved with a sheik and Frank Condon. Short stories in Photoplay in 1924:
end up causing him to kill his young wife. The Legend of Hollywood' (March 1924, pp. 35-39). A
Edgar Wallace, The Camera Man' (Short story in Bones young writer goes to Hollywood hoping to become a
of the River, London: Newnes, 1923). Lt.Tibbetts, known scriptwriter. When he fails he tries to poison himself but
as Bones, attempts to make a film about a battle which is saved by a girl. Filmed in 1924 with Percy Marmont
and ZaSu Pitts.
turns out to be real. His sergeant cameraman opens the
camera in sunlight to check on the film. The Camera Never Lies'(April). A romantic rancher likes
movies but thinks that those telling stories about the
1924 West are quite misleading.
Frank R. Adams, 'Liar's Lane' (Short story in Photoplay, Frank Condon. Short stories in The Saturday Evening
January 1924, pp. 38-42,121). An ambitious writer from Post?n 1924:
Iowa takes a $50,000 inheritance to Hollywood and gets
swindled. 'New Stuff (8 November). A novelist is brought to Hol
lywood to contribute new story ideas but finds that the
Anon, 'Kim at Los Angeles (Satirical screenplay in Punch, studio really wants to keep on making the same old stuff.
5 November 1924, p. 506). Kipling's novel Kim is adapted
'Brownie' (29 November, pp. 14-15, 105-12). A rooster
for the American screen by producer Grippeth with the
rented for a scene in a movie demoralizes afilm company
sisters Gosh in leading roles. In this version Kim is the
and cause a top gag writer to lose his job.
orphaned son of Kimball O'Hara, a New Yorker who died
in India. Kim grows up in an American mission, meets 'Directed by Andy' (20 December, pp. 16-17, 113-20).
the winsome Maisie McBride and has to resist the A newspaper editor named Andy Getty is hired to direct
seductive Bolshevist agent Sona Vampirevski. a comedy and tells the crew he knows nothing about
the picture business.
George and Lilian Chester, On the Lot and Off (Novel.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1924). Novel based on Ray Cummings, T. McGuirk, Movie Actor' (Crime story
the Izzy Iskovitch stories published in The Saturday in Black Mask, February 1924).
Evening Post. An ambitious young Jew uses family Alice B. Emerson, Ruth Fielding in the Far North or the
money and chutzpah to become a Hollywood producer. Lost Motion Picture Company (Novel for girls. New York; I
After he succeeds in making an actress into a star, he Cupples & Leon, 1924). Ruth Fielding gets a chance to
marries the daughter of a movie mogul. write and direct a film set in the polar regions. When her
George Randolph Chester. Further adventures of ambi boyfriend Tom falls in the icy water, she dives in and
tious film producer Izzy Iskovitch published in The Sat rescues him.
urday Evening Post in 1924: Clifford Grey and Fred Thompson, Marjorie (Libretto for
'Them Papers' (2 February) ; The Slump' (8 March) ; The musical with music by Sigmund Romberg, Herbert
Yes Man Said No' (19 April); 'Below Lay Hollywood' (10 Stothart and Stephen Jones and lyrics by Harold At
May). teridge. Premiered in NewYork 11 August 1924). Fake
playwright Marjorie has dreams of Hollywood.
Dudley Clark, The State of Filmland (Lengthy satire seri
alized in twelve chapters in Punch, 10 December 1924 Bruno Lessing, 'Five Men with Whiskers' (Short story in
- 1 April 1925. Illustrated by H. M. Bateman. Published Cosmopolitan, September 1924, pp. 27-31). The Eureka
in book form as Bateman and I in Filmland, London: T. Film Company of New Jersey hires five men with whisk
Fisher Unwin, 1925). The clich?s of the movies become ers for its movie The Doings of Dalton, and the scene
perceived reality on an imagined visit to the bizarre showing them beating up Dalton with canes turn into a
country of Filmland. comedy classic.
250 FILM history Vol 20 issue 2 (2008) An annotated bibliography by Ken Wlaschin with Stephen Bottomore
Samuel Merwin, 'Fancy Turns' (Short story in Red Book Wally Dole and they learn how difficult marriage is in
Magazine, 24 August 1924). A young artist goes to Hollywood.
Hollywood to search for a woman he saw in a western
'Beautiful But Dumb' (May, pp. 81-84). Deborah Ames,
movie and finds the wicked Hollywood of his imagination
the greatest scenario writer in Hollywood, underesti
does not exist. He finds the girl of his dreams at a dance
mates a beautiful young actress who he thinks is too
I and marries her, but she was not the woman in the movie.
dumb for a major role.
Samuel Merwin, 'More Stately Mansions' (Short story in
The Burden of Beauty'(September, pp. 78-82). Caroline
Red Book Magazine, October 1924, and The World's
Valois is extremely beautiful and quickly become a movie
Best Short Stories of 1925, New York: George H. Doran,
star, but after five successful years her studio does not
1925). A devoutly religious elderly man is cast as Isaiah renew her contact.
in a big-budget film about the Biblical prophet and finally
accepts that it is a good religious work to do. His sister Adela Rogers St. Johns, 'They Always Do' (Short story
agrees. in Good Housekeeping, August 1924, pp. 35-39). A wise
wife waits patiently until her movie star husband tires of
Victor Nelson (pseudonym of John William Bobin), The
wandering and returns to her. She knows they always
Film Dupes!' (Short story for boys in The Boys' Friend, do.
19 April 1924). Featuring Don Darrel.
Adela Rogers St. Johns, The Love Dodger (Novelette
Jack O'Donnell, The Hollywood Touch' (Short story in
serialized in Photoplay, March-July 1924). Hollywood's
The Popular Magazine, 7 September 1924, pp. 90-99).
most eligible bachelor has to struggle to stay single as
Doc Doane exposes a Hollywood shyster who uses a
he is the target of so many beautiful women.
movietrickto win ahorse race. He provesthatthewinning
horse is a double, not the horse he is supposed to be. Calvin E. Stewart, 'Moving Pictures at Punkin Center'
(Monologue in Uncle Josh Stories... Boston: Walter H.
Nina Wilcox Putnam, 'Doubling for Cupid' (Short story
Baker Co., 1924). Presented by Stewart as early as 1914,
in The Saturday Evening Post, 13 December 1924). A
this monologue has the residents of Punkin or Pumpkin
movie producer sends a shop girl to Europe and brings
Center being recruited to act in a film version of 'Damon
her back with a new identity as a Russian movie star.
and Pythias'. But things go chaotically wrong, and the
Filmed by Universal \r\ J\926 as Beautiful Cheat with Laura endeavour comes to an end as one of the 'actors' slams
La Plante.
into the 'picture machine' and smashes it.
Martin J. Quigley, 'Just an Old One-Reeler' (Short story
Hugh Wiley, The Prowler (Novel. New York: Alfred A.
in Photoplay, January 1924, pp. 77-81). An aging movie
Knopf, 1924). African-American hustlers Wildcat and
director wonders what he has accomplished with his
Demmy are hired by Stupendous Aggregation Feature
films, but is encouraged by a letter from a married couple
Films to play Arabs in a movie being shot in the Arizona
saying one of his early films about a couple who lost a
desert. They look so ludicrous in the dailies that the
baby helped them cope. director decides to change the film into a comedy.
Arthur Somers Roche. Short stories in Red Book Maga
Harry Charles Witwer. Short stories in Cosmopolitan in
zine in 1924: 1924:
Alms of Love' (March). A woman divorces her philan
The Square Sex' (April, pp. 86-90). Hotel switchboard
dering husband and moves to Los Angeles where she
operator Gladys Murgatroyd gets involved in the making
becomes a movie star. Her ex-husband turns up and
of a motion picture and finds the backstage action more
persuades her to remarry. She agrees but finds he loves
exciting that the film.
the movie star, not the woman.
'Bee's Knees' (May, pp. 95-98). Gladys relates the
'Where You Find It' (May, pp. 46-50). Gold is where you
adventures of Bee Swenson (who has the knees) as
find it and gentility is gold smelted from the dross of
director Gordon Daft begins shooting a film with her
humanity. After Rose's rich father goes bankrupt, she roommate Hazel.
becomes a movie actress and a suitor recognizes her
genuine class. 1925
Adela Rogers St. Johns. Short stories in Cosmopolitan Jack Alicoate Tom Johnstone, When You Smile (Libretto
in 1924:
of musical. Opened in NewYork 5 October 1925.). Based
The Worst Woman in Hollywood' (February). Inez is on the play Extra, about a Hollywood newspaper.
considered the worst woman in Hollywood because of
Anon, A Picture Show-Up' (Short story in Punch, 19
lurid publicity. Actually she's a good woman shielding
August 1925, pp. 178-180). A man buys a cinema
her young sister from harm. Filmed in 1924 by First
projector with the intention of creating a home cinema
National as Inez from Hollywood.
for his children. After many problems he gets it set up
'Kitty Shinn's Husband' (March, pp. 45-49). Movie ac but then runs the picture backwards. His wife suggests
tress Kitty Shinn marries ail-American football player they should take the children to the real pictures. His
children let him know that she has already run the The Best Minds' (2 May, pp. 30-31,171-80). The Smits
projector correctly. Film Company hires a famous author to work with a top
scenario man to write afilm about prohibition to be called
Anon, The Stars in Their Courses' (Satire in Punch, 11 'Great Amendment'.
November 1925, p. 506). A film distribution agency
declines to handle a British picture because it does not 'Minor Changes' (6 June, pp. 26-27, 54-60). Gilfillan
have an American star. An American producer is not hires back a great gag writer, but has to agree to use a
surprised as he says the the star is the most important clock gag he hates.
element in a film. He is using a top star for his new film The Fighting Rabbit' (21 November, 25-26, 143-46).
about Lady Jane Grey in which she will be able to escape Cleo and Felix Wattsover, who write romantic novels
from the scaffold at the last moment and live happpily together, visit the studio to decide which of their books
ever after. His film of The ////ad will star Wee Willie Hogan, should be filmed first.
the Wonder Baby.
William Conselman and Charles Plumb, Ella Cinders
Arthur Applin, The Beautiful Miss Barry (Novel. London: (Comic strip. Metropolitan Newspapers Service. First
John Long, 1925). A novel about the life of performers strip published on 1 June 1925). A modern version of
in the British film industry.
the Cinderella story with a movie background. Step
Michael Arlen, The Ghoul of Golders Green' (Short story daughter Ella slaves for the Cinders family until she wins
in Mayfair, London: 1925). Two Mayfair men are taken a beauty contest. The prize is relocation to Hollywood
to Golders Green where they are forced to bury corpses and a job at a movie studio. Filmed by First National in
at gunpoint. It's all fake. A film company has used them 1926 with Colleen Moore as Ella.
to make a cheap horror film. (In a footnote the writer tells Alice B. Emerson, Ruth Fielding at Golden Pass or the
us that the film flopped so badly it was offered to an Perils of an Artificial Avalanche (Novel for girls. NewYork:
institute for the blind. After the above exposure of the Cupples & Leon, 1925). Ruth Fielding's film Snowblind
methods adopted, no further reason should be sought is well received at its premiere, but the theatre catches
for the so much deplored inferiority of British films.') fire when discarded nitrate films explode. On her next
Robert Ames Bennet (pseudonym of Lee Robinet), The picture in Montana she has to take over the lead when
Rough Rider (Novel. New York: A. L. Burt, 1925). A her star is enticed away and the filming of an avalanche
cowboy begins working on western movies as a stunt goes wrong.
man and is so good at it that he wins the love of the Ida M. Evans, A Yacht Darling' (Short story in Red Book
female star and ends up as her co-star. Magazine, December 1925, pp. 62-65, 114-19). Eva
Dudley Clark, If Life Were a Film (Satirical film scenarios Leander is still playing society extras after five years in
in Punch, 3 June - 4 November 1925). In one of these Hollywood but has time to read a hotel clerk's scenario
a sinister Book Agent is about to take back twelve when a yacht party is cancelled.
volumes of What Baby Ought to Know as eleven instal F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, 'Our Own Movie Queen'
ments are overdue. The others are just as absurd. (Short story in Chicago Sunday Tribune, 7 June 1925;
Octavus Roy Cohen, Bigger and Blacker (Short stories. reprinted in Bits of Paradise, New York: Charles Scrib
Boston: Little, Brown, 1925; first published in The Satur ner's Sons, 1973). A woman in the Minnesota town of
day Evening Post in 1924 and 1925). Eight stories revolv New Heidelberg wins a contest to be a queen in the film
ing around the activities of the Midnight Pictures New Heidelberg, the Flower City ofthe Middle West. When
Corporation, an African-American film company based her role is cut, her boyfriend enlarges her role to make
in Birmingham, Alabama: 'Every Little Movie', 'Double her a real movie queen.
Double', The Bathing Booty', A Little Child Shall Feed Peggy Gaddis. Short stories in Snappy Stories Magazine
Them', 'Inside Inflammation', 'Miss Directed', The Lion in 1925:
and the Uniform' and 'Write and Wrong.' Although the
The Part-Time Wife' (August). A movie star marries a
stories were considered humorous when published, they
newspaper man but his pride is hurt by the disparity in
now seem quite racist.
their salaries. She quits to be a 'full-time wife' but that
Frank Condon. Short stories in The Saturday Evening creates money problems. Filmed in 1925 with Alice
Post?n 1925: Calhoun as the star and Robert Ellis as the husband.
'Big Names' (4 April, pp. 22-23, 150-55). The studio 'Doubling for Lora' (October). A woman who resembles
decides it wants big names and Gilfillan, the director/star a famous movie star is paid to impersonate her at a
of a hit comedies series, decides to throw his weight personal appearance but complications arise. Filmed
around. by Universal in 1926 as Her Big Nig ht with Laura La Plante
in the double role.
'Little Drops of Water' (25 April, pp. 27,192-99). Gilfillan
decides that his comedies need pathos. He hires Ollie Federico Garc?a Lorca, 'El Paseo de Buster Keaton =
Judge, the best pathos writer in the business, but he is Buster Keaton Takes a Walk' ('Hybrid genre', written
an unreliable drunk. 1925, published April or May 1928). A brief dadaist squib
252 FILM HISTORY Vol. 20 Issue 2 (2008) An annotated bibliography by Ken Wlaschin with Stephen Bottomore
which has BK on a bicycle ride in a city park after he's

killed his four children with a wooden sword.
Montague Glass, Y'Understand (Short story collection,

New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1925). Two
stories have motion picture content. In 'You Can't Fool
the Camera' a movie producer is tricked into hiring his
niece and her new husband for a film. In 'Never Begin
with Lions' a producer tries to sell the lions he used in
his wild animal films but finds it difficult.
Richard Goyne, Thrill Hunters of the Films' (Short story

in The Last Shot, London: Federation Press, 1925). A
movie studio chief sends his two sons into Limehouse
to find an original crime story. They learn about a burglar
named Posh Phil and create a hit film about him. But
then the real Posh Phil turns up at the film studio.
Nunnally Johnson, The Hero' (Short story in The Satur

day Evening Post, 14 March 1925, pp. 28-29,153-59).
A movie star returns to his home town where he is feted
and praised. He falls in love with a local girl but she says
she prefers heroic stars like Tom Mix.
Patrick Kearney, A Man's Man: A Comedy of Ufe Under
the L (Novel. New York, 1925). A young woman goes to
Hollywood to try to get in the movies and marries a nice
soda jerk. She is almost seduced by an assistant director
who says he can make her a star. Filmed by James Cruze
for MGM in 1929 with Josephine Dunn as the would-be
star.
The Mad Movie (1926). Cover of Argosy Magazine, colour.
Frederick A. Kummer, That Terrible Thome Girl (Novel
serialized in Photoplay, May-October 1925). A movie Shown' (Short story in Out of the Blue. London: Hodder
actress on the verge of stardom has her career destroyed & Stoughton, 1925). The scriptwriter of a new movie
when she is mistakenly linked to a divorce scandal. She reveals that the scene in which the villain shoots and
goes back to New York where she falls in love with a kills the heroine really happened when the story was
man who does not know of her past. She gives him a filmed the first time. This earlier film, held by the police,
false name and returns to her home town.
will never be shown publicly.
Ring Lardner, The Love Nest' (Short story in The Love
Valentin Mandelstamm, Hollywood (Novel. Paris: Cal
Nest and Other Stories. New York: Scribner's, 1925). A
mann-Levy, 1925). This 'novel of cinematographic man
journalist spends an evening with the head of a film
studio and his ex-actress wife and finds their seemingly
ners' includes a long introduction by Mandelstamm
describing Hollywood and its denizens. The novel itself
happy marriage is a sham made bearable by booze.
portrays the activities of various Hollywood folk around
Anita Loos and John Emerson, The Whole Town's Talk the filming of an historical epic titled The Death of
ing, a Farce in Three Acts (Stage play. New York: Long Carthage.
mans, Green & Co, 1925; premiered 29 August 1925,
Bijou Theatre, New York). A movie star arrives in a small Frances Marion, Minnie Flynn (Novel. NewYork: Boni &
town on a publicity tour and her jealous husband dis Liveright, 1925). A beautiful but not very talented young
covers that a local veteran has her signed photo. When woman becomes a movie star with the help of a clever
he catches her kissing him, he starts a fight. Filmed by director and a rich man, but is unable to cope with her
Universal in 1926 with Dolores Del Rio as the movie star. fame.
Fred Maclsaac, The Mad Movie (Novella serialized in Violet M. Methley, The Padre of the Movies (Novel.
Argosy-All-Story Weekly 12 December 1925 -16 January London: Federation Press, 1925). No details ofthe plot
1926). A motion picture actress gets her big chance of this very scarce novel.
doubling for the star in a river scene, but she can't swim
and almost drowns. An old boyfriend saves her life. Ruth Comfort Mitchell, 'Blood and Tears' (Short story in
Red Book Magazine, February 1925, pp. 43-46). A
H.J. Magog, Les Myst?res du Cin?ma (Novel. Paris: Ed.
director is upset that he can't film in Gibraltar, a Holly
Baudini?re, 1925). No details of plot.
wood mansion owned by five old maids. A young woman
H.C. McNeile (Sapper), The Film That Was Never is sent to bring back their young brother.
Moving picture fiction of the silent era, 1895-1928 FILM HISTORY Vol. 20 issue 2 (2008) 253
Romeo Poole, 'Imprisoned for Thirty Centuries' (Short I Blithe Sheriff, London: Bles. 1926). One of the Sheriff I
story in Weird Tales, May 1925). A studio executive tries William (Bill) Garfield series, set in Texas.
to buy a giant African stone that can show scenes from Rene Clair, Adams (Novel. Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1926.
the past. He wants to use it to make absolutely authentic English translation by John Mark as Star Turn, A Novel
movies.
of the Films, London; Chatto & Windus, 1936). Adams,
Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, l'Amour du Monde (Novel. the world's greatest film star, is driven mad by his own
Paris: Plon-Nourrit et Cie, 1925). Relates the coming of greatness and devises a scheme to make a film with
the cinematograph to a small Swiss town and the trans God. Clair wrote a cynical introduction for the English
formation it effects in the lives of all. In addition to the translation insisting that films are not an art form because
plot, this novel is also overtly cinematic in its composi the cinema's reason for existing is to attract audiences.
tion. First published serially in a literary review in 1924. 'If films acted exclusively by trained frogs induced a
greater number of spectators to enter the portals of
Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Baby Blimp' (Short story in cinema than do the pictures at present shown', produc
The Saturday Evening Post, 25 August 1923 and in Tish ers 'would furiously outbid each to acquire the brightest
Plays the Game, New York: George H. Doran, 1926). specimens of batrachian talent'.
Adventurous spinster Letitia (akaTish) writes a scenario
Octavus Roy Cohen. Short stories in Photoplay in 1926:
called The Sky Pirate and is asked to star in the film and
do her own stunts. She accepts but there are problems. 'Happy Daze' (January, pp. 55-59). A desperate first
time director on location in Alabama tries to control the
Adela Rogers St. Johns, The Skyrocket (Novel. Serialized movie star cousin who got him the job. A fake husband
in Cosmopolitan, January-April 1925; later New York: finally does the trick.
Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, 1925). A young
woman becomes a movie star but her skyrocket-like rise 'Ben Hurry' (August, pp. 39-41). The African-American
to fame goes to her head. She becomes self-obsessed Midnight Pictures Corporation has problems staging a
chariot race for its film The Roman Umpire.
and bankrupt. When she comes to her senses she gives
up moviemaking. Filmed in 1926 with Peggy Hopkins The Gotten Goat' (September). Midnight Pictures tries
Joyce as the skyrocket. to film a version of the William Tell story including
shooting an apple off a man's head.
Lucile N. T?te, 'Just an Old Fashioned Girl' (Short story
in Photoplay, August 1925, pp. 40-42, 123-28). An 'Love and Defection' (October, pp. 36-38, 133-41).
'old-fashioned girl' becomes a Hollywood institution and Amnesia Truck of Atlanta joins the Midnight Pictures
winsthe man she loves with home-cooked meals-which company in Birmingham, Alabama, and brings trouble.
she buys from a delicatessen. 'On Account of Monte Cristo' (November). Midnight
Pictures goes to Marseilles to shoot a comedy titled
D. Titheradge, 'Props' (Play in From the Prompt Corner. Monte Cristo Takes the Count.
London, New York: French, 1925). A brief stage farce,
set in a motion picture studio. Arabian Nights' (December, pp. 48-49,120). Midnight
Pictures goes to Algiers to make a 'realistic' Arabian
1926 picture in the desert.
Octavus Roy Cohen, Short stories in The Saturday Eve
Anon (E.V. Lucas), Military Drama IV (Satirical scenario
ning Post in 1926 describing the adventures of the
in Punch, 31 March 1926, pp. 344-345). The screenplay
for a film titled Passion in the Ranks or Frail Soldiery. It is
African-American Midnight Picture Corporation:
A stirring tale of desire and hate and a strong man's'Skin and Groans' (9 January); The Claws in the Con
tract' (6 February); The Call of the Riled' (6 March);
revenge, located in the silent depths of No. 9 Platoon.
Privates become rivals, a sergeant is poisoned and 'Mercy, Monsieur' (8 May); 'Battle Scared' (26 June);
blackmailers get killed before the story ends. The Pay of Naples' (17 July); 'Neapolitan Scream' (14
August); 'HamsAplenty' (4September); Tres Sheik' (16
Guy Bolton, with Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar, October);
The 'Low But Sure' (6 November); 'Ham and Exit'
Ramblers (Libretto for Broadway musical. Opened in
(18 December).
New York, 20 September 1926). Fake mediums get
involved with a film being shot on location in Mexico.Frank Condon, 'On and Up' (Short story in The Saturday
Evening Post, 5 June 1926). A studio writer is given the
Charles Neville Buck, Flight to the Hills (Novel. Garden
job of adapting a novel he had written under a pseudo
City, NewYork: Doubleday, Page, 1926). An actressnym. in When it's a big success, the studio lays off the
Tennessee to work in a movie flees to the hills when
studio writer but offers the novel-writer a fat contract.
thinks she has accidentally killed the man who got her
Frank Condon, The Retake Man' (Short story in The
the part in the film. She is helped by a mountain man
Saturday Evening Post, 19 June 1926, pp. 43-44,
who falls in love with her. Filmed with Clara Bow as The
113-20). A retake man is said to be a director who can
Runaway (William de Mille, 1926).
breath new life into a dead picture. Jimmy Williams is
F.R. Buckley, The Cinema Lures Him' (Short story inI The
the first person to have a successful career doing this. I
I Virginia Dale. Short stories in Red Book Magazine in 'aspersing the National Honour.' He hides the screen
1926, told through the diary of Dora of Escanaba who play in the Bank of England.
has gone to Hollywood to become a vamp: Ring Lardner, The Jade Necklace' (Short story in Cos
'Not That Kind of Girl' (August, pp. 72-74,110-16). Dora mopolitan, November, 1926, pp. 28-31). Colossal Films
keeps a diary so when she becomes famous she can pays $50,000 for the novel Harridan as a vehicle for a
have it printed and prove that virtue is its own reward handsome new Irish star, but the book's main character
and you don't have to 'pay the price'. is a woman. So they change the title to The Jade
Necklace and make it the story of an American naval
'Dear Diary' (November, pp. 74-76, 113-18). Dora is officer who marries a Japanese geisha.
cast as a country girl in a film titled 'Love's Lonely
Passion' based on Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, but the William Slavens McNutt, The Wild Way' (Short story in
filming is delayed. Photoplay, October 1926. Illustrated by Ray Van Buren).
A screenwriter saves the life of a beautiful extra, tells her
I Alice B. Emerson, Ruth Fielding in Alaska or The Girl she can't act, and demands she marry him. She agrees.
Miners of Snow Mountain (Novel for girls. New York:
Ernest Poole, The Girl Wished for a Palace' (Short story
Cupples & Leon, 1926). Ruth Fielding shoots a film in
in Cosmopolitan, February 1926, pp. 78-79). A girl has
the Yukon called The Girl of Gold after overcoming
a baby in the back room of a movie theatre and tells how
problems created by a rival producer.
she was mothered by movies. She wanted her baby to
Earl Stanley Gardner, 'Register Rage' (Short story in be born in a palace and a picture palace was just perfect.
Black Mask magazine, April 1926). Adventure involving
Vingie E. Roe, Monsieur of the Rainbow (Novel. New
series character Ed Jenkins, The Phantom Crook'.
York: Doubleday, Page, 1926). An elderly Frenchman
Montague Glass, 'Yes, Mr. Rosenthal' (Short story in wanders around California seeking the end of the rain
Cosmopolitan, June 1926, pp. 34-38, 112-17). Mr. bow. His actions restore romance to a movie star's life
Rosenthal of Four Arts Film is considering beautiful and he is given a film contract.
young blondes for roles in his new movie Should Married Margaret E. Sangster, 'Wicked?' (Short story in Photo
Men Behave? No one ever says no to him. play, June 1926, pp. 49-53). A vamp star gives up a man
Karl Green, 'Wedding Knells' (Short story in Photoplay, I at the request of his hometown girl. He is heartbroken
and kills himself.
March 1926, pp. 43-47). A script editor saves his friend
I from a marriage to a woman he hasn't met, but marries
Raymond L. Schrock and Edward Clark, Broken Hearts
her himself when he finds out she is his long-time of Hollywood (Novel based on screenplay of film written
secretary. I by Schrock and Clark. New York: Jacobsen-Hodgkin
John Hunter, The Film Star Footballer (Serial in Boys son, 1926). The daughter of a former movie actress wins
Magazine starting 2 October 1926, pp. 3-9). Film star a contest enabling her to come to Hollywood. She finally
footballer Dick Davenport sets out to find the kidnapped gets a leading role with the help of a star who seduces
son of a millionaire industrialist and puts himself in great her. When the film is completed, her mother kills him for
danger. compromising her daughter.
Faith Service. Short stories in Photoplay:
H. Gardner Hunting, The Vicarion (Novel. Unity School
of Christianity Publications, Kansas City, Mo., 1926). A 'False Faces' (May 1926, pp. 68-72). Two movie stars,
I scientist discovers that events of the past can be cap one famous for portraying vamps, the other for aristo
tured and shown on screens for public viewing. The cratic roles, decide to wed. They learn that the person
popularity of his invention, known as the Vicarion, threat alities behind cinematic roles are quite different.
ens the motion picture industry which tries to buy him I The Synthetic Star' (December 1926). A press agent, a
out, then assassinate him. New England girl, and a movie actress get their lives
Agnes Christine Johnston, 'Community Clothes' (Short entangled.
story in Photoplay, July 1926, pp. 65-69). A group of William Wallace Smith, 'Little Ledna' (Short story, Cos
women extras with limited wardrobe share their clothes, mopolitan, August 1926). After a vaudeville team breaks
especially a leopard skin coat which is their ultimate up, his career goes badly while she becomes a movie
weapon. One girl, however, wins a beau without it. star. When he gets a part in one of her pictures, they are
reunited. Filmed as The Big Time (1929).
Rudyard Kipling, The Prophet and the Country' (Short
story in Hearst's International Magazine, October 1926, Jimmy Starr, 365 Nights in Hollywood (Short stories.
illustrated by David Robertson; later in Debits and Cred Hollywood: David Graham Fisher, 1926). Twenty-five
its, Macmillan, 1926). A Nebraska realtor describes his stories about Hollywood by a Hollywood gossip colum
plans to create a bizarre movie to promote anti-feminist, nist. They include 'Just a Girl in Pictures' (would-be
prohibition ideas ('a complete Cultural exposay of a actress gets break by rehearsing at midnight); 'Kal
She-dominated Civ'lization') but gives it upwhenhefinds somine Kitty of the Kleigs' (actress gives up acting when
I church leaders and movie producers disowning him for I boyfriend becomes director); 'Great Directors' (famous
director too busy to look at new director's first film); A Anon. [Gwyn Evans], The Affair of the Black Carol '.
Fiend in Follywood' (casting director is a dope fiend); (Crime novel in The Union Jack # 1,260, 10 December
and 'Synthetic Scenarios' (readers feel lucky to find two 1927). Sexton Blake and friends spend Christmas at a
good scripts in twelve thousand). Filmed by Fox in 1934 film producer's mansion. He is working on films based
with Alice Faye. on Dickens stories so they dress up as Dickens charac
ters for a party. When the producer's son is kidnapped,
Harlan Thompson, Twinkle, Twinkle (Libretto for musical.
Sexton Blake goes into action to rescue him.
Opened at Liberty Theatre in New York on 16 November
1926.). A Hollywood star becomes an anonymous wait Anon. [George Hamilton Teed], The Mystery of Film
ress in a small town but encounters problems when her City' (Crime novel in The Sexton Blake Library, #119,
identity is discovered. November 1927). Detective George Marsden Plummer
Jim Tully, Jarnegan (Novel. New York: Albert & Charles has an adventure in Hollywood involving Vali Mata-Vali.
Boni, 1926). A reformed criminal, who once killed a man, Beatrice Burton, The Hollywood Girl (Novel for girls. New
becomes a successful film director but has to get tough York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1927). A young woman
once again to keep his job. His story is told in the achieves success as an actress in Hollywood but learns
hard-boiled style used by Black Mask writers. she would be happier returning home and marrying her
sweetheart.
Rob Wagner, The Quickie' (Short story in The Saturday
Evening Post, 20 November 1926, pp. 13-15, 89-94). A Irving Cobb, 'We of the Old South' (Short story in Ladies
movie star persuades his co-star to quit their studio and and Gentlemen, New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corpo
create a new company that will make 'quickie' films on ration, 1927). An elderly Southerner, once a Confederate
low budgets. She does it because she loves him. soldier, helps a young woman with her movie career and
Edgar Wallace, The Avenger (Cri me novel. London: John leads a charge that allows the Confederates to win the
Long, 1926). The Knebworth Film Corporation, which Battle of Gettysburg, at least on film.
has its studio in Chichester, become involved in a police Octavus Roy Cohen. Short stories in Photoplay in 1927
search for the Head-Hunter, a mad killer who beheads about the African-American Midnight Pictures Corpora
his victims. The chief investigator falls for a Knebworth tion of Alabama making films in Europe:
extra who becomes a star after he meets her. The
Avenger was filmed in Germany in 1960 as Der R?cher. The Roman Knows' (April, pp. 64-67). The company
goes to Rome to shoot a film in the Coliseum with two
Evelyn Waugh, The Balance' (Short story in Georgian actors pretending to be gladiators.
Stories, London: Chapman & Hall, 1926). A cook, a
parlour maid and a Cambridge student watch a 'society' 'Safe and Seine' (May, pp. 64-68). The company goes
movie and make comments. The movie is about a to Paris to shoot a film with Florian Slappey, making his
debut as a comedian in We're in the Gendarmie Now.
superficial young man driven suicidal because of his
love for a girl. Waugh's first short story. 'French Leave' (June, pp. 69-72). The company goes
Harry Charles Witwer, Bill Grimm's Progress (Novel. New to Nice where a businessman originally from Mobile,
York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1926). A taxi driver becomes Alabama, welcomes them.
a big time boxer and uses his sports fame to get roles Octavus Roy Cohen. Short stories in The Saturday Eve
in movies.
ning Post in 1927 about the African-American Midnight
Harry Charles Witwer, 'Came the Dawn' (Short story in Pictures Corporation:
Cosmopolitan, January 1926, pp. 85-88). NewYork hotel 'Mate in America' (8 January); 'Stews Company' (5
switchboard operator Gladys Murgatroyd visits Holly February); 'Between Halves' (5 March); Crude Interest'
wood and rents a bungalow with her movie actress friend (26 March); The Pull by the Horns' (7 May); 'Double or
Hazel. They throw a house-warming party. Nothing' (19 November).
1927 Virginia Dale. Short stories in Red Book Magazine in 1927
told through the diary of Dumb Dora of Escanaba who
Anon, The Missing Film Star (Crime novel. London : Aldine
has gone to Hollywood to become a vamp:
Dixon Brett Library #11, 1927). Adventure of series de
tective Dixon Brett. 'I Think I'll Get Married' (February, pp. 67-70, 109-15).
Dora decides to marry a star and gets an extra role in a
Anon. [R.C. Armour], The Movie Mystery (Crime novel.
cabaret scene with an actor known as the 'rajah of love'.
London: Sexton Blake Library # 99, Amalgamated Press,
1927). Adventure of series detective Sexton Blake. Cover 'I Was So Insulted' (April, pp. 80-83, 111-15). Dora
shows villain about to push man and woman off cliffbegins to room with another would-be movie actress
edge. who goes out with a different man every night and always
comes home after being insulted.
Anon. [G.H. Teed], The Mystery ofthe Film City (Crime
novel. Sexton Blake Library #119, Amalgamated Press, The Woman Pays' (June, pp. 68-70, 105-08). Dora
1927). Adventure of series detective Sexton Blake. takes a job as maid to a vamp star so she can get ideas
jjlil^ An annotated bibliography by Ken Wlaschin with Stephen Bottomore
Fouchardi?re). Maud, an apprentice from the Paris fash

ion world, becomes a movie star.
Anna George deMille, 'Stars' (Short story in Photoplay,
October 1927, pp. 65-67, 150-56). A young movie
actress visits an observatory with a telescope and finds
movie stars and sky stars getting confused.
Cross Dixon, The Movie Winger (Novel for boys. London:
Aldine Football Novels #26,1927). A soccer star gets to
make movies.
Jean Dupont, 'Life for a Night' (Short story in Photoplay,
March 1927, pp. 64-68). A wannabe film actress finds
no success after two years and decides to go home and
marry her high school sweetheart. Her luck changes at
a premiere so she decides to stick it out.
Alice B. Emerson, Ruth Fielding and Her Great Scenario
or Striving for the Motion Picture Prize (Novel for girls.
New York: Cupples & Leon, 1927). Ruth forms her own
film company and wins a fifty thousand dollar prize for
a scenario.
Ida M. Evans, 'Mr. Bray Casts' (Short story in Red Book
Magazine, July 1927, pp. 87-90, 123-28). Mrs. Dunlap
came to Hollywood with her daughter to let her try for
stardom, but after two years it is not going well.
Bedford Forrest, Alice in Movieland, A Modern Fantasy
in Two Acts (Stage play. Boston: Expression Company,
1927. Staged in Boston in 1927). Young Alice imagines
herself in Movieland where she meets stars including
Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Hoot Gibson.
Mon Cur? au Cin?ma (1927). Dust wrapper, colour.
Sam Hellman. Short stories in Red Book Magazine in
about being a vamp, but is discouraged to find that the 1927:
star's main ambition is to lure men.
The Movies Make the Man' (August, pp. 48-51,109-15).
Elmer Coddle looks like a war hero so he is hired by a
Maurice De Marsan, Mon Cur? au Cin?ma (Novel. Paris:
movie company to play the role; his wife won't let him
A. Quignon, 1927. With 200 drawings by Ren? Giffey).
go until he finishes the week's wash.
A French priest gets involved in the movie world.
'Borgia, Behave' (September, pp. 53-58, 120-24). A
Maurice De Marsan, Maud, demoiselle de cin?ma screenwriter has to figure out how to insert comedy
(Novel. Paris: A. Quignon, 1927. With 210 drawings by sequences into a movie about Lucrezia Borgia.
H. Fournier. Introduction by Georges de la 'Glam' (October, pp. 60-63,109-13). A stunt man can
do everything a star is expected to do but he has no
'glam', the quality of making audiences feel he's got
something they haven't.
'Dumb As She Is' (November, pp. 54-57, 111-15). A
screenwriter has to adapt the best-selling novel Cold
Sunbeam so that the dumbest actress at the studio can
play the thinking heroine.
Joseph Hergesheimer. Short stories in The Saturday
Evening Post in 1927:
'Forty-Seven Pretty Girls' (22 January). The author of a
best-selling novel is brought to Hollywood to advise on
its adaptation. His advice is ignored but he is besieged
r'^m^^r^ by starlets.
'A School for Acting' (19 February, pp. 21-24,144-50).
Ruth Fielding and Her Great Scenario (1927). Frontispiece and
A new actor in Hollywood is visited by a man from a trade
title page.
newspaper who wants $100 to provide publicity.
'Parent to a Star' (26 February, pp. 28-30,155-70). The Rose Pelswick, 'Does It Pay, Girls?' (Short story in I
mother of a major movie star has a difficult relationship Photoplay, August 1927, pp. 64-67,115-17). A beautiful
with her daughter, but they behave amiably in public. young woman from Ohio finds it tough to break into the
movies in Hollywood and wonders if being 'good' really
The Extra Consideration' (19 March, pp. 25-26,
pays.
173-80). A movie extra dresses up for a date with a man
who works in pictures and is upset when she finds out Herman Petersen, 'More Than Hunger' (Short story in
he is only a carpenter. Photoplay, December 1927, pp. 65-67, 117-19). A for
TheSupercherub'(2April,pp.22-23,110-15).Aspoiled mer army aviation hero goes hungry rather than flying
eight-year-old movie star has family problems. His older planes in war pictures which he thinks only breed more
wars.
brother threatens to tear off his ear and his father is losing
his money. William Plomer, At the Bioscope' (Short story in / Speak
And Now the Story' (16 April, pp. 16-17, 114-21). A of Africa. London: Hogarth Press, 1927, pp. 237-238).
studio boss tells his actors and associates that coop In this subtle vignette, a newly married man goes to the
eration is the key to success, but his idea for a college cinema with his wife but imagines he sees another,
picture does not get a warm response. unknown woman; perhaps suggesting that his life and
love could have followed a different scenario.
Ronald Clare, The Kinema Kids Take the Lion Trail'
(Short story for boys in The Triumph, 28 May 1927). Nina Wilcox Putnam, Ankle Along!' (Short story in The
Will Morrissey and Edmund Joseph, Polly of Hollywood Saturday Evening Post, 8 January 1927). Edward H.
Softer didn't make it as a movie sheik, but his son Billy
(Libretto for musical. Premiered in NewYork at the Cohan
Theatre on 21 February 1927). A small town girl goes to has become such a big star that he now has ambitions
to own his own studio.
Hollywood but doesn't much like it.
George Kaufman and Edna Ferber, The Royal Family Etienne de Riche, La Petite Cin?ma (Novel. Paris: J.
(Stage play. Premiered in New York at the Selwyn Theatre Tallandier; Ed. du Livre national, 1927). No details of
on 28 December 1927). Satirical comedy inspired by the plot.
activities of the Barrymore family. The character based Stewart Robertson, 'Higher Hire' (Short story in Photo
on John Barrymore is said to have 'gone Hollywood' and play, September 1927, pp. 64-65, 135-38). A haber
compromised the family name. The police want to arrest dashery clerk is turned into a movie star but has a
him for injuring a movie director. problem with a stunt man.
John Wesley McGowan, Excess Baggage (Stage play. Bernard Rolt, Cinderella of the Cinema (Novel. London:
Premiered at the Ritz Theatre in New York on 26 Decem
Heinemann, 1927). No details of plot.
ber 1927). A vaudeville acrobat and a dancer get married.
She finds success in movies while his stage career Don Ryan, Angel's Flight (Novel. New York: Boni &
falters. They separate but are reunited at a critical mo Liveright, 1927) A newspaper reporter wanders around
ment. Filmed by James Cruze for MGM in 1928 with Los Angeles collecting material for his column. Some of
William Haines and Josephine Dunn. the stories are about Hollywood movie folk, including a
von Stroheim-like film director. The Angel's Flight'of the
William Slavens McNutt, The Love Hunch' (Short story
title is a funicular railway up a steep hill in downtown Los
in Photoplay, July 1927, pp. 66-69). A heavy-drinking
war hero in Paris gets involved with a Hollywood actress.
Angeles.
Lorraine Maynard, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Movie Star Adela Rogers St. Johns, The Port of Missing Girls' (Six
(Novel for teenagers. NewYork: The Century Co., 1927). stories in Photoplay March-August 1927). Tales of young
The story of a child actress who becomes a Hollywood women who come to Hollywood and fail in 'the most
star by making films with a dog. Apparently inspired by heart-breaking game in the world where the odds are
the life of Baby Peggy, who began her career that way. ten-thousand-to-one against them.'
Gouverneur Morris, The Bird in the Bush' (Short story in Adela Rogers St. Johns, The Amazing Choice' (Short
Cosmopolitan, April 1927, pp. 63-66). A San Francisco story in Good Housekeeping, March, 1927, pp. 34-37).
millionaire meets a woman headed to Los Angeles to Sandy Mclntosh was a power in Hollywood as chief
attempt a movie career. She marries him but doesn't assistant to a studio boss but she makes the amazing
give up her idea of a movie career. choice of giving it all up for the right man.
Joseph Mountain, The Voice of the People' (Short story Edward Stilgebauer, TheStar of Hollywood (Novel. Berlin:
in Radio News, November 1927). A movie star is found Paul, 1927. English translation by E. W. Wilson, Cleve
unconscious and can't be wakened. Friends appeal to land: International Fiction Library, 1929). The 'star of
his fans to assemble in movie theatres and shout simul Hollywood' is a famous actress who dies from an over
taneously for him to wake up. This doesn't work but an dose of morphine. Her death is considered accidental
engineer discovers that a rival is broadcasting an ultra and an extra who resembles her is hired as a replace
sonic sleep signal. I ment. The extra becomes a star but then a detective I
258 FILM HISTORY Vol. 20 Issue 2 (2008).An annotated bibliography by Ken Wlaschin with Stephen Bottomore
discovers she administered the overdose to her prede Midnight Pictures Corporation holds a male beauty con
cessor. test to make some money.
Robert James Cosgriff, Wastelands (Los Angeles:
Virginia Tracy, Starring Dulcy Jayne (Novel. Garden City,
New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1927). A young woman Wetzel Publishing Co., 1928). The central character, after
working in the forests of Oregon, goes to Hollywood to
finds success as an actress working in the film industry
in Fort Lee, New Jersey. see the woman he loves who has become a movie star.
He tries to get into films and fails because of the jealousy
High Wiley, 'Bonanza' (Short story in Red Book Maga
of a rival but he is eventually offered a film contract. He
zine, March 1927, pp. 92-94, 144-53). The script for
turns it down as he prefers life with the big trees. She
Bonanza is way over the top but the producer gets rich
agrees.
on rumors of a gold mine on land he bought for the film.
Martin Clifford, 'Grundy's Movie-Camera' (Short story in
Thyra Samter Winslow, 'Just a Sweet Girl' (Short story77?e Gem Ubrary, 7 April 1928). Grundy's uncle sends
in Cosmopolitan, September 1927, pp. 72-75). A pretty
him a movie camera but its use nearly causes his
young girl from Iowa marries a 55-year-old studio chief
expulsion from St. Jim's. He is saved when a film reveals
and becomes a movie star. At least that's what the fan
the truth.
magazines said, but they didn't tell whole story.
Virginia Dale, The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful' (Short
Harry Charles Witwer, 'Yes Man's Land' (Short storystoryin
in Red Book Magazine, December 1928, pp. 52-55,
Cosmopolitan, January 1927, pp. 76-79,114-18). 'Yes 122-25). How the girl who was too beautiful became a
Man's Land' is what actors call a film studio where there
movie star and then dropped out.
is no such word as 'no'. A millionaire's son writes a
Dudley Early, The Movies Are Like That' (Short story in
scenario, his father meets a lovely actress and a movie
is born. Photoplay, November 1928, pp. 66-67, 137-44). A
screenwriter can't help admiring his ex-wife after he
becomes manager of a movie studio.
1928
A.C. and C. Edington, The Studio Murder Mystery (Crime
Katherine Albert, 'Eggs and Onions' (Short story in
Photoplay, September 1928, pp. 66-67, 116-22). A
movie actress eats spring onions before a love scene
with her screen lover and he is disgusted. Then she
announces they are engaged to be married.
Charlton Andrews and Philip Dunning, Get Me in the
Movies (Stage play. Opened in New York, 21 May 1928).
A man wins a script-writing contest and is brought to
Hollywood, where he is besieged by women who want
movie roles.
Anon, The Cinema Crime (Crime novel. London: Aldine

Detective Tales, 1928). Adventure in the Dixon Brett
detective series.
Victor Appleton, Tom Swi? and His Talking Pictures or

The Greatest Invention on Record (Novel for boys. New
York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1928). A sequel to the 1912
Tom Swift movie novel, Tom SwiftandHis Wizard Camera.
Tom adds a 'radio machine' to his camera so it can send
and receive pictures and sound. This worries movie
producers who menace him.
Malcolm Stuart Boylan, 'Funny Old Fool' (Short story in
Photoplay, May 1928, pp. 64-66, 130-36). An elderly
stage actor finds it difficult to get movie roles but an
elderly lady shows him the ropes and buys him lunch.
Arnolt Bronnen, Film Und Leben. Barbara la Marr (Ger
man novel. Berlin: Ernst Rowohlt, 1928). A "faction"
novel. The story of the rise and fall of the "too beautiful"
Hollywood star Barbara La Marr using a mixture of fact
and fiction.
Octavus Roy Cohen, 'Black Beauty' (Story in The Satur 'Grundy's Movie-Camera' (1928). Cover of Gem Library
day Evening Post, 28 April 1928, pp. 20-22, 70-74). The magazine, colour.
novel first published in Photoplay in October-November are shown in a movie, he discovers he had been taken
1928; later London: Literary Press, 1929). A movie star unconscious to a Brooklyn movie studio where his'moon
is found dead on Stage Six and three people confess to trip' was filmed.
the crime. The chief detective doesn't believe them.
Carlo Linati, 'One of the Claque' (Italian short story in
Alice B. Emerson, Ruth Fielding at Cameron Hall or a English translation in Best European Short Stories of
Mysterious Disappearance (Novel for girls, New York: 1928, ed. Richard Eaton, NewYork: Dodd, Mead, 1929).
Cupples & Leon, 1928). Ruth Fielding directs a film A Milanese furniture repairer is hired to play Caesar
based on her prize-winning scenario. Her boyfriend is Borgia in an Italian film, which is a big success but his
kidnapped but she rescues him and then marries him. wife leaves him for portraying a villain and he is unable
to get other roles or return to his old job. He finally joins
F. Scott Fitzgerald, 'Magnetism' (Short story in The
an opera claque and his wife returns to him.
Saturday Evening Post, 3 March 1928. Reprinted in The
StoriesofF. Scott Fitzgerald, New York: Scribner's, 1951). Anita Loos, But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (Novel. New
A script girl demands $50,000 from a movie star for fake York: Boni &Liveright, 1928; illustrated by Ralph Barton).
love letters she tricked him into signing. His wife is Lorelei Lee, whose earlier adventures were told in Gen
causing problems. On the plus side a Mexican cleaning tlemen Prefer Blondes, resumes herdiary. Herfirst career
woman worships him. after getting married is in the cinema and she says she
Dana Gatlin, 'It's Different in Life' (Short story in Photo | had 'plenty of cute scenes where the leading man would
chase me around the trunk of a tree'. Meanwhile her
play, December 1928). Movie stars who play lovers in
romance films fall in love for real but find that love in real friend Dorothy gets accidental help from Buster Keaton.
life is not like in the movies. They will have to lead separate Grace Mack. Short stories in Photoplay in 1928:
lives and there will be no happy ending. 'Better Than Pickford' (February, pp. 68-69, 84-87). A
Montague Glass, A Good Job for Julius' (Short story in Hollywood extra finds breaking into movies tough going
Cosmopolitan, January 1928, pp. 34-37, 109-15). and agrees to jump off a ship for $50 even though she
Julius's father runs the Film Financing and Distribution can't swim.
Company in Hollywood, but doesn't want his son to act 'Stepping Stones' (June, pp. 48-50, 122-24). Sophisti
in the movies as he is afraid he will lose him to stardom. cated screenwriter Gerald Frane boasts that no woman
Bruno Hardt-Warden and Leopold Jacobson, Hochzeit can deceive him but waitress Lola proves him wrong.
in Hollywood'/Married in Hollywood (Libretto for operetta. Marda Mackendrick, An Evening's Entertainment' (Play
Vienna: Ludwig Doblinger, 1928; premiered in Vienna, in Short Plays for Adult Foreigners, Berkeley, Calif. The
21 December 1928). An exiled Ruritanian prince plays Professional Press, 1928). About a diverse motion pic
a prince in an American movie and is reunited with the ture theatre audience.
woman his aristocratic family would not allow him to
marry. Ludovic Morin, ?toile de Cin?ma (Novel. Paris: J. Fer
enczi et fils, 1928). No details of plot.
Rupert Hughes, 'Shop!' (Short story in Cosmopolitan,
July 1928, pp. 38-41, 152-60). Tula Crane is signed to William Dudley Pelley, 'Poise Will Be Poise' (Short story
play opposite Brian Kemp in a romantic South Sea in Photoplay, August 1928, pp. 66-67, 121-24). A mil
lionaire tries to cure his daughter of her love for a movie
picture. They vie with each other to show loving ardour
star.
and hide their mutual hostility.
Ren? Jeanne and E. M. Loumann, Les Myst?res d'Hol Kees Pruis, Hollywood (Libretto for operetta with music
lywood (Novel. Paris, 1928). by Lewis Freeman [Dutch language]. Staged in the
Netherlands in 1928). Musical fantasy about life in Hol
Nunnally Johnson, The World's Shortest Love Affair' lywood.
(Short story in The Saturday Evening Post, 27 October
1928, pp. 27-28, 140-46). A repair man from a radio Harry L. Reichenbach, 'Sexes and Sevens' (Short story
in Photoplay, June 1928, pp. 68-69,119-23). An actress
shop in Hollywood loves movie actresses. He meets the
actress of his dreams while on a job and it goes incredibly
agrees to ride naked on a horse for a film about Lady
well.
Godiva.
Agnes Christine Johnston, The Movie Hound' (Short Stewart Robertson, 'Mr. Hoople Stays in Character'
story in Photoplay, April 1928, pp., 50-51,128-34). Little
(Short story in Photoplay, October 1928, pp. 66-67,
116-19). Grosvenor Hoople usually plays heavies, from
Beansy (a dog) see his police dog neighbour in a movie
and decides to become a movie star himself. prison wardens to dukes, but his mimicry ability almost
lands him in jail when he gets a special assignment.
Slater LaMaster, 'Luckett of the Moon' (Short story in
Florence Ryerson and Colin Clements, On the Lot (Play.
Argosy All-Story, 28 January 1928). A man plans to fake
Samuel French, 1928). A one act comedy set on a movie
a rocket trip to the moon but his take-off goes wrong
lot: 'short and clever' said one critic.
and he wakes up on the moon where he meets bizarre
creatures and lovely women. When his lunar adventures Margaret E. Sangster, The Extra Boy and the Star' (Short
story in Good Housekeeping, June 1928, pp.58-61 ). Star picture (Novel. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1928.) A New
Dawn Harrow was as beautiful as an angel and tempera York playwright is persuaded to go to Hollywood to
mental as a devil, but she encourages a young extra, create an original screenplay. He does, but it is com
even promising to marry him. pletely rewritten and the film made from it has little to do
Walter Shute, The Affair of the Rival Cinema Kings (Crime

with his version. However, it is a huge success and he
novel. London: Sexton Blake Ubrary, Amalgamated is paid large sums.
Press, 1928). Tale of series detective Sexton Blake.
Rob Wagner, A Tame Story' (Short story in The Saturday
Sinbad (pseudonym of Aylward Edward Dingle), 'Cheap Evening Post, 2 July 1928, pp. 10-11,55-62). The highest
at Twice the Price' (Short story in Collier's magazine, 26 paid scenario writer at a studio puts every tried-and-true
May 1928). An extravagant amount of money is spent clich? into the script for his masterpiece, Balloonatic. He
on a movie but the expense is judged absolutely nec also wants to direct it.
essary.
Edgar Wallace, A Strange Film Adventure' and 'Cinema
H. Stinson, 'Malice in Blunderland' (Play in Harper's
Teaching by Post' (Short stories in The Mixer, London:
Bazar, November 1928, pp. 100-101 +). A one act play
about the movies. John Long, 1928). In the first story, set in Spain, Milwau
kee Meg hires a film company to trap a thief known as
Margaretta Tuttle, Little Girl (Novelette serialized in The The Mixer but he outwits her. In the second story, set in
Saturday Evening Post, 2, 9 and 16 June 1928). A movie London, the Mixer tricks an ex-convict who is swindling
actress finds that failure is liberating and decides to go people by pretending to teach cinema acting by post.
home.
Alice Muriel Williamson, Black Sleeves: It Happened in
Rena Vale, 'Play Houses' (Short story in Photoplay, May
Hollywood (Novel. London: Chapman and Hall, 1928).
1928, pp. 50-51, 108-10). A director wants to make a
No details of plot.
star of Jenny but she prefers an architect who can build
a 'playhouse by the sea'. Alice Muriel Williamson, Hollywood Love (Novel. London:
Carl Van Vechten, Spider Boy; a scenario for a moving Chapman and Hall, 1928). No details of plot.
Abstract: Moving picture fiction of the silent era, 1895-1928,

an annotated bibliography by Ken Wlaschin with Stephen Bottomore
This annotated bibliography is the first to survey moving picture fiction of all lengths and types in the United
Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, America and elsewhere during the silent era. Previous attempts
to document film-related fiction have mainly limited themselves to American fiction from 1912 onward and
are primarily limited to novels. Many of the fiction works in this bibliography are described for the first time.
Includes illustrations.
upcoming Film History 20, 3 (2008) Film History 21,1 (2009)

issues/call Studio Systems
Edited by Richard Koszarski
Early Colour
Edited by Kim Tomadjoglou
for papers
Film History 20, 4 (2008) Fiim History 21,2 (2009)
Politics and Film Producers and Directors
Edited by Dan Leab Edited by Janet Bergstrom

Ken Wlaschin and Stephen Bottomore - Moving Picture Fiction of The Silent Era, 1895-1928

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Ken Wlaschin and Stephen Bottomore - Moving Picture Fiction of The Silent Era, 1895-1928

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Moving Picture Fiction of the Silent Era, 1895-1928

Author(s): Ken Wlaschin and Stephen Bottomore

Moving picture fiction of

1895 Henri van Muyden [Gorgibus], 'Cabotzet ? l'Exposition'

1896 Dagonet (George R. Sims) - 'Our Detective Story' (Short

IUmiruitd ly J. Barxak? Dayk.

1898 knows, is the only spirit by which a business

W.D. Nesbit, The Cinematographic Cupid' (Short story

Raymond Rayne, 'Colonel Rankin's Advertisement'

of Boer prisoners, and among them Marie is shocked

plans to film a shooting incident, and eventually man

Charles Dormier [or Dornier?], 'Le Cin?matographe'

Stanley J. Fay, The Punishment That Fitted the Crime'

George Grossmith, 'Hullo, London' (Musical at Empire

December 1912, p. 9). To hide the affair he is having, a

Anon, 'Mr. Chivers' Aunt: A Moving Picture Story' (Short

Victor Appleton (Stratemeyer syndicate house name),

Ruby Estella Stimson, The Movies (1912). A stage sketch

lands and set up a motion picture theatre in the resort

The International Cup' (12 July 1913). Titan Studio boss

M. Sp., 'Kino-Aufn?hme' (German short story in Lustige 1914

R.L. Ward, 'In the Firelight: A Story of What Might Have

I Victor Appleton: I Madrid: Soc. de Autores Espa?oles, 1915). Comic fan

the lyrics for one of the earliest motion picture songs,

Kenneth McGaffey, Pete Props, The Plaint of a Picture

Neil Moran, 'Movie Men for a Day' (Short story in The

Mary Roberts Rinehart, 'My Country Tish of Thee' (Short

Robert Shaler, The Boy Scouts with the Motion Picture

J. L. Sherard, 'A Motion Picture Waterloo' (Short story in

The Motion-Picture Comrades Producing a Success or

Edmund Lawrence Burke, Johnny Get Your Gun (Stage

Duffy, 1917). A farcical sketch in one act about the

Ben Hecht, The Movie Maniac' (Short story in The Smart

Clive Holland (pseudonym of Charles James Hankin

Rupert Hughes, We Can't Have Everything (Novel. New

Susan Glaspell, 'His Smile' (Short story in The Pictorial

Rupert Hughes, Souls For Sale (Novel. First published

Frank Adams. Stories in Photoplay in 1923:

| Anon. [Oliver Merland], The Face in the Film (Crime novel.

Samuel Merwin, Theme with Variations' (Short story in

Katherine and Robert Pinkerton, Not in the Scenario

which has BK on a bicycle ride in a city park after he's

Montague Glass, Y'Understand (Short story collection,

Richard Goyne, Thrill Hunters of the Films' (Short story

Nunnally Johnson, The Hero' (Short story in The Satur

Fouchardi?re). Maud, an apprentice from the Paris fash

Anon, The Cinema Crime (Crime novel. London: Aldine

Victor Appleton, Tom Swi? and His Talking Pictures or

Walter Shute, The Affair of the Rival Cinema Kings (Crime

Abstract: Moving picture fiction of the silent era, 1895-1928,

upcoming Film History 20, 3 (2008) Film History 21,1 (2009)

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