Algie, the Miner
“A real live western comedy, showing how a sissy boy won his sweetheart's hands by going out west and making a man of himself”
About Algie, the Miner
At a society party Algie Allmore asks Mr. Lyons for his daughter. Lyons writes that Algie may marry her if, within a year, he proves he is a man. Algie packs a tiny pistol and takes the train west. Cowboys laugh and hand him to Big Jim, who shares a cabin, swaps the toy gun for a real one, and teaches him to ride. When two men bring Jim home drunk, Algie looks after him. They strike gold in a hillside. Outlaws jump Jim. Algie comes back with both pistols and drives them off, then stops Jim from drinking in a bar. A year later he shows Jim the calendar. They return east. Jim fires a shot on the Lyons porch, they walk in, and Algie produces the letter. Lyons hesitates until Jim draws.
Cast & crew
More about Algie, the Miner
Solax released it on February 28, 1912. Credits name Harry Schenck, Edward Warren, and Alice Guy as directors. Billy Quirk plays Algie. Clarice Jackson plays Miss Lyons. Mary Foy plays a society dowager. The running time is about 9 minutes.
Themes
In film history
The advertising sells a joke about a sissy who becomes a gunman. Commentators since have read Quirk's performance, and his partnership with Big Jim, as an early queer figure in American film.
Making
Guy's Solax company made the short as a comedy western. The year-long dare is told in a few scenes: train, cabin, mine, bar, and the porch back east.
Preservation
A print of about nine minutes survives.
Notes
- Solax's ad called Algie a sissy boy who goes west to make a man of himself.
- Quirk plays him with rouged lips, a small pistol, and a fluttering walk before the year out west.
- Big Jim, not the daughter, is on screen for the mining, the outlaw fight, and the trip home.
- Later writers treat the short as an early American film with a queer character.
- Internet Archive holds it as AlgieTjheMiner, the identifier spelled that way.
Scenes
- Lyons writes the one-year condition into a letter.
- Algie returns with two pistols and breaks up the attack on Big Jim.
- Jim fires on the Lyons porch and Algie claims the marriage.
Also available
- Internet Archive (AlgieTjheMiner)
