''Toby's Bow'' is a 1919 American silent

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Harry Beaumont Harry Beaumont (10 February 1888 – 22 December 1966) was an American film director, actor, and screenwriter. He worked for a variety of production companies including 20th Century Fox, Fox, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, Goldwyn, Metro Picture ...

and starring Tom Moore,

Doris Pawn Doris Pawn (born Doris Alice Pahn; December 29, 1894 – March 30, 1988) was an American silent era film actress. Early life Pahn was born on December 29, 1894, to Louise Marie Hasse (1867–1925) and Martin Pahn. She had three sister ...

, Macey Harlam, Arthur Housman,

Colin Kenny James Colin Ramsey Kenny (born December 10, 1943) is a former Canadian Senator. A member of the Liberal Party, he was appointed to the Senate in 1984 by Pierre Trudeau to represent the Rideau region of Ontario. On January 31, 2018 it was anno ...

, and

Augustus Phillips Augustus Phillips (August 1, 1874 – September 29, 1944), was an American actor. He appeared in 134 films between 1910 and 1921. After 11 years of performing in stock theater, vision problems led Phillips to begin acting in films for the ...

. It is based on the 1919 play of the same name by John Taintor Foote. The film was released by

Goldwyn Pictures Goldwyn Pictures Corporation was an American motion picture production company that operated from 1916 to 1924 when it was merged with two other production companies to form the major studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was founded on November 19, 1 ...

on December 14, 1919.

Plot

Cast

* Tom Moore as Tom Blake *

as Eugenia *Macey Harlam as Dubois *Arthur Housman as Bagby *

as Bainbridge *

as Paige *Catherine Wallace as Valerie *Violet Schram as Mona *

Ruby Lafayette Ruby Lafayette (July 22, 1844 – April 3, 1935) was an American film actress, known for ''Sue of the South'' (1919), ''Big Bob'' (1921) and ''The Man Trap'' (1917). She was married to John T. Curran. At age 82, Lafayette nearly died from inju ...

as Grandmother *

George Kuwa George Kuwa (born Keichii Kuwahara) was a Japanese and American Issei (Japanese immigrant) film actor of the silent era. He appeared in more than 50 films between 1916 and 1931. He was the first actor to portray Charlie Chan on-screen in the 19 ...

as Jap *

Nick Cogley Nickolas P. J. Cogley (May 4, 1869 – May 20, 1936) was an American actor, director and writer of the silent films. He appeared in more than 170 films between 1909 and 1934. Biography Cogley was born in New York, New York. He attended St ...

as Uncle Toby

Production

The role of the servant, Uncle Toby, was played by Nick Cogley in

blackface Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...

. The use of blackface was not unusual in American silent films, and did not disappear in films until the 1930s when public sensibilities regarding

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

began to change and blackface became increasingly associated with racism and

bigotry Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...

.Kenrick, John
Blackface and Old Wounds
Musicals101.com. From ''Theatre Lover's Journal'', Nov. 2000.

Preservation

''Toby's Bow'' is now considered to be a

lost film A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress. Conditions During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...

.American Silent Feature Film Survival Database: ''Toby's Bow''
/ref>

References

External links

* * 1919 drama films Silent American drama films 1919 films Lost American films American silent feature films American black-and-white films Goldwyn Pictures films American films based on plays 1919 lost films Lost drama films 1910s American films {{1910s-drama-film-stub