“The Redman and the Child” was the second picture Biograph’s new
director produced, and his first Indian picture. Charles Inslee was the
big-hearted Indian chief in the story and little Johnny Tansy played
the child. The picture made little Johnny famous. He had as much honor
as the movies of those days could give a child. Jackie Coogan was the
lucky kid to arrive in the world when he did.
When the New Theatre (now the Century), sponsoring high-class
uncommercial drama opened, Johnny Tansy was the child wonder of the
company. Here he fell under the observant eye of George Foster Platt
and became his protégé. And so our Johnny was lost to the movies.
We went to Little Falls, New Jersey, for “The Redman and the Child,”
which, at the time, was claimed to be “the very acme of photographic
art.” I’ll say we worked over that Passaic River. Mr. Griffith made it
yield its utmost. As there was so little money for anything pretentious
in the way of a studio set, we became a bit intoxicated with the
rivers, flowers, fields, and rocks that a munificent nature spread
before us, asking no price.
My memories of working outdoors that first summer are not so pleasant.
We thought we were going to get cool, fresh air in the country, but the
muggy atmosphere that hung over the Hudson on humid August days didn’t
thrill us much. I could have survived the day better in the studio with
the breeze from our one electric fan.
On Jersey days, work finished, back to our little Inn in a mad rush to
remove make-up, dress, and catch the next ferry. Our toilet was often
no more than a lick and a promise with finishing touches added as we
journeyed ferrywards along the river road in old man Brown’s buggy.
[Illustration: Caudebec Inn at Cuddebackville.
(_See p. 119_)
]
[Illustration: From “The Mended Lute,” made at Cuddebackville, with
Florence Lawrence, Owen Moore and Jim Kirkwood.
(_See p. 116_)
]
[Illustration: Frank Powell, Mr. Griffith’s first $10-a-day actor, with
Marion Leonard in “Fools of Fate,” made at Cuddebackville.
(_See p. 108_)
]
[Illustration: Richard Barthelmess as _Arno_, the youngest son, with
Nazimova in “War Brides,” a Herbert Brennon production. The part that
put Dicky over.
(_See p. 136_)
]
Were we ever going anywhere but Fort Lee and Edgewater and Shadyside?
I do believe that first summer I was made love to on every rock and
boulder for twenty miles up and down the Hudson.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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