Florence Lawrence

An unprecedented anthology of never-before-told true stories by and about some of Hollywood's most interesting stars, legends, and wannabes, and takes readers inside Hollywood's inner sanctum to show how casting decisions are made, who makes them, and who has the final word.

The careers of D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin are chronicled culminating in the formation of United Artists and 1919.

The Great McGonigle and his troupe of third-rate vaudevillians manage to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors and the sheriff.

A New York fashion model finds herself being pursued by a poor but honest garage mechanic and a rich philanderer.

Hard-working, henpecked Ambrose Ambrose Wolfinger takes off from work to go to a wrestling match with catastrophic consequences.

A farmer's widow takes on the land and her late husband's tempestuous son.

Wealthy widow Mrs. Bramson notices that her maid is distracted, and when she learns the girl's fiancé, Danny, is the reason, she summons him in. Mrs. Bramson's niece Olivia takes a liking to Danny, and comes to believe that he may have been involved in the disappearance of a local woman.

In the 1860s, Mary Marlowe defies her father's wishes to marry a British lord and runs away with clerk John Carlton as he heads West to make his fortune. Mary and John endure the difficult journey and settle into a small cabin, then face the hostilities of a cattle rustling gang, as well as the tragic loss of their only son. With Mary's help, John defeats the gang, which propels him to political power that, over the years, gradually erodes the once-happy marriage.

After he's accused of a series of stagecoach robberies, an innocent man has to find the real crooks.

Bank clerk Vincent Forrest loses his savings in a gambling den run by Madame Zoe and her provider, Van Merton. Forrest's wife Ann begins an affair with Merton when she discovers that Forrest is infatuated with Madame Zoe. Ann loses heavily gambling, but Vincent soon realizes what is happening in time to save his wife and to restore her happiness.

A society girl changes places with her maid for an adventure.

When a fireman rescues his long-lost sister-in-law he mistakes her for his wife when she dies, and contemplates suicide until he learns the truth.

A spurned suitor threatens to kill Margie's sweetheart if she does not give him up.

The film follows a, love triangle in a Maine fishing village, where a girl named Rosie (Lawrence) gives a rose to two brothers who are vying for her hand. The plot involves jealousy, a fight at sea for a rose, a near-death experience, and a final resolution where the younger brother gets the girl.

A rejected suitor rebuffs the woman he loves after the death of her husband.

An honest man trades places with a convict so the convict can see his dying wife, but he is killed on his way back to prison. The governor must step in to assure the right man is released from prison.

Unable to bear the abuse of her drunken soldier husband, the wife left her home and went to the city, where she became a nurse in a hospital. Her husband, recovering from a spree, treated his wife's disappearance as a joke and soon went with his company to the Philippines. Meantime a doctor at the hospital had fallen in love with the young wife and when news came from the Philippines that her husband had been killed she married him. They were very happy and a child was born to them. To a friend in her old home she sent a photograph of herself and family. Then her soldier husband returned for he had not been killed. During a reception at her new home he appeared on the scene. A dancer was to be there, but being unable to keep the engagement, the wife had prepared to perform the dance herself. The appearance of her soldier husband greatly excited her for it made her second marriage illegal.

A husband uses a ruse to sneak back into the house after a night out.

An orphaned young woman rejects her appointed suitor and falls in love with her guardian.

A dramatic love triangle between two women and a man.

Aunt Jane's nieces and nephews bicker over an anticipated legacy.

A young doctor is jealous of one of his patient's romantic interest in his nurse.

Jane thinks she has witnessed a murder and the suspect is arrested; she later learns the truth and saves him from hanging.

Two old gentlemen who have been pals from boyhood decide that their children ought to marry. This intention is a commendable one, to be sure, and what is more, their son and daughter like each other pretty well, still more, the wish of the parents would have been automatically done if the old men only had sense enough to remember the adage about the cooks and the broth.

An unattractive girl endeavors to make herself attractive to an artist, but he sees only the artificial beauty of a model.

A husband learns from his mistake after he wrongly accuses his wife of infidelity.

Mrs. Wharton, a dashing widow, gives a party at her beautiful villa in honor of the presentation to her of a handsome diamond necklace by her fiancé. During the evening bridge participated in by a number of the guests, among whom is Myrtle Vane. Miss Vane is playing in wretched luck, and is advised several times by Mrs. Wharton to desist, but she still plays on in the vain hopes of the tide of fortune turning, until at last, in the extreme of desperation, she stakes her all and loses. Shame and disgrace stare her in the face. What can she do to recoup her depleted fortune? As one of the guests there is Professor Francois Paracelsus, the eminent palmister, who of course, was called upon to read the palms of those present. Sheets of paper were prepared and each imprinted their hand on a sheet to be read by the erudite soothsayer at his leisure, and so were left on the drawing room table.

Biographical drama, adaptation of Shakespeare's play.

A girl from the New York slums falls in with crooks. After her love is arrested following a barfight turned deadly, her life seems directionless-- that is, until she's saved from the streets by a band of Salvationists. She enrolls, and soon afterward encounters her former love in the same bar. Her faith is real, and strong, and her former love doesn't like this.

During the American Revolution, a young soldier carrying a crucial message to General Washington is spotted and pursued by a group of enemy soldiers. He takes refuge with a civilian family, but is soon detected. The family and their neighbors must then make plans to see that the important message gets through after all.

A haughty politician, on seeing a satirical cartoon in a newspaper, rushes to the paper's offices to shoot the cartoonist. On discovering the cartoonist is a pretty woman, he falls instantly in love and wastes no time in trying to woo her.

Antonine, a worthless, good-for-nothing scoundrel, demands money of his cousin Galora, an energetic, provident husband and father. His demands are met with a positive rebuff, and when he becomes insistent be is forcibly ejected by Galora. As he leaves the tenement he vows to get even, and lies in wait until Galora has gone out on business. Climbing to the fifth floor, on which the Galoras live, he watches his chance, which comes when Mrs. Galora goes for an instant to visit a neighbor on the same floor. Darting into the apartment and raising the window he perceives the awful result of a drop to the ground, five stories below, and so evolves a plan that is dastardly in the extreme. Taking the infant child from the cradle, and placing it in a basket he lets it out with a short rope, the end of which he secures by letting the sash down on it, so that to raise the window would precipitate the baby to destruction.

A short film based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name. It was the first film to dramatize the ill-fated romance between Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII of Egypt.

Schneider is trying to write a speech but he can't concentrate with all the noise around him. During the night, Schneider catches burglars in his house, but when he sees they are stealing all the noisy distractions, he helps them get away.

A man arrives home late and drunk as usual. His wife reminds him that he's supposed to take their daughter out to a play. While watching the play, he's faced with his own drinking evils and how his life would be without them.

After overhearing Jones mocking her, the lady book agent slips a suggestive note into Jones's pocket. A jealous Mrs. Jones finds the note, and a huge quarrel erupts.

A few of us have had the chance to read our own obituary notice, but it fell to the lot of John Goodhusband the rare privilege of viewing his own elegiac cinerary floral offerings, and at the time John was anything but a "dead one."

Out-of-work, Tim steals a sandwich, then knocks out the policeman who chases him. He changes into the policeman's uniform, and is approached by a wife who needs help with her drunken husband.

A mother punishes her son for eating a plate of cream puffs, unaware that the daughter really did it. As the daughter watches the punishment, she feels guilty, and confesses her misdeed.

"Fine feathers make fine birds", and handsome gowns make handsome women. Hence it is when Isabelle appears on the scene clad in a gown that is a masterpiece of the dressmaker's art she easily fascinates the male contingent, among whom is Enrico, the sweetheart of Veronica, a street singer. Enrico is so enraptured at the sight of Isabelle in her resplendent attire that he becomes her abject slave, casting aside the poor, peasant-clad little Italian street singer, who has loved him devotedly. Crushed almost beyond endurance the poor girl stands sobbing at the entrance of the park where the inconsistent lever left her. Her tears attract the attention of a wealthy young couple who happen to pass. In answer to their queries she tells them how contemptibly her sweetheart acted, and all because of the fascinating influence of a gown.

Based on Shakespeare's play. Petruchio courts the bad-tempered Katharina, and tries to change her aggressive behavior.

George Redfeather, the hero of this subject, returns from Carlisle, where he not only graduated with high honors, but was also the star of the college football team. At a reception given in his honor by Lieut. Penrose, an Indian agent, the civilized brave meets Gladys, the lieutenant's daughter, and falls desperately in love with her.

A royal woman rejects her arranged marriage. The cardinal hatches a plan: the suitor will shave and change clothes. He arranges with 4 clowns to stage an attack on the princess which he easily repels. It works; the princess falls for him, especially when the cardinal arranges his arrest.

Daniel Boone is captured by Indians when he tries to rescue his abducted daughter.

Mr. Jones at the Ball is a 1908 American silent short comedy film, part of the once-popular Biograph series centered around the titular Jones and his long-suffering wife. In this film, Jones rips his suit pants and chaos ensues.

In desperation at her mother's illness and their need of money, a young girl determines to go into the underworld in quest of relief, but a woman of the world, touched by her innocence, stops her in time, rebukes the villainous libertine who is about to claim her, and leads the girl back to her home. The act of virtue is rewarded, and the girl obtains work and is about to wed an honorable young man, when the villain learns the fact and stops the wedding with a false accusation. But the worldly woman again comes to the rescue and with a revolver forces the extortionist to retract.

"A pathetic story of mother's grief. No more intense emotion can be imagined than a mother's grief for her dead child. and this Biograph subject beautifully portrays a story of maternal bereavement. It also shows the seemingly cruel workings of fate in taking from the earth the happy, well-cared for child while leaving the poor, ragged orphan to be starved and beaten by a couple of merciless wretches, into whose hands she has fallen." --Moving Picture World, Vol. 4, No. 1 (January 2nd, 1909).

A shoe-factory worker puts a note in a shoe box offering to marry the lucky buyer. As a result, she is dismissed from her job, but her employer finds her so attractive that he suggests a new job for her, as his wife.

In the third installment of the "Mr. and Mrs. Jones" series, Mrs. Jones hosts a luncheon for her Ladies' Temperance League chapter on the condition that her husband, Mr. Jones, stays out of the way, but he manages to secretly drink a decanter of alcohol. When the empty bottle is found, the attendees suspect one of their own is a secret drinker, leading to chaotic accusations before Mr. Jones is exposed as the culprit.

The story tells of the young widowed mother of two children who is forced by extreme poverty to part with one of her children, a baby girl, by placing it in a basket on the door steps of a wealthy banker. Before leaving the baby the poor mother takes one of its little shoes to keep as a memento.

A young couple must endure a tedious visit from their aunt until their friend offers to find a way to make her leave.

Adaptation of a poem written by Thomas Hood.

Harry's jealous former mistress puts poison in some candy intended for his new fiancée. Harry discovers what she has done, and races to save his fiancée before she eats the candy.

Mons. Flamant, a typical roué of the French nobility, is surrounded by all the pleasures and pastimes his fabulous wealth can procure. In a quest of diversion he visits the art rooms, just as a young girl enters with a magnificent piece of sculpture and places it on sale. The roué is so impressed with the work and the girl that he purchases it at once and follows her to the atelier, where he learns that she is the maid of the sculptress, whom he sees and at once falls passionately in love with her, but when he learns that she is totally blind, his feelings change to one of deepest pity.

Soon after their engagement, Bill goes to sea, and Emily vows to stay true until his return. Unknown to her, Bill marries another woman from a different port. Emily waits faithfully for six years, finally becoming dangerously ill. When Bill suddenly appears in town with his family, Joe, who has loved Emily all along, forces Bill to make Emily's final moments happy by pretending he has returned to marry her.

A young courtier gambles in a tavern and wins a coat from the leader of a gang. In the pocket he finds details of a plan to kidnap the Queen. He returns to the castle and hides until the kidnappers show up, then he exposes the kidnapping plot.

A bitter feud between the Wilkinson and Caulfield families turns tragic when the Colonel’s young son is killed. Despite the hatred, Bobby Wilkinson and Nellie Caulfield secretly remain lovers for 10 years and eventually elope, leading Colonel Wilkinson to disown his son. Two years later, Bobby's family faces a bleak Christmas with their infant boy. Desperate for food, their loyal servant steals a turkey from the Colonel’s estate. The Colonel tracks the thief to Bobby’s home, intent on confrontation. However, seeing his baby grandson melts his anger, ending the generational feud over a shared Christmas dinner.

A tramp tricks a cook into leaving her wealthy employer's house. While the clubman's house is empty the tramp makes himself at home, starting by helping himself to a good meal, then going upstairs for a bath and a new set of clothes. Attired in the clubman's clothes, the tramp walks around town, where he is continually mistaken for the clubman.

After a judge (Harry Solter) does his job and sentences a man, a gypsy woman (Marion Leonard) erupts in vehement protests and has to be taken forcefully out of the courtroom. Later the gypsy follows the judge to his home and plots a vicious revenge on his wife (Florence Lawrence).

A young female boarding house tenant becomes an unwanted object of male attention.