William Shea
1856 - 1918
The Maid from Sweden
Lee Beggs
Billy Quirk, Josie Sadler
In search of a maid, Mrs. Cook, an aristocratic and extremely proud society woman, goes to an employment agency and hires Luna, fat, awkward and straight from Sweden. The new maid creates quite a stir in the staid and fashionable home of Mrs. Cook. While capering about in her room above, she brings down the ceiling. Mrs. Cook saves her from being discharged and then calls up the plasterer, whose name is John Haines, a widower, and the father of Bert, the chauffeur, in love with Marie Cook, their daughter. John fixes the ceiling, and on his return home finds a note from his son saying he is going to be married and suggests his father follow his example. John tells the news to Luna, proposes to her, and without a second's hesitation, she accepts him.
The Maid from Sweden
You Can't Beat It
Louis Chaudet
William Parsons, Constance Talmadge
Bill Pike, recently married, hits his home town about seven in the evening, and immediately is seized by a bunch of his old cronies who drag him into a hotel to have a game of poker. He protests wildly and at last escapes long enough to phone Dill, his young wife, who is anxiously awaiting his return. He's going to be very late. At home, Mrs. Pike receives a telegram telling her that her brother Steve will be there soon and he is anxious to meet Bill..
You Can't Beat It
The Lady of Shalott
C.J. Williams
Flora Finch, Kate Price
On discovering that their beau, Timothy, the village schoolmaster, is quite unable to choose between them for a life partner, Ivy and Lily Skinner agree to draw lots. Ivy, who is of a romantic, novel-reading nature, loses and is broken hearted. She seeks solace in her favorite, Tennyson, and in reading "The Lady of Shalott" becomes imbued with the determination to die as did the heroine in the book.
The Lady of Shalott
Tangled Tangoists
George D. Baker
John Bunny, Flora Finch
John and Flora meet at a ball, but neither can do these modern dances, so they sit out… and run into each other later at a dance studio. Bunny exudes his usual Pickwickian charm. Miss Finch gets involved in a nice bit of physical comedy when her gawkiness makes the dance lesson less than successful.
Tangled Tangoists
The Meeting
John S. Robertson
Jimmy Aubrey, Bobby Connelly
Charming melodrama by the Vitagraph Company about the friendship between a boy (Bobby Connelly) and the grumpy Captain Barnacle(William Shea). This seems to be the first film in a short-lived Captain Barnacle series that Vitagraph started at the beginning of 1917. Young Bobby Connelly was one of the first star child actors and his character Sonny Boy links the two series he did for Vitagraph, the "Sonny Jim" series from 1914 to 1915 and the "Bobby" series in 1917.
The Meeting
The Mouse and the Lion
Van Dyke Brooke
Van Dyke Brooke, Leo Delaney
John Burling, a detective, rounds up some members of the Night Hawk gang. Bill Hanks, the chief, swears to get even with him. Tim, a little street waif, entering the saloon where the gang are consulting with Maime, a female accomplice, overhears some of their threats. He is discovered and kicked out of the place by Hanks. The next day, Tim, half starving, picks up a purse in the street which he has seen a lady drop. He is tempted to steal it, but in the end gives it back to her. Burling sees this, is struck with the boy's honesty, and being in need of a page boy, hires him and dubs him "Buttons."' Maime visits Burling and leaves him an address to come to investigate a robbery which has occurred at her home. Tim recognizes her as she goes out, follows her and has his suspicions confirmed by seeing her with one of the gang on the street. He goes to warn his master, but Burling has already gone.
The Mouse and the Lion
Two Overcoats
John Bunny, William Shea
Solomon keeps a clothing store, he has in stock two overcoats of exactly the same make and pattern. Michael Gallagher, who is passing by and in need of an outer garment, notices Solomon's display and buys one of the coats. Shortly after the first sale, Peter Dempsey, a bachelor, happens along and takes quite a fancy to the remaining twin overcoat and Solomon makes another sale. Gallagher and Dempsey dine, at the same time, in the same restaurant. Finishing his meal, Gallagher leaves hurriedly and takes Dempsey's coat, quite naturally mistaking it for his own. When Dempsey is through with his meal, he puts on Gallagher's coat quite satisfied that it is his own. That night Dempsey goes to call on his sweetheart, who admires his new overcoat, and as she helps him off with it, a letter in a woman's hand-writing falls out of the pocket.
Two Overcoats
Aunty's Romance
George D. Baker
Maurice Costello, Florence Turner
Romantic comedy in which a woman who no longer wants to marry her fiance when it turns out he doesn't have an inheritance. After his father is deceased, Stephen Fiske travels to New York, where he learns that his father has left him nothing. His fiancée Doris now refuses to marry him because he is not rich. Doris has, however, an old aunt, whose last wish is that Doris marry Stephan.
Aunty's Romance
