A Wreath In Time
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''A Wreath in Time'' is a 1909 American silent comedy film written and directed by D. W. Griffith, produced by the
Biograph Company The Biograph Company, also known as the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1916. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, ...
of New York City, and co-starring
Mack Sennett Mack Sennett (born Michael Sinnott; January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was a Canadian-American film actor, director, and producer, and studio head, known as the 'King of Comedy'. Born in Danville, Quebec, in 1880, he started in films in the ...
and Florence Lawrence.Niver, Kemp R. ''Early Motion Pictures: The Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress''
"A Wreath in Time"
Washington, D.C.: Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division, 1985, p. 370. HathiTrust Digital Library. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
At its release in February 1909, the
short Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as ...
was distributed to theaters on a " split reel", which was a single reel that accommodated more than one film. ''A Wreath in Time'' shared its reel with another Biograph short also directed by Griffith, the drama '' Edgar Allen Poe'' . Original paper rolls of
contact print A contact print is a photographic image produced from film; sometimes from a film negative, and sometimes from a film positive or paper negative. In a darkroom an exposed and developed piece of film or photographic paper is placed emulsion ...
s of both motion pictures, as well as safety-stock copies of the two films, are preserved in the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
.


Plot

In its published 1985 catalog of paper prints in its silent-film collection, the Library of Congress provides the following summary of the comedy's storyline:


Cast

*
Mack Sennett Mack Sennett (born Michael Sinnott; January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was a Canadian-American film actor, director, and producer, and studio head, known as the 'King of Comedy'. Born in Danville, Quebec, in 1880, he started in films in the ...
as John Goodhusband * Florence Lawrence as Mrs. John Goodhusband *
Linda Arvidson Linda Arvidson (born Linda Arvidson Johnson, July 12, 1884 – July 26, 1949; sometimes credited as Linda Griffith) was an American stage and film actress who became one of America's early motion picture stars while working at Biograph Studios i ...
as At Stage Door * Charles Avery as At Stage Door *
Flora Finch Flora Finch (17 June 1867 – 4 January 1940) was an English-born vaudevillian, stage and film actress who starred in over 300 silent films, including over 200 for the Vitagraph Studios film company. The vast majority of her films from the sil ...
as Actress on Stage *
George Gebhardt George Gebhardt (September 21, 1879 – May 2, 1919) was an American silent film actor. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1908 and 1922. He was born in Basel, Switzerland and died in Edendale, Los Angeles from tuberculosis. Selecte ...
as In Bar / Actor on Stage *
Robert Harron Robert Emmett Harron (April 12, 1893 – September 5, 1920) was an American motion picture actor of the early silent film era. Although he acted in over 200 films, he is possibly best recalled for his roles in the D.W. Griffith directed film ...
as Messenger *
Anita Hendrie Anita Hendrie ( – April 15, 1940) was an American actress. She appeared in 67 silent motion pictures between 1908 and 1912, in addition to working in stock theater and vaudeville. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter ...
as Actress on Stage / At Stage Door *
Charles Inslee Charles E. Inslee (1870 – September 1922) was an American actor. He appeared in 127 films between 1908 and 1921. Biography Born in New York City, Inslee was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Inslee of Jamaica Plain Jamaica Plain is ...
as In Bar * Arthur V. Johnson as In Bar / Actor on Stage / Waiter *
Marion Leonard Marion Leonard (June 9, 1881 – January 9, 1956) was an American stage actress who became one of the first motion picture celebrities in the early years of the silent film era. Early career Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Marion Leonard began her ...
*
Jeanie MacPherson Abbie Jean MacPherson (May 18, 1886 – August 26, 1946) was an American silent actress, writer, and director. MacPherson worked as a theater and film actress before becoming a screenwriter for Cecil B. DeMille. She was a pioneer for women in th ...
as At Stage Door *
David Miles David Kenneth Miles (born 1959) is a British economist. Born in Swansea, he has spent his working life in London, in teaching, business and the public sector. He is a professor at Imperial College London, and was Chief UK Economist of Morgan ...
as In Bar *
Harry Solter Henry Lewis "Harry" Solter (November 19, 1873 – March 2, 1920) was an American silent film actor, screenwriter and director. Career Solter began his career as an actor in 1908 with Biograph Studios. That same year he met actress Florenc ...
as Drinking Partner


Production

The screenplay for this short is credited to director Griffith, who produced the picture at Biograph's headquarters and main studio, which were located inside a renovated brownstone mansion at 11 East 14th Street in New York City. Filming was done there and also on location a short distance away from the studio, at the intersection of 8th Avenue and 14th Street, December 1–8, 1908 by Biograph cinematographer G. W. Bitzer.Graham, Cooper C.; Higgins, Steve; Mancini, Elaine; Viera, João Luiz. Entry fo
"A Wreath in Time"
''D. W. Griffith and the Biograph Company''. Metuchen, New Jersey and London: The Scarecrow Press, 1985, pp. 36-37.
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
(IA), San Francisco, California. Retrieved 6 April 2021.


The short's "anonymous" actors

Compiling and verifying cast members in early Biograph productions such as ''A Wreath in Time'' is made more difficult by the fact that Biograph, as a matter of company policy, did not begin publicly crediting its performers and identifying them in film-industry publications or in newspapers advertisements until four years after the release of this short. In its April 5, 1913 issue, the Chicago-based trade journal ''
Motography ''Motography'' was an American film journal that was first published in 1909 and ran until mid-1918. The magazine was published in 1909 and was originally named ''The Nickelodeon'',"Motography." The Bioscope. 9 Feb. 2009. Web. 4 Nov. 2015 http:// ...
'' in a news item titled "Biograph Identities Revealed" announces that "at last" Biograph "is ready to make known its players.""Biograph Identities Revealed"
''Motography'' (Chicago), 5 April 1913, p. 222. IA; refer to Kelly R. Brown's ''Florence Lawrence, the Biograph Girl: America's First Movie Star'' (1999) about Biograph's policy of using anonymous or "unnamed" actors.
That news item also informs filmgoers that for the price of ten cents they can purchase a poster from Biograph on which the names and respective portraits of 26 of the company’s principal actors were featured. The co-stars of this short were among many early Biograph players who performed anonymously and were consistently uncredited in their screen appearances for the studio. Florence Lawrence, in the role of Mrs. John Goodhusband in this film, was known in 1909 to theater audiences only as the "Biograph Girl", although within a few years after this comedy's release, she would be widely publicized as one of the leading actors in the United States' motion-picture industry.


Release and promotion

Months after its release in February 1909, the film and its split-reel companion, ''Edgar Allen Poe'', continued to circulate throughout the country. Most comments about both films in available sources from that year are not independent assessments and generally have commercial interests in promoting the Biograph productions. The local newspaper in Brunswick, Georgia, for example, employs the grandest terms in its October 27, 1909 issue to encourage residents to see the comedy short at the town's Grand Theatre. "'The Wreath in Time' is another great big biograph feature picture", adding "This is positively the greatest picture ever seen at the Grand.""AMUSEMENTS/Grand Tonight"
''The Brunswick Daily News'' (Brunswick, Georgia), 27 October 1909, p. 7. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress (LC), Washington, D.C. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
Earlier, the Dixie Theatre in Fairmont, West Virginia described the " photoplay" in its newspaper advertisement as a "laugh maker" and a "rich production"."Dixie"
''The Fairmont West Virginian'' (Fairmont, West Virginia), 20 February 1909, p. 1. Chronicling America, LC. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
The theatre assured all prospective ticket buyers that the comedy and ''Edgar Allen Poe'' would satisfy them: "We guarantee both of these pictures and trust that our patrons will not miss them."


Preservation status

Photographic prints and a film copy of ''A Wreath in Time'' exist. The
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
(LC)) holds a reduced 203-foot roll of paper images printed directly from the comedy's original 35mm master negative. Submitted by Biograph to the United States government shortly before the film's release, the roll is part of the original documentation required by federal authorities for motion-picture companies to obtain
copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
protection for their productions.Niver
"Preface"
pp. ix-xiii.
While the LC's paper print record is not projectable, such paper copies can be transferred onto modern polyester-based safety film stock to produce rolls of negatives and then prints for screening. In fact, during the 1950s and early 1960s, Kemp R. Niver and other LC staff restored more than 3,000 early paper rolls of film images from the library's collection and transferred many to safety stock, including ''A Wreath in Time''.


See also

*
D. W. Griffith filmography These are the films directed by the pioneering American filmmaker D. W. Griffith (1875–1948). According to IMDb, he directed 518 films between 1908 and 1931. 1908 * ''The Adventures of Dollie'' * '' The Fight for Freedom'' (director disputed ...


Notes


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wreath In Time 1909 films 1909 comedy films 1909 short films Silent American comedy films American silent short films American black-and-white films Biograph Company films Films directed by D. W. Griffith American comedy short films 1900s American films