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The Tramp Story
Also known as [The Tramp’s Story]
(1909) United States of America
B&W : Split-reel / 715 feet
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: (unknown)
Essanay Film Manufacturing Company production; distributed by Essanay Film Manufacturing Company. / Released 28 July 1909; in a split-reel with A Case of Seltzer (1909). / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The film was originally announced for released at 750 feet on 30 June 1909.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? There never was a more picturesque character in all the world than the American tramp, yeggman, hobo. His mysterious comings and goings, and his occasional visits at our back doors often excites the desire to inquire of him: “What made you a tramp?” This motion picture tells the tragic story of the making of an American tramp. Joe Brown is a jovial, good-natured blacksmith in a little town in the Lehigh Valley in New York, the beloved husband of a good wife and father of a sweet-faced girl of sixteen. They are living happily together, and with careful saving and hard work he has bought a modest little home. Nellie, being the prettiest girl in all the valley is courted by every farmer lad for miles around, but none of them seem to suit her, she declaring that no man in all New York State is good enough for her. Brown is busily at work at his forge one day when a young stranger, leading a horse, appears. The horse has lost a shoe and during the replacing of another. Nellie appears on the scene. The young stranger is immediately smitten with the girl’s winsome face and when she leaves he follows her. They meet later and he confesses his love for her. In the handsome young stranger Nellie at last finds her hero and after a short courtship, of which the girl does not inform her parents, he persuades her to elope with him. The next morning the father and mother discover the loss of their daughter: the mother becomes violently ill and her life despaired of. The little country girl goes to the city with the young man and after a month, in which she implores him to marry her, he leaves her for another woman. Nellie returns to her home, heartbroken and ill, and after confessing the unhappy ending of her romance drops at her father’s feet dead. The poor mother, frantic with shame and grief, survives her daughter by just a week or two, and the poor, grief-stricken blacksmith, his home wrecked, his happiness destroyed, finds solace in drink. In the hope of finding the scoundrel who betrayed his daughter he becomes a tramp, and after several years’ search encounters him in a barroom. Here the villain receives his just deserts, while the tramp leaves happier for having obtained the long-for revenge and the fulfillment of his oath. This is a human story that will touch every heart. It is splendidly staged and cleverly acted, while the photography is exceptionally good.
Survival status: Print exists.
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 27 December 2024.
References: Website-AFI; Website-IMDb.
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