Tweet Marie Dressler short films

Tillie's Day Off - (1916)
Elopement - (1916)

These titles are listed in a Marie Dressler filmography on a web site devoted to her. I've never heard of these. Are they real films?

And of her 4 short films made in 1917-18, do any survive?

Tillie's Day Off was initially titled "Tillie's Night Out" and was changed by the World Film Corporation because it was filmed during the daytime at Coney Island and they felt that the night out title was not very fitting. Frances Marion wrote many of the Tillie Comedy serials and even appeared in a few of them (Motography Vol XVI No.19).

A title called Aunt Tillie's Elopment was released 11/25/15 and may be the same title by Associated Film Corporation a 1 reel comedy (Motion Picture News 12/5/15).

As far as the other titles during 1917-1918 silent era.com lists two of them as "unknown status"and the others are not coming up in the search engine.

Looks like imdb could use a volunteer to update her filmography with pristine accuracy.

Regards,
Dana

Tillie's Day Off was initially titled "Tillie's Night Out" and was changed by the World Film Corporation because it was filmed during the daytime at Coney Island and they felt that the night out title was not very fitting. Frances Marion wrote many of the Tillie Comedy serials and even appeared in a few of them (Motography Vol XVI No.19).

A title called Aunt Tillie's Elopment was released 11/25/15 and may be the same title by Associated Film Corporation a 1 reel comedy (Motion Picture News 12/5/15).

As far as the other titles during 1917-1918 silent era.com lists two of them as "unknown status"and the others are not coming up in the search engine.

Looks like imdb could use a volunteer to update her filmography with pristine accuracy.

Regards,
Dana

Thanks. I'd heard of the 1917-18 shorts which were thru her own production company, but those other titles were new to me. I wonder if LoC's copy of THE SCRUB LADY is tied up with a donor restriction..... Would make a great extra on a DVD next year.

Looking into this, I now think that the DAY OFF or NIGHT OUT are just early names for Tillie Wakes Up. All the blurbs mention Coney Island and/or Johnny Hines. I find nothing on "Elopement" and wonder if that was just another suggested title.....

The Huntley Archive on Youtube has THE RED CROSS NURSE (1918).

The Huntley Archive on Youtube has THE RED CROSS NURSE (1918).

Where? I found reel 2 of THE SCRUB LADY in the Huntley....

Tillie Wakes Up 1917 was released in January 1917 (Moving Picture World, Lantern) and Tillie's Day Off 1916 was released in the fall of 1916 and was the first of the Tillie series based on the 5 act comedy from 1914 which introduced Dresler and the Tillie character originally. If Aunt Tillie's Elopment (12/15 Motion Picture News) was not Dresler's title than unclear when this title came out or if was under a different name as well. Your guess is better than mine as alot of the pre-1921 references are a bit scarce and confusing.

Aunt Tillie's Elopement was released December 1915 and produced by Banner Film Company of Los Angeles (or San Mateo). Seems doubtful Dressler had anything to do with this.

I would hazard a guess that the Day Off, Night Out, etc. titles were working titles. MOTION PICTURES NEWS story September 9, 1916 says title was changed from NIGHT OUT to DAY OFF because the story takes place in daytime. It also names all the people associated with WAKES UP right down to the Coney Island settings. Hines, Marion, Davenport etc have not other TILLIE titles in their filmographies.

But who knows....

I should have thought it this before... I checked Steve Massa's book on Slapstick Divas. All these other titles were spec film ideas that never happened. Of the four shorts Dressler made in 1917-18, only reel 2 of The Scrub Lady survives.

The Dressler footage on the Huntley Archive is from THE SCRUB LADY. It's the same footage that's at LOC.

The video I mentioned was once titled THE RED CROSS NURSE, but is the identical file now ID'd as THE SCRUB LADY.