How a French Nobleman Got a Wife Through the 'New York Herald' Personal Columns
About How a French Nobleman Got a Wife Through the 'New York Herald' Personal Columns
A Frenchman reads his own notice in the New York Herald: he will meet a wealthy American girl at Grant's Tomb at 10, wearing violets. He pins on the flowers and waits. One woman arrives, then more, until he is surrounded. He runs down Riverside Drive, over sandbanks, logs, bushes, and rail fences, and wades into a pond. The women stay on the bank. A stout woman in white, last the whole way, splashes in and takes him.
Cast & crew
More about How a French Nobleman Got a Wife Through the 'New York Herald' Personal Columns
Edwin S. Porter directed and photographed it. The Edison catalog quotes a personal ad that ran in the New York Herald on 25 August 1904 and gives the length as 675 feet. A Library of Congress timing of the paper print is 11 minutes 4 seconds at 16 frames a second. The film was also sold as separate scenes, from the advertisement through Caught at last.
Themes
Look
Porter filmed the chase outdoors, from Grant's Tomb along Riverside Drive and into the pond.
Preservation
A paper print is in the Library of Congress. A copy is also on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The catalog's closing line is the adage that the race is not always to the swift.
- Listed scenes include Personal ad and Nobleman, Grant's Tomb, Riverside Drive, Across the fields, Down the sand bank, Through the woods, Rail fence, Down the pike, and Caught at last.
- A Commons file carries a 1904 date, the year of the newspaper ad. This record's year is 1905.
Scenes
- Women close in on the man with the violets at Grant's Tomb.
- The stout woman in white wades into the pond and catches him.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (How a French Nobleman Got a Wife)
