*KIDNAPPED IN NEW YORK (1914) Silent Film Crime Drama Photographic Lobby Card 2

Description

Vintage original 11x14 in. US lobby card
from the mid-teens silent film crime drama short,
KIDNAPPED IN NEW YORK
, released in 1914 by Link Film Corporation. In New York City, a wealthy man's baby daughter (Baby Marie Osborne) and her nurse (Violet Stuart) are kidnapped by crooks, who hold the little girl for ransom. A brave detective, Dooley (Barney Gilmore), goes undercover as a homeless bum in the Italian ghetto to find her. When the kidnappers discover the cop's deception, both Dooley and the child's lives are in danger. The cast also includes Paul Panzer.
The image features an interior long shot inside of a room inside what we assume is a police station as detective Dooley (
Barney Gilmore
) inspects the broken iron bars inside the window as the wealthy father of the kidnapped baby girl and another man look in disbelief. This vintage original lobby card is unrestored in very fine- condition with various signs of light wear on the corners and along 1 in. of the edge of the left border. There are no pinholes, tears, stains, or other flaws. Rare.
Provenance: The Estate of David Horsley.
An early crime drama,
Kidnapped in New York
actually starts off like a travelogue, with seven minutes worth of priceless footage of the New York City in 1914, including the Lower Side, the Brooklyn Bridge, and Grand Central Station. Baby Marie Osborne was the first major child star of the silent era. In her adulthood, she began a new career as a costumer and wardrobe supervisor, working on such lavish motion pictures as
Around the World in 80 Days
(1956) and
Cleopatra
(1963). She passed away at the age of 99 in 2010, survived by her five grandchildren.
David Horsley
(March 11, 1873 – February 23, 1933) was an American pioneer of the film industry. He founded the Centaur Film Company and its West Coast branch, the Nestor Film Company, which established the first film studio in Hollywood in 1911. Horsley was born in Stanley, County Durham. In 1884, the family moved to Bayonne, New Jersey where, as a young man, he built a bicycle business and ran a pool hall. It was then that he met a former employee of the American Biograph Company, Charles Gorman, and, along with his brother, William Horsley (1870–1956), they formed the Centaur Film Company. By 1910, their operation was producing three films a week, including the
Mutt and Jeff
comedies.
David and William Horsley, along with other film independents, succeeded in defeating the monopolistic hold on the industry of Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company. However, weather conditions on the east coast made filming an uncertain proposition because camera technology at the time relied on sunshine. Frustrated, and realizing that California afforded the opportunity to make films year round, David Horsley moved his operations to the west coast. Among the first motion pictures ever filmed in Hollywood was taken on October 26, 1911 in the orchards of H.J. Whitley's estate (D.W. Griffith's film,
Love Among the Roses,
" at the studio of famed French floral painter Paul de Longpre at his home and studio in Hollywood in 1909). Although the movie never really had a name it is a true piece of Hollywood history. In the fall of 1911, the Nestor Motion Picture Company opened the first motion picture studio in Hollywood in the old Blondeau Tavern building at the northwest corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street. With Horsley was Al Christie, who served as general manager in charge of Christie Comedies, plus Charles Rosher, who lent his expertise as the studio's full-time cameraman. Other east coast film companies recognized Horsley's advantage and quickly followed his lead.
In April 1912, the Universal Film Manufacturing Company was formed and David Horsley and other small studios merged, each accepting shares in Universal as payment for their business. Horsley received 5,000 in preferred stock and 4,000 in common stock in the new Universal Film Manufacturing Company and was also appointed the company's treasurer. However, the peaceful merger soon turned sour and in 1913 Horsley, sold his interest to Carl Laemmle. A wealthy man, David Horsley travelled to his birthplace and around Europe. After returning to California, and investing in a failed exotic animal show, Horsley went back into the motion picture business with David Horsley Studios and using the animals from the failed show, established the Bostock Jungle Films Company. By the spring of 1917, he had outfitted his new operations in Los Angeles at Main and Washington streets. However, a series of setbacks cost Horsley his entire fortune and left him in debt. David Horsley died in Los Angeles and is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood.
His son, David Stanley Horsley (1906–1976), trained as a cinematographer and became an expert in special effects photography, working in the film industry for nearly thirty years.