From the Archives: Centennial of the Cliffhanger

This March marks the centennial of the release of the most popular of all cliffhanger movie serials, The Perils of Pauline starring Pearl White.  This 20-episode serial was produced by Pathé Studio located in Jersey City.  Exteriors were shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey, at the Palisades Amusement Park and on and around Cliffhanger Point atop the cliffs of Fort Lee’s Palisades in the Coytesville section of the borough.

Though not a cliffhanger in the traditional sense of Pearl’s later movie serials including The House of Hate (1918) which had endings that would leave the fate of our heroine in doubt until the next week’s installment, The Perils of Pauline showcased spectacular stunt work that would leave worldwide audiences on the edge of their seats.  It must be noted that Pearl performed her own stunts which included climbing down Fort Lee’s Palisades and exiting Palisades Amusement Park in a hot air balloon that became unmoored and sailed off to Philadelphia with a frightened movie crew in chase via vehicles below.  Fortunately Pearl and her balloon landed in Philadelphia allowing our Pearl to continue to make pictures and fill movie seats through the early 1920’s.  Pearl made all of her film on the East Coast and as far as anyone knows never set foot in Hollywood.

The Perils of Pauline involved the participation of publisher William Randolph Hearst who was involved in the plot development and in fact ran a print version of this serial in his chain of newspapers along with the movie serial and this created a cross platform of media synergy way ahead of its time.  Pathe' cinematographer Arthur C. Miller was on board and that same gent later would travel to Hollywood and win three Academy Awards for cinematography for the following films How Green Was My Valley (1941), The Song of Bernadette (1943) and Anna and the King of Siam (1946) , all for his employer 20th Century Fox.  The directors of The Perils of Pauline  were Louis J. Gasnier and Donald MacKenzie.

This March for Women's History Month the Fort Lee Film Commission advocates  the importance of Pearl White as an early film pioneer who portrayed strong and capable women both on screen and in her own life.  This was far from a damsel in distress.  Pearl in many instances in her films saved the day and protected herself and others as she fought off adversity.  We offer this example of woman film pioneer Pearl White via Chapter One of "The Perils of Pauline"… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVPQa-10030

Pearl followed this film with an even bigger box office success in The Exploits of Elaine (1914).  She would continue to shoot atop Fort Lee’s Palisades and continue to create magic on the silver screen through the early 1920’s.  Wise with her money and well paid over the years Pearl left America for Paris where she retired from acting and lived the good life.  Pearl invested in a successful nightclub in Paris, a resort hotel and casino and she owned a profitable stable of racehorses.  Pearl was in love with a Greek businessman who shared her love of travel and they purchased a home near Cairo, Egypt and travelled together throughout the Middle East and the Orient.  Her injuries suffered via her dangerous stunt work over the years finally caught up with her in the 1930s and she became addicted to painkillers and alcohol to help ease her pain.  She died at the age of 49 in 1938 and is buried in the Cimetiere de Passy in a suburb of Pairs.

The Fort Lee Film Commission upon our creation over a decade ago adopted the  image of Pearl White atop the Palisades in the production still of the 1918 movie  serial The House of Hate as our logo as it is one of the most iconic images that symbolizes the birth of the American film industry.  That very movie serial has been found in an archive in Moscow, Russia and the Russian film archivists have sent us a video transfer of a portion of this serial and showcases Pearl White atop Fort Lee’s Cliffhanger Point as she climbs down the cliff via rope.  This is the only existing print of this serial.  We hope to repatriate the surviving elements of this landmark movie serial and eventually restore the film.

In the 1969 book Pearl White The Peerless Fearless  Girl authors Manuel Weltman and Raymond Lee showcase an incident in the prologue that explains better than I can the importance of Pearl White as a worldwide film star…

In 1918 the Germans were making their last push to seize Paris.  Big Bertha cannons bombarded the city of light, and bombs fell from the sky.  Vicente Blasco Ibanez, famed Spanish novelist, whose  Blood and Sand and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse became vehicles for Valentino, stumbled through the darkness hoping to find an air-raid shelter.  Following a line of people he descended into a cellar and sighed with relief.  Suddenly, there appeared  on the screen the image of a flashing beautiful blond woman, defying death in a leap over the fire escape of a tall building.  He wiped the sweat and grime from his eyes.   Where was he?  What were all these people doing watching a shadow on a screen while Hell raged above?  In his best French he asked a stout lady beside him what was happening.  “Monsieur,” she said, “It’s the last chapter of a Pearl White serial.  We are most fortunate to see it, no matter what the Boche (German soldier in World War I)  are trying to do.”