William Randolph Hearst funded the film to extend his media empire from newspapers into movies. Another motivation was Hearst's ongoing affair with Marion Davies; he was interested in boosting her career by featuring her in "classy" films.[4]
The film touched on several popular themes of the day, including bad guys taking advantage of good guys, family loyalty, romance and heartbreak, dissipation ("drowning your sorrows"), and an ultimate redemption tied to a happy ending. To broaden the film's appeal, director Julius Steger claimed to have "eliminated everything that was sordid or objectionable from the original story... there is nothing that can offend the most cultivated taste."[5]
Plot summary
An old inventor is robbed of his inventions by an evil rich man. When the inventor dies, his daughter Violet goes to New York and joins the "Follies," where she is advertised as "The Belle of New York." The rich man's son is infatuated with Violet and is introduced to her anonymously as Jack. When Violet learns of Jack's identity, she casts him off. He becomes a drunk, and she joins the Salvation Army. Jack is attacked in an underworld saloon just as Violet enters in Salvation Army attire. She nurses him at his home. When Jack's father discovers with whom Jack is in love, he begs forgiveness for the wrong he did Violet's father.[6]
Most print mentions of the film were positive and emphasized the appeal of its female star. Moving Picture World offered a typical summary: "Miss Davies' emotional appeal and tender beauty just suit the slip of a girl who [becomes] the star of a cabaret revue [and] dances herself into popularity and into the hearts of men of every reputation."[8]
While the film did not make the list of top-grossing films from 1913-1919[9]
it was widely advertised throughout the country.
Only partial footage remains
The film resides in incomplete form (only two of the original five reels remain) at the Library of Congress[10]
Surviving footage contains rare musical scenes staged on the rooftop stage of the New Amsterdam Theater depicting the Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic show staged by Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. The "Ziegfeld Beauty Chorus" is shown; this chorus consisted of female performers "who encouraged male patrons to use their cigars to pop the balloons covering the majority of their costumes."[11][12]
The Midnight Frolic scene can be viewed here, along with all 18 minutes of the surviving footage.
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