Bret Harte was an American short story writer and poet best remembered for short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a career spanning more than four decades, he also wrote poetry, plays, lectures, book reviews, editorials, and magazine sketches.
Sag Harbor, sub-titled An Old Story, is an 1899 comedy, the last play written by American author James Herne. It has four acts and three settings, all within Sag Harbor, New York, while the action covers a two-year time span. The play is a rural comedy, with two brothers competing for the same girl, and an older widower wooing a shy spinster. The play avoids melodrama, emphasising the realistic nature of its characters, though as one critic pointed out they occasionally do unreal things.
William Nigh, born Emil Kreuske, was an American film director, writer, and actor. His film work sometimes lists him as either "Will Nigh" or "William Nye".
Wild Girl is a 1932 American pre-Code historical drama western film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Charles Farrell, Joan Bennett, Ralph Bellamy, and Eugene Pallette. The film was based on a play by Paul Armstrong Jr., which in turn was based on the 1889 short story, Salomy Jane's Kiss, and 1910 novel, Salomy Jane's Kiss, by Bret Harte. The story had been previously filmed as Salomy Jane (1914) and Salomy Jane (1923).
Eleanor Elise Robson Belmont was an English actress and prominent public figure in the United States. George Bernard Shaw wrote Major Barbara for her, but contractual problems prevented her from playing the role. Mrs. Belmont was involved in the Metropolitan Opera Association as the first woman on the board of directors, and she founded the Metropolitan Opera Guild.
William Andrew Quirk was an American stage and silent-film actor. He performed in more than 180 films between 1909 and 1924. Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, he died in Los Angeles, California. Gem Motion Picture Company produced a series of "Billy"-titled pictures starring Quirk.
The Outcasts of Poker Flat is a 1919 American silent Western film directed by John Ford and featuring Harry Carey. The film is considered to be lost. The screenplay is based upon the 1869 story of the same name by Bret Harte. Harte's story has been brought to film at least five times, including in 1937 with Preston Foster and in 1952 with Dale Robertson.
The Escape is a 1914 American silent drama film written and directed by D. W. Griffith and starred Donald Crisp. The film is based on the play of the same name by Paul Armstrong who also wrote the screenplay. It is now considered lost. The master negative of the production was destroyed in the disastrous 1914 Lubin vault fire in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
M'Liss is a 1918 American silent comedy drama film directed by Marshall Neilan, written by Frances Marion and based on a Bret Harte story. The film was made previously in 1915 and was remade again in 1922 as The Girl Who Ran Wild, starring Gladys Walton. Another same-titled remake was released in 1936, starring Anne Shirley.
Salomy Jane is a 1914 silent Western-drama film based on Bret Harte's 1898 novella "Salomy Jane's Kiss" and Paul Armstrong's 1907 play based on Harte's story, Salomy Jane.
Beatriz Michelena was a Venezuelan American actress and singer during the silent film era, known at the time for her operatic soprano voice and appearances in musical theatre. She was one of the few Latina stars visible on the silver screen in the United States in the 1910s. She was a leading lady in each film project she was involved in and, after the failure of California Motion Picture Company, co-founded a production company with her husband George E. Middleton, producing four of her movies.
Salomy Jane is a lost 1923 American silent Western film directed by George Melford, and written by Paul Armstrong, Bret Harte, and Waldemar Young. The film stars Jacqueline Logan, George Fawcett, Maurice "Lefty" Flynn, William B. Davidson, Charles Stanton Ogle, Billy Quirk, and G. Raymond Nye. The film was released on August 26, 1923, by Paramount Pictures. It is a remake of the 1914 film of the same name.
California Motion Picture Corporation was a film company based in San Rafael, California, in Marin County during the silent film era. The company lasted from 1914 until January 1916 when it went bankrupt. It was subsequently renamed and lasted until 1920. It produced at least 15 films. The film company is known for its feature-length films about early California history. Alex E. Beyfuss managed the company.
Two Men of Sandy Bar is a 1916 American silent Western Melodrama directed by Lloyd B. Carleton and starring Hobart Bosworth, Gretchen Lederer along with Emory Johnson.
The Christian is an 1898 play written by British author Hall Caine. It is a drama, with a prologue and four acts. Caine insisted the play was not an adaptation of his 1896 novel of the same name, but rather a new story using the same principal characters. It was more a romance than the theological drama of the novel, as an Anglican vicar of a slum parish in 1890's London tries to persuade a music hall performer to give up her career.
Merely Mary Ann is an 1903 play by British author Israel Zangwill. It is based on his own work of the same name, written in 1893 and later included in The Grey Wig (1903). It has four acts and three settings. The story explores the changing relationship between the younger son of a baronet, who has forsaken inheritance for composing, and an orphaned country girl, now working in a cheap London lodging house.
Alias Jimmy Valentine is a 1909 play written by Paul Armstrong, based on the 1903 short story A Retrieved Reformation by O. Henry. It has four acts, a large cast, four settings, and fast pacing. The story follows a former safecracker's attempt to go straight, and the choice he must make between saving a child's life and exposing himself to arrest.
The Deep Purple is a 1910 play written by Paul Armstrong and Wilson Mizner. It is a melodrama with four acts, a large cast, three settings, and fast pacing. The story concerns an attempted badger game broken up by the intended victim who rescues the unwitting female lure from a gang. The title refers to the nobility of the protagonist's character, that he was "bred in the deep purple".
Going Some is a 1908 play written by Paul Armstrong and Rex Beach, based on some short stories by Beach. It is a farce with four acts, three settings, and fast pacing. The play's action covers one week, and concerns a Yale man with no athletic ability roped into running a footrace for the honor of New Mexico ranch hands and the affection of a Smith College girl.
Paul Armstrong was an American playwright, whose melodramas provided thrills and comedy to audiences in the first fifteen years of the 20th century. Originally a steamship captain, he went into journalism, became a press agent, then a full time playwright. His period of greatest success was from 1907 through 1911, when his four-act melodramas Salomy Jane (1907), Via Wireless (1908), Going Some (1909), Alias Jimmy Valentine (1909), The Deep Purple (1910), and The Greyhound (1911), had long runs on Broadway and in touring companies. Many of his plays were adapted for silent films between 1914 and 1928.
