The Mermaid
About The Mermaid
John Gary's summer hotel has an empty register. When his daughter Ethel, a strong swimmer, comes home from school, he reads a newspaper rumor of a mermaid in the Atlantic and has her sit on the rocks in a mermaid costume. A local reporter photographs her. Guests arrive. Three city men, called Tom, Dick, and Harry in the synopsis, dive in to catch her and fail. Ethel then walks out in an ordinary suit and tells the guests it was a joke. The hotel is full.
Cast & crew
More about The Mermaid
A one-reel Thanhouser comedy, about 1,000 feet, released 29 July 1910 and distributed by Thanhouser Film Corporation. The director is not credited; Thanhouser historians say it may have been Barry O'Neil. The scenario writer is unknown and was most likely Lloyd Lonergan. The cameraman is uncredited, as on other 1910 Thanhouser releases.
Themes
Making
Moving Picture World announced Heming and Crane before release. No director credit survives on the film.
Reviews
Moving Picture World of 30 July 1910 treated it as an effective production and printed a short summary. The Morning Telegraph liked the hotel-advertising idea and flagged the photography gag. The New York Dramatic Mirror was neutral and listed continuity errors.
Preservation
Presumed lost. The Thanhouser filmography and the Wikipedia list of 1910 Thanhouser releases both mark it lost. The plot is known from the Moving Picture World synopsis of 30 July 1910.
Notes
- Violet Heming plays Ethel Gary and Frank H. Crane plays John Gary.
- The Thanhouser Kid, Marie Eline, is credited by Q. David Bowers in an unknown role, possibly the boy usher.
- The Moving Picture World synopsis is dated 30 July 1910, the day after release.
- A New York Dramatic Mirror advertisement of 30 July 1910 called it a seashore subject made for summer release.
- The Morning Telegraph noted a problem in how the reporter's photograph of the mermaid was staged.
- The New York Dramatic Mirror listed continuity faults in the action.
- The Wikimedia Commons file titled The Mermaid (1910).webm is Goncharov's Russian film Rusalka, not this Thanhouser comedy.
Scenes
- Ethel sits on the rocks in a mermaid costume while a reporter takes her picture.
- She later appears in an ordinary suit and tells the guests the mermaid was a joke.
