Stories of the Feature Reels
Park Record, 23 August 1913, page 2
The Dewey's big Sunday night special will be shown for tomorrow night only. There will be another big program for Monday night. For Sunday a piano solo will be rendered by Prof. Bachman, of the Utah Conservatory of Music. A vocal duet by two talented little performers, costumed for the occasion. All new and high class music will be played by the Dewey's new five piece orchestra, under the leadership of Prof. Webb, and five big reels of high class licensed pictures. The Perfidy of Mary, a Biograph drama; Let 'em Quarrel, a Vitagraph comedy; Pathe Weekly of Current Events, and a two reel feature entitled Pauline Cushman, the Federal Spy. War today is the uppermost thought in the public mid. Battles are raging in every quarter of the globe. War is in the air, it's everywhere. Pauline Cushman is the most timely, remarkable and elaborate historical motion picture ever produced. Mammoth battle scenes, thrilling escapes, vivid realism, correct historic detail, spectacular effects, massive interior settings, militia atmosphere, a powerful, romantic story and excellent action. Over one thousand people used in production. Staged at an enormous expense. Se the battle scenes, the calvary charges, the ambush at Lexington Cap, the daring escapes of Pauline Cushman, the riot in the Louisville theater, the death defying rides, the most miraculous falls ever pictured, etc. The story follows:
The action of Pauline Cushman starts in one of the dressing rooms of the Wood's theater in Louisville. Her maid brings her a note from Col. Marting, a paroled Confederate officer. Martin request and audience with her that afternoon. She immediately accepts this invitation. Keeping her appointment, she meets a groupe of gallant Southern officers. In response to their requests she consents to lead a confederate demonstration at the theater that evening. The scene now shifts to the lobby of Miss Cushman's hotel. The actress chances to overhear the telegraph instrument ticking a code message referring to herself. She is much relieved when she recognizes, in its sender, Henry Holmes, a U. S. Secret Service man. That evening at the theater Miss Cushman, during the banquet scene in “Camile,” steps forward and proposes a toast: “To Jeff Davis and the Southern Confederacy. May the South always maintain her honor and her rights.” A riot ensued. The house is at once thrown into an uproar, and the daring actress is only saved from injury by the presence of her Southern admirers. Escaping from Louisville she hurries south. With her eyes and ears ever open, she successfully operates in this field until she is caught in the act of giving Holmes, the secret service agent, valuable information regarding movements of the Southern army. Holmes manages to escape, but Miss Cushman is arrested and sentenced to be hung as a spy. She is placed in Gen. Forrest's tent at headquarters under a strong guard, but, with her woman's wit and instinct, is enabled to escape, garbed as a confederate drummer boy. After a perilous ride she reaches the Federal lines and is escorted to the headquarters of Gen. Roscrans.
Pauline Cushman returns to a new zone of danger, notwithstanding the fact that a price has been put upon her shapely head. In her boldness and aggressiveness she becomes even more harmful to the South than she was formerly. After several experiences she is recaptured and brought before Gen. Bragg. The General orders her imprisoned in the house that serves him as headquarters. Miss Cushman secures valuable news regarding important movements, and a certain proposed ambush at Lewiston Cap. Although she has been condemned to death and is closely guarded she again manages to escape and after a nerve-racking trip reaches Gen. Rosecrans in time to save his life, but not in sufficient time to avert a battle. Then follows the thrilling battle of Lewiston Cap, in which calvary charges and the artillery cannonading of the eight pounders play such an important part. The Confederates are repulsed by the federal infantry. Pauline Cushman takes an active hand in this battle and after it is over she is awarded a medal and is given the rank and title of Major for her gallantry in action and distinguished services.
The usual big show at the Quinn theater tomorrow, Sunday night. The best pictures that money can buy, with music by as clever an orchestra as there is in the state of Utah. Five reels, which include Rastus and the Game Cock, a funny Keystone; Mutual Weekly, No. 29, depicting the latest and best events, and the great feature, in three reels, entitled King Rene's Daughter, the interesting story of which follows:
In the middle of the fifteenth century, King Rene ruled in Providence. He was at enmity with the powerful Count Vandemont, but the Duke of Burgundy acted as mediator and they agreed to settle their differences. To seal the peace King Rene's daughter, Iolanthe, then new born, was betrothed to Tristan, the nine-year-old son of Count Vaudemont. Soon after this compact the palace caught fire one midnight and was partially destroyed. In the confusion the infant was left in her room and was near death when a brave soldier fought his way through the smoke and flames to her side. Escape by the door was cut off and as a last hope of safety she was saved, but to quote the story, “whether from the fright or from the headlong fall, the heavenly light of her young eyes was quenched.”
At first the king kept secret the fact that his daughter was blind. He finally sent to Cordova and engaged a famous leech, a Moor named Ehn Jahia. Jahia gave wise council and finally cast the horoscope of Iolanthe's nativity. As a result he announced that if she lived to be sixteen she would recover her sight, providing that until that time no one should tell her that she was blind. The king accordingly built a cottage in a selected portion of his domains. The only entrance to it was a door so concealed by moss and large stones that only those in the secret would know where to find it. In this beautiful prison Iolanthe's childhood was passed in the company of Martha, her nurse, and the latter's husband, Bertrand, a forester. His father paid frequent visits, but she did not know that he was the king. To her he was Sir Raymbauth, and she never knew that he was other than a humble knight. Her days were not unhappy, for as Martha said “she knows each nook, can pass from place to place unguarded and alone; she can work, can ply the needle, even tend her garden, and is ever gay.”
As the years passed, King Rene's despair deepened. He feared that the young Count Vaudemont would not consent to wed a blind girl, and that the physician had declared it necessary that Iolanthe should be told, but the king had refused. Ehn Jahia then took Iolanthe into the cottage and worked over her eyes. While the king waited outside the received a message from Tristan, renouncing his daughter because his heart belonged to another. A few moments later Tristan arrived in person, and was amazed to see the king. He told of his love for the blind girl, whom he believed to be the daughter of a simple knight and Rene joyously told him who she was, and consented to the marriage. Iolanthe recovered her sight, but found the new world strange and dreadful. The voice of Tristan calmed her, however, for she recognized it as the one, “of mingled majesty and gentleness” that had won her maiden heart.