Originally published on May 7, 2020. Let it be known, since publishing this recreation, the library of congress has uploaded a shooting script. One of these days I plan to revisit this recreation and see what I got right/wrong and make adjustments. Until then, here is my original post:
The main purpose of this website is to document as much as I can the films of Valeska Suratt. She was only in 11 silent films. 10 of those films were made by FOX (The Immigrant is the only non Fox film) and the infamous 1937 studio fire at the Fox vaults consumed the negatives of those films. Currently none of her films are known to exist in any format. That being said, we can only use magazine and newspaper reviews to get an idea what these movies were about. I have spent a few months going through various film magazines and newspapers to put together what I believe is a fairly accurate synopsis of her debut film, “The Soul of Broadway.” What I did find out while doing this research is that some magazines / newspapers really did not care much about specifics and just had a general outline. Some reviews got names wrong and I found a few that contradicted each other. What I did was just put together what I believe is correct. If I find more information later on, I will update this post and mention what was changed.
On October 15, 1915, Fox Film Corporation released the debut film of Valeska Suratt titled “The Soul of Broadway.” While this was her first movie, the public was full aware who Valeska was due to her success in vaudeville. Besides the debut aspect, the main selling point of the film was the fact that Valeska would be seen in 150 different outfits that were in value of over $100,000! Now one thing I have learned while reading through these older newspapers and movie magazines is that exaggeration was the name of the game. Obviously William Fox wanted to make a big impression with the audience so this all could be true. If there were that many gown changes, that means Valeska would be changing an average of 2 per minute! That’s crazy, but since the film is considered lost, there is no way to verify this. I suspect some scenes may have been montages with gown after gown displayed but that’s just my opinion.
The cast of characters:
Valeska Suratt ………………………….. Grace Leonard, aka La Valencia
William E. Shay…………………………….Bennett
George W. Middleton……………………..Lawton
Mabel Allen……………………………………Emma
Sheridan Block……………………………….gambler
Jane Lee………………………………………. ? daughter
Gertrude Berkeley…………………………..stage actress
As for Jane Lee and Gertrude Berkeley, I am not entirely sure of their roles. I seen Jane Lee’s name mentioned in a few reviews as portraying a child, but it’s never specifically mention who’s daughter. There is a promo picture of her and Valeska together, but from what I have seen, it is never mentioned that she is portraying Grace Leonard’s daughter as IMDB mentions (not sure where they got their information).
Written and directed by Herbert Brenon
Cinematography by Phil (Philip) Rosen
The plot of the film:
Bennett is a sophisticated and handsome man. Well known and respected and seemingly un-phased by most things, he falls in love with the dancer La Valencia (Grace Leonard). Lawton, an older, corrupt minded individual, is a devoted admirer of La Valencia and showers her with money even though she detests him. But she loves his money thus tolerates him. Bennett is the president of a local bank and he decides to steal funds from his workplace to sway Grace towards him. Before he reaches her apartment, Bennett finds out that she is taking money from Lawton and this infuriates him. At her apartment, he finds a check for $1,200 that Lawton had left for her. After ripping the check to shreds, Bennett confronts her and raises his hand to strike when Grace grabs a pearl-handled revolver. Bennett grabs the gun away from her and a fight between the two occurs. The gun goes off and Grace is wounded during the altercation. As she falls to the ground, Bennett leaves the apartment and heads home. He informs his mother of the affair and she advises him to turn himself in to the police. He does so as Miss Leonard is phoning police headquarters to apprehend him for attempted murder. At his trial, Bennett is found guilty and sentenced to five years but is paroled early. (note, some reviews mention a 7 year sentence, with 5 years served)
Three years later, Bennett gets released from prison. He is now older and a bit wiser from his experiences in jail. Out of prison, he meets Emma, the daughter of a local gambler. Emma knows nothing of Bennett’s past. The two quickly fall in love.
Per his parole, Bennett must report to the police headquarters once a month and he realizes that detectives will keep an eye on him as well. He ends up proposing to Emma. She accepts and the two marry.
In the meantime, Miss Leonard has kept her affair with Lawton ongoing. On a trip to Atlantic City, she meets a gambler, who is ironically the father of Emma! During the trip, Grace takes flight on an hydroplane and drops a rose from the air which just happens to land in the hat of her former lover Bennett, who is with his wife along the beach. Lawton is thrown overboard from the hydroplane and Grace goes to be with the gambler from that point. The gambler promises to showcase her at his local gambling house.
On the night of her stage debut, the audience is packed with various important public figures as well as Emma, her mother and Bennett. La Valencia is billed as the “Masked Woman of Mystery.” The aura of mystery has attracted a full crowd for the event. This portion of the film has Valeska Suratt performing her vaudeville act “Black Crepe and Diamonds.”
During the ovation of her act, Grace faints when she sees the face of Bennett. She sends him a note requesting his presence. When he arrives, Bennett is shocked to learn the true identify of the masked woman as La Valencia tears off her mask in the crowded gambling hall. La Valencia threatens to expose Bennett but is overcome with madness and falls down a flight of stairs forty-five feet in height, resulting in her death.
For my synopsis review, I used articles from:
Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Jan 9, 1916 newspaper
Wichita Daily Times – Dec 6, 1915 newspaper
Variety October 1915 magazine
Various Motion Picture World magazines
Numerous other newspaper articles, most had similar information as above
The film would be reissued in 1919. Fox had the habit of re-issuing films a few years after their original run in a slightly edited (i.e. shortened) form. This happened with a few of Theda Bara films. As far as I know, “The Soul of Broadway” was the only film of Suratt’s that got the re-release treatment. The glass slide pictured above is from that run.
I hope you enjoyed the synopsis and that it makes sense! 😉 The ending seems rather abrupt but from the reviews I read, the reviews did not spoil the ending that much and I had to go with what I could find. Like I mentioned earlier, if I find more information later, I will update where appropriate.
Below is a photo slide show that I uploaded to youtube. It contains the photos in this blog post as well as some other photos that I found but did not include. I recommend watching it in full HD quality so you can get the higher resolution visuals from it.
Thanks for reading!!
Recreation by Bill Piper.
Please do not reuse without permission (just link to the website)
Leave a comment