Jean and the Calico Doll (1910)
Comedy-drama | 30 August 1910
Jean and the Calico Doll was the first of Vitagraph’s “Jean” pictures, featuring the name of “the Vitagraph Dog” in the title. The film was followed, one per month through the rest of 1910, by Jean the Match-Maker, Jean Goes Foraging, Jean Goes Fishing, and Jean and the Waif (see entries). Jean was also featured in other 1910 films, including Her Mother’s Wedding Gown, A Tin-Type Romance, and Where the Wind Blows (see entries). To illustrate her popularity at a time when few actors were known by name, a 3 Dec 1910 Film Index item reported that Jean, “the Vitagraph Dog,” appeared as an “extra feature” with actress and sometime costar Florence Turner, “the Vitagraph Girl,” at a film event in Portland, ME. The Scottish collie was owned and trained by director Laurence “Larry” Trimble. Jean was born at Trimble’s farm in Maine in 1902, began working in films in 1910, and appeared in two dozen movies before her retirement and death in 1916.
A Vitagraph advertisement in the 27 Aug 1910 Film Index presented Jean and the Calico Doll as a “Delightful and Appealing Child Story. A little girl and her pet dog repair the disastrous results of a childish error. You know what the Vitagraph child stories are. This is one of the best and introduces a wonderful canine assistant.”
In her 1968 memoirs, On Reflection, an Autobiography, actress Helen Hayes recalled that her first film appearances were in two of Vitagraph’s “Jean” pictures, including Jean and the Calico Doll.
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Jean and the Calico Doll was the first of Vitagraph’s “Jean” pictures, featuring the name of “the Vitagraph Dog” in the title. The film was followed, one per month through the rest of 1910, by Jean the Match-Maker, Jean Goes Foraging, Jean Goes Fishing, and Jean and the Waif (see entries). Jean was also featured in other 1910 films, including Her Mother’s Wedding Gown, A Tin-Type Romance, and Where the Wind Blows (see entries). To illustrate her popularity at a time when few actors were known by name, a 3 Dec 1910 Film Index item reported that Jean, “the Vitagraph Dog,” appeared as an “extra feature” with actress and sometime costar Florence Turner, “the Vitagraph Girl,” at a film event in Portland, ME. The Scottish collie was owned and trained by director Laurence “Larry” Trimble. Jean was born at Trimble’s farm in Maine in 1902, began working in films in 1910, and appeared in two dozen movies before her retirement and death in 1916.
A Vitagraph advertisement in the 27 Aug 1910 Film Index presented Jean and the Calico Doll as a “Delightful and Appealing Child Story. A little girl and her pet dog repair the disastrous results of a childish error. You know what the Vitagraph child stories are. This is one of the best and introduces a wonderful canine assistant.”
In her 1968 memoirs, On Reflection, an Autobiography, actress Helen Hayes recalled that her first film appearances were in two of Vitagraph’s “Jean” pictures, including Jean and the Calico Doll.
The 10 Sep 1910 Moving Picture World ran the following review: “A dog story which has much interest, as all such stories do. The intelligence of animals makes a good picture at any time, and when it is utilized in rescuing life, as this one is, the interest is measurably increased. Apart from the virtual rescue of the injured child by the dog, the film contains no striking characteristics. The misplaced money, the false accusation, and the child wandering away to find her brother are all interesting features, but they are in reality but incidents upon which to base the intelligence of the dog.”
“A large sum of money is exchanged between Mr. Doyle and another man, who pays the money to Mr. Doyle. During the transaction, Mr. Doyle’s son is sitting at the window and his little daughter is playing with her collie dog, ‘Jean,’ on the floor. The father sees the man to the front door, leaving his son and daughter in the room where he left the money on the table. The son leaves the room and the little girl, who is now alone in the room, sees the money, and thinking it is only paper, takes it out in the garden and puts it in the little cradle with her calico doll and cuts one or two of the bank notes into dolls. After the child has gone out, the father returns to the room and cannot find the money. He calls the wife; she knows nothing about it, and the father accuses the son of stealing it. The son is indignant, and leaves home. He has hardly left the house when the little girl comes in with the money and gives it to her mother and shows her the pretty paper doll she has made out of one of the bills. The dog follows with another bunch of the money which the child has dropped. The mother calls her husband, and the child explains that she thought the money just paper, and she is grieved to hear her brother, whom she dearly loves, has been accused of stealing and has left home. She starts out with her calico doll to find her brother, her collie dog following after her. She wanders through the fields and wood, where she ...
“A large sum of money is exchanged between Mr. Doyle and another man, who pays the money to Mr. Doyle. During the transaction, Mr. Doyle’s son is sitting at the window and his little daughter is playing with her collie dog, ‘Jean,’ on the floor. The father sees the man to the front door, leaving his son and daughter in the room where he left the money on the table. The son leaves the room and the little girl, who is now alone in the room, sees the money, and thinking it is only paper, takes it out in the garden and puts it in the little cradle with her calico doll and cuts one or two of the bank notes into dolls. After the child has gone out, the father returns to the room and cannot find the money. He calls the wife; she knows nothing about it, and the father accuses the son of stealing it. The son is indignant, and leaves home. He has hardly left the house when the little girl comes in with the money and gives it to her mother and shows her the pretty paper doll she has made out of one of the bills. The dog follows with another bunch of the money which the child has dropped. The mother calls her husband, and the child explains that she thought the money just paper, and she is grieved to hear her brother, whom she dearly loves, has been accused of stealing and has left home. She starts out with her calico doll to find her brother, her collie dog following after her. She wanders through the fields and wood, where she falls, trying to reach a flower, down a steep embankment onto some rocks, spraining her ankle and lying unconscious. The faithful dog tries to rouse her, and, finding it impossible, runs home to get the child’s parents to understand him in his efforts to report the child’s accident. He rushes back to the child, carries her calico doll to the parents, and makes them realize that the child is missing and in danger. While worrying over the loss of their son, here is another loss of their daughter. The son is brought back home by his attachment for his little sister and mother, and when he learns of the loss of his sister and sees ‘Jean’ with her calico doll, he follows him to the place of her accident and brings her safely home.”—27 Aug 1910 Moving Picture World
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