Madeleine's Christmas - Production & Contact Info (original) (raw)

Hermann Von Schultz plays first violin at the Pikes Opera House, Cincinnati. In the ballet is a young French girl, Marguerite Ne Moyer. Her father has been dead two years and her mother is employed as a forewoman in a department store. ...See moreHermann Von Schultz plays first violin at the Pikes Opera House, Cincinnati. In the ballet is a young French girl, Marguerite Ne Moyer. Her father has been dead two years and her mother is employed as a forewoman in a department store. Marguerite has a fair voice, and the violinist takes great pleasure in instructing her when opportunity permits. One night on leaving the store Marguerite's mother is knocked down by a wagon and receives injuries from which she dies a few days later. At last Herman summons up courage and proposes marriage. Marguerite accepts him. A year passes and they have a baby girl. The wife is frequently visited by her female theatrical chums, who continually remind her that she has tied herself to a man of small quality. They describe pictures of what her life might he if she were free. The poison weeds are sown, and one day, Marguerite leaves her home, husband and child and goes to New York to join a local company at an excellent salary. Five years pass and Hermann, broken-hearted, has moved to Milwaukee and working, his only comfort is the child, little Madeleine. He goes to the theater every performance to play and locks the child in, placing the key in a flowerpot outside of the window so that she can get it in case of emergency. On Christmas Eve a blizzard is raging, but Herman must go to work. He puts the child to bed, puts the key in the flowerpot, and leaves the house. Presently a knock is heard at the door. Madeleine, who is in bed in the next room, thinks that it is Santa Clans and calls out that the key is in the flowerpot. A woman appears at the window; she gets the key and lets herself in. It is the mother, bedraggled and starving. The child cannot resist the temptation to peek in and see Santa Claus. She sees the woman and tells her she has no right to come into the house. The mother pleads for protection as the storm will kill her if she is driven out. Madeleine tells her that her father will not allow any woman in the house, but after much persuasion tells the woman she may go upstairs and sleep in the attic. The mother embraces the child, who again goes to bed. The storm is so bad that the theater cannot open and Hermann returns. Madeleine had again replaced the key in the flowerpot and the violinist comes in and sits down in front of the fire. Madeleine creeps in and again persuades him to play the favorite tune. The mother upstairs hears the violin and commences to sing the refrain. Hermann hears it and demands of the child who is upstairs. The child replies that it is a woman. Hermann recognizes the voice, he rushes in and brings his long lost wife out. She has returned, as he knew she would. The mother embraces the child frantically, then puts her to bed again. The scene, closes as Hermann tells Marguerite to go and get one of the child's stockings. They nail it on the mantelpiece and Hermann goes to a bureau drawer and gets a lot of toys that he has laid in. The two fill the stockings, then sit down by the fire as Hermann fills up his pipe and takes his repentant wife in his arms. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less