Her First Biscuits
About Her First Biscuits
Emma Jones, a new bride played by Florence Lawrence, bakes biscuits. Her husband Eddie, played by John R. Cumpson, pretends to like them, so she takes the rest to his office, a theatrical booking agency. One bite makes the visitors violently ill. Workmen at home get the same biscuits. When she arrives at the office, they chase her. Mary Pickford, Mack Sennett, and Owen Moore are among the people who eat one. D. W. Griffith directed. Frank E. Woods wrote it.
Cast & crew
More about Her First Biscuits
Billy Bitzer photographed it. Biograph released it on 17 June 1909 on a split reel with Griffith’s The Faded Lilies. The length is 514 feet. Copyright is 12 June 1909, H128254. Production was in April 1909. Wikipedia puts the running time at about 7 minutes. Pickford’s part is an extra, a biscuit victim. Bitzer later called this her Biograph debut. The AFI note says it was not her first released film. Two Memories came out first.
Themes
Making
Griffith shot the comedy at Biograph’s New York studio in April and paired it with a drama on the same reel in June. Pickford is in the crowd that eats, not in the marriage.
Look
Billy Bitzer shot the kitchen and the booking office.
Preservation
The short survives. A restored copy was shown in Topeka in 2022. A file is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Arthur Johnson and Anita Hendrie are also on the AFI cast page as biscuit victims.
- The office is a booking agency, which is why a crowd is there to be poisoned.
- A restored print opened the Kansas Silent Film Festival in Topeka on 24 February 2022.
- A Commons file is titled Her First Biscuits (1909).
Scenes
- Eddie pretends the biscuits are good.
- The booking-office visitors and the workmen at home are sick after one bite.
- Emma walks into the office and they chase her.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Her First Biscuits (1909).webm)
