Flick Friday: George Washington, Jr. 1924
One hundred years, ago, today, the movie George Washington, Jr., was released. A black & white silent comedy film, it starred Wesley Barry, Gertrude Olmstead, Léon Bary, Heinie Conklin, Otis Harlan, William Courtright and Eddie Phillips. Based on the 1906 play by George M. Cohan, it was directed by Malcolm St. Clair, with the screenplay & story by Rex Taylor.
As described in a film magazine review, Count Gorfa, anarchist leader, steals the private records of a Senate Investigative Committee, the loss of which threatens the political fortunes of Senator Belgrave, whose daughter the Count wishes to wed. The Senator’s son, the young George Washington Belgrave and his friend Robert Lee Hopkins trail the anarchists. After many adventures and burlesques of historical fables, the documents are recovered and the Senator is saved.
A senator is trying to get his niece to marry a foreign count. The senator’s teenage son finds out that the count is not only a phony but, an international criminal. The boy sets out to break up the impending marriage, save his father from ruin and, his cousin from marrying a man she doesn’t love.
IMDb Storyline
George Belgrave is guided by George Washington’s principles of integrity and honesty. He exposes his cousin Dolly’s fiancé, Count Tyrola, to be a bogus count and an internationally sought criminal. [As] the leader of the Vassalini gang, [he] steals a secret treaty from George’s father, a United States senator. It is Tyrola’s intention to use the treaty to cause political strife in Bessarabia. George, his friend Bob, and Ham, the negro butler, subdue the Vassalini gang and, after recovering the treaty, lock them up. Tyrola’s treachery is revealed seconds before the wedding ceremony. George, to save his father embarrassment, tells his only lie in giving him credit for the whole “plan” to capture Tyrola. Cousin Dolly marries friend Bob.
This is a lost film. ~Vic
Trivia Bits:
♦ The original Broadway production of George Washington, Jr. opened at the Herald Square Theatre on February 12, 1906 and ran for 81 performances.
♦ The role of the servant Eton Ham was played by Conklin in blackface.
TCM: George Washington, Jr.
AFI: George Washington, Jr.
Exibitors Trade Review (Internet Archive)
Cosmic-Observation 
February 2, 2024 at 10:16 PM
Damn lost films. You never know it could show up one day in a salt mine somewhere. I bet Russia has many of them.
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February 2, 2024 at 10:40 PM
I thought BBC was bad about destroying stuff but, the US is just as bad.
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February 2, 2024 at 10:42 PM
So stupid…at the time they didn’t think it was going to worth a nickel…or a pound …either way. All of those sixties bands are gone…and of course yes movies. The movies were not taken care of.
Chaplin built a place for his movies to be preserved.
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February 2, 2024 at 10:48 PM
Chaplin was smart.
I keep running into lost films.
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February 2, 2024 at 11:12 PM
Yea…many of Clara Bow ones are…and her one that was done in their version of color…I think it was called Red Hair…only a few minutes have been found.
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February 3, 2024 at 1:40 AM
How fascinating.
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February 3, 2024 at 10:03 AM
I like digging for unusual stuff…lost to time.
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February 3, 2024 at 12:54 PM
Lordy – what a plot!
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February 3, 2024 at 9:18 PM
I thought so, too.
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February 5, 2024 at 9:49 AM
Charlee: “We watched that Clara Bow clip and we can’t believe they were handing out fish and we just missed it.”
Java Bean: “Ayyy, you didn’t just miss it. That was almost a hundred years ago. I don’t think the fish would be fit to eat after all this time.”
Lulu: “What about to roll in?”
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February 5, 2024 at 2:28 PM
Charlee, that was a LONG time ago.
Bean, you have a point.
Lulu, 100 year old fish would be nothing but bone dust by now. I suppose you could roll in that but, it might be itchy.
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February 5, 2024 at 12:58 PM
Interesting, sounds more like espionage than a comedy…must have made more sense with the words..hehehe.
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February 5, 2024 at 2:36 PM
I guess International intrigue was hot in the 20s.
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February 5, 2024 at 2:39 PM
Even as a lost film, the dialog “should” have been preserved from the play it is based on.
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