The American Beauty (1916)
Drama | 29 June 1916
The 13 May 1916 Motography noted that director Willam Desmond Taylor was at work on The American Beauty. One of the actors mentioned in the cast was Juan de la Cruz, but his participation in the final film is undetermined.
Myrtle Stedman played three roles: mother, teenage daughter, and grown-up daughter, according to the 20 May 1916 Moiton Picture News and August 1916 Picture-Play Magazine. "The three parts caused Miss Stedman to change costume and make-up no less than eighteen times in one day," said the Picture Play item, "and then it was discovered that, through an accident, the negative had been spoiled. It was necessary to retake all these scenes on the following day." Extensive exposure to bright lights in exacting double-exposure scenes in which the daughter and her aged mother appeared together created severe eye strain for Miss Stedman, requiring her to spend time in a darkened room, according to the 12 August 1916 Motion Picture News.
According to the 27 May 1916 Motion Picture News, "One of the big sets...is that of the interior of a New York studio similar to that of the late Stanford White in Madison Square tower. This will occupy the entire stage at the studio, and contain a balcony with pipe organ and other elaborate furnishings. Oriental atmosphere will be created by expensive draperies of Asiatic design. The December 1916 Photoplay noted that interior for The American Beauty were filmed at the Morocco-Pallas studios on South Occidental Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Although it was standard practice for film companies to own their scenarios, ...
The 13 May 1916 Motography noted that director Willam Desmond Taylor was at work on The American Beauty. One of the actors mentioned in the cast was Juan de la Cruz, but his participation in the final film is undetermined.
Myrtle Stedman played three roles: mother, teenage daughter, and grown-up daughter, according to the 20 May 1916 Moiton Picture News and August 1916 Picture-Play Magazine. "The three parts caused Miss Stedman to change costume and make-up no less than eighteen times in one day," said the Picture Play item, "and then it was discovered that, through an accident, the negative had been spoiled. It was necessary to retake all these scenes on the following day." Extensive exposure to bright lights in exacting double-exposure scenes in which the daughter and her aged mother appeared together created severe eye strain for Miss Stedman, requiring her to spend time in a darkened room, according to the 12 August 1916 Motion Picture News.
According to the 27 May 1916 Motion Picture News, "One of the big sets...is that of the interior of a New York studio similar to that of the late Stanford White in Madison Square tower. This will occupy the entire stage at the studio, and contain a balcony with pipe organ and other elaborate furnishings. Oriental atmosphere will be created by expensive draperies of Asiatic design. The December 1916 Photoplay noted that interior for The American Beauty were filmed at the Morocco-Pallas studios on South Occidental Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Although it was standard practice for film companies to own their scenarios, writer Julia Crawford Ivers copyrighted her Pallas Pictures scripts under her own name, J. C. Ivers.
The National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) included this film on its list of Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films as of January 2021.
During a fire on an ocean liner, Mr. and Mrs. Martin Ellsworth, a prosperous American couple returning from Newfoundland, are separated from their infant daughter. Cleave, a fisherman, finds the baby in a lifeboat, but he and his childless wife are unable to locate the parents, so they rear the girl themselves and name her Ruth. Twenty years later, when Mrs. Cleave, now a widow and charwoman to wealthy American artist Paul Keith, falls ill, Ruth, who has been discharged from a sweatshop, takes her place. Meanwhile, Keith is searching for a model who captures the American soul to pose in an international beauty competition sponsored by dissolute art collector Herbert Lorrimer. Keith persuades Ruth to model, and although his painting, The American Beauty, wins, Ruth's Canadian nationality is discovered and the painting is disqualified. After Lorrimer lures Ruth to his apartment and drugs her, Keith saves her from rape. Thinking herself inferior socially, Ruth declines Keith's proposal, but because of the painting's controversy, Ruth's parents learn of her existence. Learning of her true origins, Ruth feels worthy enough to ask Keith if she would make a model ...
During a fire on an ocean liner, Mr. and Mrs. Martin Ellsworth, a prosperous American couple returning from Newfoundland, are separated from their infant daughter. Cleave, a fisherman, finds the baby in a lifeboat, but he and his childless wife are unable to locate the parents, so they rear the girl themselves and name her Ruth. Twenty years later, when Mrs. Cleave, now a widow and charwoman to wealthy American artist Paul Keith, falls ill, Ruth, who has been discharged from a sweatshop, takes her place. Meanwhile, Keith is searching for a model who captures the American soul to pose in an international beauty competition sponsored by dissolute art collector Herbert Lorrimer. Keith persuades Ruth to model, and although his painting, The American Beauty, wins, Ruth's Canadian nationality is discovered and the painting is disqualified. After Lorrimer lures Ruth to his apartment and drugs her, Keith saves her from rape. Thinking herself inferior socially, Ruth declines Keith's proposal, but because of the painting's controversy, Ruth's parents learn of her existence. Learning of her true origins, Ruth feels worthy enough to ask Keith if she would make a model wife.
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