A Cave Man Wooing (IMP)
Moving Picture World (18 May 1912): 588.
You can watch this film by clicking here.
Synopsis from Moving Picture World (18 May 1912): 662.
A CAVE MAN WOOING (May 20). — George, our hero, falls in love with Clarice, a fascinating young girl of an athletic turn of mind. There is a rival in the field, however, one who would attract any woman–a manly man, while poor George is a weakling, consequently, he is decidedly out of it in the race for her hand.
At this time he reads in an article published in the papers by a famous authoress that women like cave man methods to-day, just as they did hundreds of years ago. This is a tip which he promptly takes advantage of. He joins a class in physical culture and after many amusing an exciting experiences, he finally accomplishes the end in view, and becomes indeed a giant in strength. his friends and family, and especially Clarice, look on in amazement at the wonderful acts of strength he performs, and when, at the end of the evening’s surpasses, he picks up the unresisting girl and bears her off to a clergyman’s house to be married, the climax is reached.
Of course, when Clarice realizes what it all means, she does not submit passively, but such struggles are apparently unnoticed by the strong man. His destination being reached, the marriage ceremony is performed. Just then the girl knows she does care very much indeed for George, and when there intrudes upon them her entire family, she is indigent and peremptorily commands them to depart. This they do forthwith, leaving the husband and wife along in their new-found happiness.
The Female of the Species (Griffith)
The Cave Man (Vitagraph)
Moving Picture World (20 April 1912): 199. Courtesy of the Media History Digital Library
Around 100 years ago, there began a trend of producing cave-man themed films. The Cave Man was one of them. I posted about one, As it was in the Beginning, a while ago. In today’s 100-year-old film, written by Charles L. Gaskell and directed by and starring Ralph Ince. The film is likely lost, but I here’s a synopsis I paraphrased based on what Vitagraph provided to the Moving Picture World about 100 years ago:
After her father dies, Chloe, played by Edith Storey, is left alone in the world. She is discovered and taken home to their cave by brothers Dagban and Eric, who vie for her affection in an allegory about “brain vs. brawn.” When “Dagban threatens to do her bodily harm unless she accedes to his intentions” Eric beats up his brother to protect Chloe, and then subsequently leaves the cave he calls home to avoid further conflict. By this point, he has won Chloe’s affection with his kindness and love, and she decides to follow him and “together they continue their journey, seeking happiness in the land beyond the horizon, which joins earth with heaven.” (Synopsis paraphrased from The Moving Picture World, (13 April 1912):156.)
In 1915, Vachel Lindsay attributed the phenomenon to a fundamental primal appeal, writing “There is in this nation of moving-picture-goers a hunger for tales of fundamental life … The cave-man longs with an incurable homesickness for his ancient day.” (The Art of the Moving Picture, 1922 reprint. page 261). I happen to think this interpretation is specious for various reasons, which I won’t get into here. Lindsay himself provides an alternative explanation for the rising popularity of such films which has more to do with the enduring appeal of the scantily clad female body objectified by the camera’s lens:
He acknowledges that these films allowed for “anew costume freedom,” previously taboo. Unlike some of his more puritanical peers, Lindsay approved of “such limitation of clothing as would be probable when one is honestly in touch with wild nature and preoccupied with vigorous exercise.” as long as the depiction of “half-draped figures living in tropical islands or our hairy fore-fathers acting out narratives of the stone age” clad in “the grass-robe or buffalo hide,” was narratively motivated and not just an excuse for the “abbreviation of drapery” on the human body. (The Art of the Moving Picture, 1922 reprint. page 261)
I do not have any stills to show from The Cave Man, but I’m betting the “abbreviated drapery” of its characters’ costumes was similar to that of the girl in As It Was In The Beginning, pictured below.
Moving Picture World (27 January, 1912): 262. Courtesy of the Media History Digital Library
Children Who Labor (Edison)
Ogden, Utah Evening Standard (29 February, 1912): 6. Courtesy of the Library of Congress Chronicling America Project
100 years ago today, you could catch this variety-filled program of films including Edison’s Children Who Labor in Ogden, Utah.
Today, this film that is available on DVD thanks to the National Film Preservation Fund.
You can also read a contemporary review by a staff writer for The Moving Picture World, thanks to the archive.org and the Media History Digital Library, AND
check out the Edison company’s original description of Children Who Labor in Thomas Edison and Modern America: A Brief History in Documents by Theresa Mary Collins and Lisa Gitelman.
Like this:
War On The Plains (Bison)
The Moving Picture World vol. 11 page 339. Courtesy of the Media History Digital Library
As it Was in the Beginning (Thanhouser)
As It Was In the Beginning
Moving Picture World (27 January, 1912): 262. Courtesy of the Media History Digital Library
