Maggie Pepper | |
---|---|
Directed by | Chester "Chet" Withey |
Written by | Charles Klein (play) Gardner Hunter (scenario) |
Produced by | Adolph Zukor Jesse Lasky |
Starring | Ethel Clayton |
Cinematography | David Abel |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 5 reels |
Country | United States |
Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
Maggie Pepper is a lost [1] 1919 American silent comedy-drama film directed by Chester Withey and starring Ethel Clayton. [2] This film is based on a hit 1911 play by Charles Klein which was a winning success for stage actress Rose Stahl at the Harris Theatre. [3]
It is not known whether the film currently survives. [4]
Both Rose Stahl's manager, Henry B. Harris, and the original playwright, Charles Klein, died in notable disasters: Harris on the RMS Titanic in 1912, and Klein on the RMS Lusitania in 1915.
As described in a film magazine, [5] Maggie Pepper (Clayton) is a self-reliant and snappy saleswoman who supports a young girl Claire (Wilson), the daughter of her sister-in-law Ada (Greenwood), who is in jail for shoplifting. Maggie is being courted by Jake Rothschild (Hatton) and has just rejected him when the young owner of the store, Joe Holbrook (Dexter), comes upon them. She mistakes Joe for a job seeker and advises him to stay away from a concern that is dying painlessly. Joe becomes interested and finds that the peppery young woman has ideas and vision. He is already engaged, but finds that the comparison of the women favors Maggie. Maggie, the victim of envy, is discharged. Her sister-in-law Ada, now released and led back to crime by a second husband Sam (Marshall), plans to do shoplifting at the Holbrook store. Maggie only wants the child to be free from bad influences, and accepts a job offer in Pittsburgh to get a better environment. There is a sensational attempt to steal the child, which brings Holbrook to the rescue. He feigns injury to keep a hold on Maggie, and ends up winning her.
Both the author of the original stage play, Charles Klein, and Rose Stahl's manager, Henry B. Harris, died at sea.
Harris, a theatrical producer, was also the owner and lessee of the Harris Theatre on 42nd Street where Maggie Pepper played. In April 1913 he was in London, arranging future performances of Maggie Pepper with Stahl and the original American cast. [6] Harris also acquired the US rights to The Miracle , the world's first full-colour narrative feature film which had been showing at the Royal Opera House. [6] However, Harris died after the ship he and his wife were travelling on, the RMS Titanic, hit an iceberg, although his wife survived. [7]
Charles Klein died in the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in 1915. Another victim on the Lusitania was Charles Frohman, also a well-known theatrical producer. Frohman had produced one of Klein's first successes, Heartsease, with Henry Miller, and was also the manager and lessee of the Park Theatre, Boston, where Rose Stahl (managed by Harris) played in The Chorus Lady in 1908. [8] [9]
Charles Frohman was an American theater manager and producer, who discovered and promoted many stars of the American stage. Frohman produced over 700 shows, and among his biggest hit was Peter Pan, both in London and the US.
Elsie Louise Ferguson was an American stage and film actress.
James Forbes was a Canadian playwright who worked as a Hollywood film screenwriter. The Chorus Lady and The Famous Mrs. Fair were his best known plays.
Daniel Frohman was an American theatrical producer and manager, and an early film producer.
Henry Miller was an English-born American actor, director, theatrical producer and manager.
Marie Doro was an American stage and film actress of the early silent film era.
Dorothy Gibson was a pioneering American silent film actress, artist's model, and singer active in the early 20th century. She is best remembered as a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic and for starring in the first motion picture based on the disaster.
The Frohman brothers were American theatre owners, including on Broadway, and theatrical producers who also owned and operated motion picture production companies.
Charles Klein was an English-born playwright and actor who emigrated to America in 1883. Among his works was the libretto of John Philip Sousa's operetta, El Capitan. Klein's talented siblings included the composer Manuel and the critic Herman Klein. He drowned during the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.
Marguerite Lucile Jolivet, known professionally as Rita Jolivet, was a British actress in theatre and silent films in the early 20th century. She was known in private life as the Countess Marguerita de Cippico.
Beatrice Prentice was a stage actress of the early 20th century.
Manuel Joachim Klein was an English-born composer of musical theatre and incidental music who worked primarily in New York City.
Henry Birkhardt Harris was a Broadway producer and theatre owner who died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic. His wife was future producer Renee Harris, who survived the sinking and lived until 1969.
The Lyceum Theatre was a theatre in New York City located on Fourth Avenue between 23rd and 24th Streets in Manhattan. It was built in 1885 and operated until 1902, when it was torn down to make way for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower. It was replaced by a new Lyceum Theatre on 45th Street. For most of its existence, the theatre was home to Daniel Frohman's Lyceum Theatre Stock Company, which presented many important plays and actors of the day.
William Harris was a prominent American theatrical producer who owned or held a large interest in some 50 theatres in New York City, Boston and Chicago. He was considered the dean of theatrical managers. His children included Henry B. Harris and William Harris Jr., both theatrical producers.
The Empire Theatre in New York City was a prominent Broadway theatre in the first half of the twentieth century.
The Anco Cinema was a former Broadway theatre turned cinema at 254 West 42nd Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues in Manhattan, New York City. It opened in 1904 and was originally named the Lew Fields Theatre. It continued to operate as a playhouse under various names until it was converted into a movie theatre in 1930. Its block was famous for its concentration of Broadway theatres turned cinemas. After World War II, the street declined and the Anco Cinema eventually became a pornography venue. It closed as a cinema in 1988 and was gutted for retail use. The building was demolished in 1997.
Irene Wallach Harris, better known as Renee Harris, was the first female theatrical manager and producer in the United States. Harris was interested in the theater, but had no experience with it other than as a patron. While attending a matinée, she met her husband, the noted theatrical manager and producer Henry B. Harris. The two had a whirlwind courtship, with Harris assisting her husband in his work even before the marriage. Through their work together, Harris learned about both theater management and theatrical production. Her husband said that she was competent enough to take over his business if anything happened to him.
Daphne Glenne (1886–1972), born Dorothy Cornelius, was an English leading actress in musical theatre and silent film in the period around 1910–1920.
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