The Street Beautiful - Production & Contact Info (original) (raw)

There is a Civic Betterment Committee of artists who are bent upon improving the general aspect of the city, laying out parks, gardens in the public squares, and doing away with the billboards and unlovely tenement districts. Passing ...See moreThere is a Civic Betterment Committee of artists who are bent upon improving the general aspect of the city, laying out parks, gardens in the public squares, and doing away with the billboards and unlovely tenement districts. Passing through one of the worst of these districts, their conversation is overheard by a boy of Italian parentage and his love of the beautiful responds to their criticism of the street in which he lives. Other children of the block are going to a May party and in strict confidence he shows the little May Queen how he would build a city. In the backyard he has sketched a remarkable building upon the fence and laid out the grass in front of it to look like a miniature public square. The boy is taken ill and when his recovery depends upon fresh air, refuses to even sit at the window because he must look out upon the ugly street. This touches the little May Queen, and getting her subjects together in the street below, she proposes to them that they shall do what they can to rid the street of its ugliness. The owner of the opposite tenement passing at this time, she appeals to him and begs him to paint the building. He agrees to do this if the small folk of the block will clear up the street. They set to work with a will; the result is a transformation of the street which awakens joy in the breast of the little Italian boy. And when the artists pass through the street and want to know who is responsible for the great change they are referred to the May Queen. But she disclaims the credit, and leading them into the little backyard, introduces them to the real author of the idea. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less