The Actor's Children
| The Actor's Children | |
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The Actor, his wife and the two children.
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| Directed by | Barry O'Neil |
| Produced by | Edwin Thanhouser |
| Written by | Lloyd Lonergan |
| Starring | Orilla Smith Yale Boss Frank Hall Crane Nicholas Jordan |
| Cinematography | Blair W. Smith |
| Edited by | Gertrude Thanhouser |
| Distributed by | Thanhouser Company |
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Release date
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| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent film English intertitles |
The Actor's Children is a 1910 American silent short drama written by Lloyd Lonergan and produced by the Thanhouser Company in New Rochelle, New York. The film features Orilla Smith, Yale Boss, Frank Hall Crane and Nicholas Jordan. The production was not the first film subject by the company, but it was the first to be released. Both Barry O'Neil and Lloyd B. Carleton have been credited as the director of the production. Edwin Thanhouser stated that 19 copies of the film were produced and distributed to dealers.
The film begins with two unemployed parents obtaining employment in an upcoming theater production. Shortly after returning home, the landlady shows up and demands the rent, but can not collect. She gives them one week, but the theater production does not manifest and the parents again search for work. While they are out, the landlady finds a tenant and puts the children out on the street. They end up dancing for an organ grinder and are saved by a theater manager who puts them on his vaudeville bill. The parents come into a fortune and are reunited by their children at the theater. The film was met with positive reviews and some criticism for its acting and scenario, but the industry had reasons to encourage the success of Edwin Thanhouser's company. A print of the film exists, but it was the subject of nitrate deterioration.
The plot of the film was best convened through a published synopsis in trade which introduced the names of the cast and the backstory. Eugenie Freeman and Paul Temple, marry and have two children, a boy and a girl. The parents have been unemployed, but the film starts with the parents finding work in an upcoming production at a theater. As they return home, they are interrupted by the landlady, Mrs. O'Brien, who demands the rent. The landlady does not car about the family's misfortune and is upset when she cannot collect. She provides one week for the Temple family to pay up.
The production is postponed and the parents are out looking for work when a prospective tenant appears. Mrs. O'Brien shows him the room and he is interested, but does not know what to do with the children. Mrs. O'Brien puts the children out onto the street where they dance to the music played by an organ grinder. The organ grinder earns more money from their dancing and he entices the children to return to his hovel and teaches them to dance. The organ grinder instructs them to dance for money. The children are rescued by a theater manager and finds them a place in the theater program.
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