Who's Who
About Who's Who
Boxer Spider O'Brien comes to town for a match and travels dressed as a minister so he will not be spotted. A real minister is due the same day to meet his new congregation. Each man is taken to the wrong reception: the boxer sits through a tea, and the minister is dropped into a fight.
Cast & crew
More about Who's Who
Essanay released it on 31 August 1910 as a split reel with You Stole My Purse, a short with Augustus Carney. The company's ads called the pair a reel of comedy. J. Warren Kerrigan plays a guest at the tea, not the boxer. Adrienne Kroell is also a guest.
Themes
Making
Essanay sold the reel as rough comedy: one man out of place at a polite tea, the other out of place in a boxing hall.
Preservation
The Library of Congress holds a 35mm print preserved from an EYE Filmmuseum source. The National Film Preservation Foundation has put that copy online.
Notes
- The boxer's suitcase is monogrammed S.O.B., for Spider O'Brien.
- He dresses as a minister because prizefighting was still banned or frowned on in many towns.
- The National Film Preservation Foundation times the short at five or six minutes.
- A 35mm print at the Library of Congress was preserved from material supplied by the EYE Filmmuseum and copied at 18 frames per second.
- Kerrigan later left Essanay for the American Film Manufacturing Company and starred in The Covered Wagon (1923).
Scenes
- O'Brien, in a clergyman's coat, is seated at the congregation's tea.
- The real minister is hauled into the boxing hall.
