Gaslight Follies

"Gaslight Follies Stars of Yesteryear," the first of the film's four sections, features publicity photographs and brief movie clips of various silent film stars. Marie Dressler and Johnny Hines romp through scenes from the 1917 comedy Tillie Wakes Up , after which cowboy star William S. Hart and comedians Mack Sennett and Ford Sterling are shown, and Lillian Gish and Henry B. Walthall fight in Birth of a Nation . Quick clips follow of Mae Murray, Mabel Normand, Wally Reid, Dorothy Mackaill, John Gilbert, Laura LaPlante, Dolores Costello, Corrine Griffith, Rudolph Valentino, Lois Wilson, Fatty Arbuckle and Leatrice Joy. The rapid onslaught of stars continues with George Arliss, Patsy Ruth-Miller, Theodore Roberts, Colleen Moore and screen couple Ronald Colman and Blanche Sweet. Lon Chaney appears in a scene from the 1920 picture Outside the Law . Next, Alice White, Charles Ray, Constance Talmadge, Clara Bow, Betty Bronson, Eugene O'Brien, Dolores Del Rio, Betty Compson, Eddie Cantor, Marion Davies, Estelle Taylor, Harold Lloyd and Pola Negri are featured. Tom Mix and Tony, The Black Stallion, appear, and then Charlie Chaplin and Mack Swain are shown in a scene from The Gold Rush . A Lionel Barrymore clip is shown, followed by Mary Pickford in New York Hat , Douglas Fairbanks fighting on a staircase, and finally Will Rogers speaking at the 1932 Democratic Convention with Franklin D. Roosevelt.
       In the second section, entitled "Time Marches Back: Up to the Minute News of More Than Thirty Years Ago," narrator John B. Kennedy explains various newsreel clips from the early 1900s. A 1908 scene, showing President Theodore Roosevelt relaxing at his estate in Oyster Bay, Long Island, is accompanied by a description of Roosevelt's Rough Riders and his Nobel Peace Prize. Next, Barney Oldfield demonstrates the "super speed" car, which goes one mile per hour; D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin sign papers to form United Artists; a fire at the Triangle Factory kills hundreds; and steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie endows a peace foundation. Next, President Woodrow Wilson throws out the first ball of a baseball season, various Major League stars are presented and President William Howard Taft and Henry Morgenthal, Sr. attend the Peace Congress at the 1915 San Francisco Fair. The investiture of Edward, the Prince of Wales, is shown, with King George V, Queen Mary, the Princess Royal, the Duke of Gloucester, Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George in attendance. Ethel Owen then satirically narrates images of ladies' fashions of the era and the first Miss America beauty pageant. Finally, Jim Jeffries beats Bobcat Fitzsimmons in the 1899 heavyweight boxing championship bout.
       The next section, a film record of a long-running Los Angeles production of the play The Drunkard , depicts Squire Cribbs attempting to trick recently widowed Mrs. Wilson and her daughter Mary out of their home. Edward Middleton rescues the women and marries Mary, but years later becomes an alcoholic and leaves Mary and their daughter Julia to fend for themselves. By the end of the story, Edward straightens out and finds Mary, just as a large inheritance from his grandfather is discovered.
       In the last section, narrators Owen and Milton Cross provide comic offscreen commentary over the 1915 Biograph film East Lynne , which traces the marriage of Archibald Carlyle and poverty-stricken Lady Isabel. When Archibald tries to help an old sweetheart, Barbara Hare, whose brother Richard has been falsely accused of murder, his rival, Sir Francis Levinson, convinces Isabel that Archibald is being unfaithful. Isabel runs away with Levinson, but years later hears that her son is dying and so returns to her old home in East Lynne. Archibald takes her back, but after their son succumbs to his disease, Isabel dies from grief.