Underground Favorites Parallel to the Artistry of Giving Becky a Chance: Cult Guide

Dir: Howard Estabrook

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Giving Becky a Chance perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Cast out by his father because of his wild shenanigans, Steve King travels west, where he drowns his sorrows in drink. One night while drunk, he marries Lonely Lou, a servant who works in the saloon. Awakening to find his life seemingly destroyed, Steve takes his burro and miserable wife into the mountains to prospect for gold. When Steve discovers a strike, Lou suggests that they return to his family. Unable to face the disgrace of marrying a saloon girl, Steve decides to take poison, but Lou discovers the potion and, thinking that it was planted for her, feigns drinking it and falls dead. Believing that Lou is dead, Steve disappears to wander the country as a tramp. Meanwhile, Garst, a promoter, recognizes the value of the claim and helps Lou develop it. Five years later, Lou has become a woman of wealth and, while dining at the hotel, sees Steve working as a waiter. They are finally reunited when Steve saves Lou from Garst's advances and at last face a happy life together.

Dir: Howard Estabrook

A dying stranger abandons a baby girl in a gypsy camp, with a note explaining that on her eighteenth birthday, she is to inherit a Virginia estate. The gypsy chief, aware of the girl's value, instructs Sabia, the tribe's matron, to dress and rear her as a boy. Years later, while the tribe is traveling in Virginia, Vosho, the chief's son, discovers the true sex of the girl, now called Firefly, and demands to marry her. Forced into marriage, Firefly flees from the camp on her wedding night and meets up with Donald McDonald, a local newspaper editor. Donald, thinking that Firefly is a boy, hires her as an errand runner and she soon falls secretly in love with him. Eventually, she unites with her uncle and lives happily on his estate until Vosho shows up to claim her. After a hard fight, Donald rescues Firefly and jails Vosho, who is later freed by Firefly's jealous cousin. When she witnesses a scene between Donald and his secretary, Firefly, convinced that he does not love her, returns to the gypsy camp. With the aid of her uncle, Donald locates Firefly and declares his undivided love for her.