Behind the Scenes (1914)
Drama | 26 October 1914
Magazine writer Mabel Condon and British playwright Sir Henry Arthur Jones separately visited the set of Behind the Scenes at the Famous Players studio on West Twenty-sixth Street in New York City. In the 26 Jul 1914 Motography, director-actor James Kirkwood said the only reason why he took the role of “Steve Hunter” is that he created the part in the successful play by Margaret Mayo (pseudonym for Lillian Clatten), from which the film was adapted. Otherwise, he said, “I don’t believe in a director acting in and directing his own pictures, for there are little things bound to creep into the picture that he would correct, were he in a position to notice them.” Jones was quoted in the 25 Jul 1914 Moving Picture World as being impressed by the realism of a scene in a metropolitan theater, in which actors in the audience watched a comedy on the stage. Subsequent reviews praised the attention given to theatrical scenes. The 10 Jul 1914 Variety featured the film’s star, Mary Pickford, on the cover, and predicted success for Behind the Scenes because she was considered “even by her contemporaries, to be the strongest box office drawing card today in filmdom.” As it turned out, the film enjoyed critical and commercial success.
According to an item in the 13 Aug 1914 Motography, veteran actor Eldean Stewart, who had first worked with Mary Pickford when the star was a child, would appear in Behind the Scenes, but her presence in the final film is undetermined.
A full-page Famous Players/Paramount advertisement in the 24 Oct 1914 Moving ...
Magazine writer Mabel Condon and British playwright Sir Henry Arthur Jones separately visited the set of Behind the Scenes at the Famous Players studio on West Twenty-sixth Street in New York City. In the 26 Jul 1914 Motography, director-actor James Kirkwood said the only reason why he took the role of “Steve Hunter” is that he created the part in the successful play by Margaret Mayo (pseudonym for Lillian Clatten), from which the film was adapted. Otherwise, he said, “I don’t believe in a director acting in and directing his own pictures, for there are little things bound to creep into the picture that he would correct, were he in a position to notice them.” Jones was quoted in the 25 Jul 1914 Moving Picture World as being impressed by the realism of a scene in a metropolitan theater, in which actors in the audience watched a comedy on the stage. Subsequent reviews praised the attention given to theatrical scenes. The 10 Jul 1914 Variety featured the film’s star, Mary Pickford, on the cover, and predicted success for Behind the Scenes because she was considered “even by her contemporaries, to be the strongest box office drawing card today in filmdom.” As it turned out, the film enjoyed critical and commercial success.
According to an item in the 13 Aug 1914 Motography, veteran actor Eldean Stewart, who had first worked with Mary Pickford when the star was a child, would appear in Behind the Scenes, but her presence in the final film is undetermined.
A full-page Famous Players/Paramount advertisement in the 24 Oct 1914 Moving Picture World identified Daniel Frohman as “Managing Director” and Edwin S. Porter as “Technical Director.” The words of introduction above a large photograph of the star standing amidst a crowd of young women were: “Daniel Frohman Presents Mary Pickford in the noted play of theatrical life.”
The 7 Nov 1914 New York Clipper observed, “The camera work is beyond criticism. Numerous closeups of Miss Pickford show her in various engaging attitudes, and the locations are all well chosen with an eye to the proper atmosphere always in mind.”
“Dolly Lane is a poor and pretty little musical comedy soubrette, rehearsing and playing day and night, living in poor lodgings quietly and meagerly, and devoted to her work and stage ambition, which are the dominant factors in her life. One night, in the final scene of the play, she and her comrades throw confetti into the audience, nearly blinding a young man who sits in one of the front rows of the orchestra. Dolly’s sincere concern over the accident amply atones for it, and the young man, Steve Hunter, induces his friend, Teddy Harrington, a wealthy young chap, to take him behind the scenes after the performance. There he and Dolly meet, and their romance begins. Though not a devotee to the theater himself, Steve is not long in falling in love with little Dolly, and one night, after the lights of the theater are dimmed, they are made man and wife. One day Steve receives word that an old uncle in the West is dying and that he is to come to him immediately. Steve goes, and Dolly now gives all her heart and energy to her work, succeeding so well that when a rehearsal accident happens one day to the leading woman, Dolly is given that exalted position and told to be ready that night. She hurries home, her heart full with the success so near at hand, to find Steve has returned from the West, the heir to his dead uncle’s great wheat farm. She hears Steve’s news, hardly conscious of what it means, and then quickly tells him of her own good fortune; but instead of congratulating her, Steve tells her she will have ...
“Dolly Lane is a poor and pretty little musical comedy soubrette, rehearsing and playing day and night, living in poor lodgings quietly and meagerly, and devoted to her work and stage ambition, which are the dominant factors in her life. One night, in the final scene of the play, she and her comrades throw confetti into the audience, nearly blinding a young man who sits in one of the front rows of the orchestra. Dolly’s sincere concern over the accident amply atones for it, and the young man, Steve Hunter, induces his friend, Teddy Harrington, a wealthy young chap, to take him behind the scenes after the performance. There he and Dolly meet, and their romance begins. Though not a devotee to the theater himself, Steve is not long in falling in love with little Dolly, and one night, after the lights of the theater are dimmed, they are made man and wife. One day Steve receives word that an old uncle in the West is dying and that he is to come to him immediately. Steve goes, and Dolly now gives all her heart and energy to her work, succeeding so well that when a rehearsal accident happens one day to the leading woman, Dolly is given that exalted position and told to be ready that night. She hurries home, her heart full with the success so near at hand, to find Steve has returned from the West, the heir to his dead uncle’s great wheat farm. She hears Steve’s news, hardly conscious of what it means, and then quickly tells him of her own good fortune; but instead of congratulating her, Steve tells her she will have to abandon her position on the stage and go West with him. After a terrific struggle between ambition and love, Dolly yields, surrenders her career, and leaves all behind her to go West. But she soon wearies of the quiet farm and Steve’s seeming neglect of her for his work, and one day, revolting against it all, she leaves him a note and returns to the city. There she finds an older wealthy man, Joe Canby, who is only too ready to back her as a star in a new play. Trying to forget Steve, she throws her whole soul into her ambition, and the new play and star become the sensation of the theatrical season. But success without Steve to share it turns to ashes in her grasp, and when that night Joe, the wealthy producer of the play, comes to her dressing room, locks the door, and demands the price of her triumph, she for the first time realizes the nearness of the abyss and its yawning terrors. As she desperately plays for time, she hears Steve’s voice. The manager hastily gives up the key, and she admits Steve while the other conceals himself. Steve, however, learns of his presence in the room, pulls him from his hiding place, and, with one glance of scorn at Dolly, leaves without hearing her explanation. Despairing and disillusioned, Dolly resigns from the case and takes the next train for the West. In the golden harvest fields, on a sunshiny day, she again meets Steve and tells him all, and as his forgiving arms embrace her the tawdry glitter of the tinseled past is forgotten.”—7 Nov 1914 Moving Picture World
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