A Movie Star

With his rather unique and off-beat appearance, Mack Swain, with his thick moustache and hairlick that reached down to his eyebrows, hardly looks like the image most people conjure up when they think of a movie star. But then, these were the early days of the movies.

Mack Swain as Big Hearted Jack is making an appearance at a premier of his new film. It's not a movie premiere as it existed even ten years later, but instead it is a primitive impromptu affair. Jack just sits in the front row with the audience. The women are enthralled by Jack, but the men - not so much. A Shakesperean actor in the audience is open in his disdain.

The film within the film is a western that has Jack's sweetheart getting her head turned by a city slicker, an Indian attack, a wild shoot out, and Jack riding in to save the day. All while Big Hearted Jack discusses the film with the women in the audience and encourages them to clap at the right spots. All the while, Harry McCoy labors away in the corner as a one man orchestra and sound effects man.

The end is quite a surprise for the ladies in the audience when the truth about their hero raises their ire. I'll let you watch and find out what that truth is.

For 1916 this is a very subtle piece of comedy and a look at what an average movie patron might encounter and what an average movie theater might have as far as technology. It really is cleverly done.