Dorothy Gibson & "Saved from the Titanic"

April 14, 1912, 11:40 pm. The Titanic strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic that would cause it to sink the next day. Although we've seen the story of the Titanic dozens of times, through various TV and film variations, the story that could potentially offer us the most insight into this legendary tragedy was lost in a vault fire 99 years ago.

Dorothy Gibson had only been in films for a year when she set sail on the Titanic with her mother. She had gotten her start with IMP company and in July 1911, she signed with the U.S. branch of the Paris-based Eclair Studios. She found fame and praise for her light comedies as well as her dramas, but her experience on the Titanic would push her into a new level of fame.

While Gibson and her mother were playing bridge with some of their fellow passengers, the ship struck the iceberg. The women escaped on the first lifeboat launched and arrived in New York via the ship Carpathia. It was when she arrived that Gibson's manager asserted she should appear in a film based on the disaster. Gibson went a step further, penning the scenario for the film from her experiences. The film, titled "Saved from the Titanic" and even featured Gibson wearing the clothes she was rescued in.

Moving Picture World praise the "Saved" as a "surprising and artistically perfect reel," while also praising Gibson for her ability to deal with the trauma of the event while still being able to perform at the top of her game. In addition to having the distinction of being a first person account of the disaster, it was also the very first film about it, released just 29 days after the sinking. Although Gibson, along with Mary Pickford, was the highest paid movie star in the world, it didn't push her to continue her film career. She retired from the film industry in May 1912. Unfortunately, the only known print of "Saved from the Titanic" was destroyed in an Eclair Studios vault fire in 1914, depriving the world of one of silent film's most intriguing performances and stories.

Eclair was not the only studio or, indeed, company, eager to profit off of the Titanic tragedy. Warner's Features released footage of Captain Smith and billed it for what it was -- footage of the captain on the sister ship of the Titanic, the Olympic, during inspection shortly before it set sail. Although the footage was not of the Titanic itself, the notice noted that the Olympic's construction was similar to that of the Titanic, and that this was the only filmed footage of the late captain ever taken.

At some point, however, other distributors also acquired the footage and altered it so that it could be marketed as footage of the Titanic itself just before setting sail. They even scratched and damaged the film so that the names of the ships were obscured.

You can watch the footage of Captain Smith on the Olympic below.

Laemmle Luck and Publicity Stunts

This post was originally published on the lonelybrand blog as part of an ongoing silent film series.

Although you may not know the name Carl Laemmle, you undoubtedly know the studio he helped create -- Universal Pictures. Laemmle came to the U.S. from Germany in 1884 and settled in Chicago where he worked as a bookkeeper for 20 years. As nickelodeons grew in popularity, he got involved in the world of film, creating International Motion Pictures (IMP) in 1909 and Universal Pictures in 1912. Universal Pictures is now the oldest movie company in the U.S., and the second oldest company still in production in the world (the first being Gaumont). Of course, Universal didn’t become successful by chance. The studio's success was due to a bit of Laemmle Luck, in the form of a combination of respected actors, great storylines and effective advertising.

Laemmle was a master of promotion. IMP was one of the first studios to credit and promote its stars by name, which helped make them household names. It also used those names, and the public’s adoration of them, to create effective publicity stunts and advertising campaigns to drum up more interest in the studios. One of the actresses most often used in these campaigns was Florence Lawrence, also known as the IMP girl.

Lawrence was one of the first true movie stars, so when a rumor surfaced that she had been involved in a horrific fatal accident with a street car, the public was distraught and heartbroken. Shortly after that, an ad began running in trade papers and newspapers that debunked the rumor, calling it a cowardly lie. It also mentioned that Lawrence would be appearing in a new IMP film very soon.

In truth, the rumor was created by Carl Laemmle himself as a publicity stunt.

Although Lawrence worked for several film companies during her career, whenever she returned to Laemmle, he made sure to take out ads for it in the trade papers. During one of her first returns, Laemmle took out a full page ad that was constructed as a letter from Lawrence to the theater owners that exhibited Universal films.

When she began to approach the end of her career, Laemmle staged Lawrence for a comeback, using a clever technique that involved purchasing multiple pages of advertising in the trade papers that alluded to a comeback, without giving away all of the information at once. The first ad ran in the January 1, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World, and acted as an effective lead-in to the ad that ran the following week.

Laemmle then adapted this technique for his next attempted comeback with fading child star Ethel Grandin. This time, he spread the advertisements out over three weeks, with the first appearing in the February 26, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World.

For more of these great vintage ads, check out my Pinterest board devoted to silent film ads.