Curated Recommendations Seeking the Same Brilliance as The Adventure Shop: Cult Guide

Dir: Kenneth S. Webb

Mary Horton, a country girl, moves to New York to make her living as a seamstress, where she meets Hilda Newton, an old neighbor who has renounced her country ways for the immoral life of the city. Mary moves in with Hilda and meets Bob Merrick who, charmed by the girl's innocence determines to protect her. Just as she is about to succumb to evil influences, Mary is called home to her mother's sickbed where she is denounced for her evil ways by her former sweetheart, Horace Worth. However, when Hilda's friends decide to visit Mary, Bob Merrick defends her reputation and proposes to her. The couple decide to remain in Mary's country village, while Hilda and her friends return to the city.

Dir: Kenneth S. Webb

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Marie, Ltd. perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

After growing up in the West with her father, Drina Hilliard travels to New York to surprise her mother Marie, whose profitable Fifth Avenue millinery store has provided the means for Drina to go to college. Arriving while Marie is vacationing in Atlantic City, Drina discovers that Marie greatly overcharges her customers, then splits the profits with the women whose rich husbands or lovers pay. When Marie returns, she tries to get Drina to marry Colonel Lambert, an old rounder who pays the bills for a dozen women's hats, but Drina, attracted to Blair Carson, who drove bandits from their New York-bound train, refuses the colonel. After Drina sees Blair with Zelie, a showgirl the colonel has cast off, and realizes that Marie is ill and on the verge of bankruptcy, she nearly accepts the colonel's proposal, when Blair appears and confesses his love. Marie vows to run her store legitimately, and the colonel and Zelie console each other over their losses.

Dir: Kenneth S. Webb

Vi Playfair confesses to her twin sister Tiny that she is planning secretly to meet Lent Trevett, who loves her, to say goodbye, on the eve of her wedding. Tiny, who herself loves Lent, meets him instead and passionately kisses him, leaving Lent, who thinks that Tiny is Vi, to assume that Vi loves him. The next day, after the marriage ceremony, Lent convinces the flighty Vi that her husband Joe is a bully and that she should leave with him. Tiny sees them embrace, and to teach Vi a lesson, she impersonates her sister and goes with Joe on their honeymoon. Vi, now jealous, follows, and in turn is followed by Lent. At the honeymoon cottage, Vi proves to Joe, by a mole on her leg, that she is his wife, and promises Tiny that she will give up flirting. After Tiny convinces Lent that it was she that he kissed, the couples are happily reunited.

Dir: Kenneth S. Webb

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of His Bridal Night perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

An artist pretends to be a valet to escape a woman's advances. He marries another woman but must keep painting in secret to make enough money.

Dir: Kenneth S. Webb

A model by day and a short-story writer by night, Erminie Foster is insulted when novelist Ernest Sanford visits her display room to study her as a "flapper" type. Later, Erminie attends a reception uninvited to gather atmosphere for a story. Sanford saves her from being thrown out by saying that she is his cousin. When her prudish aunt forbids her entrance at 3AM, Sanford offers her lodgings under the protection of his housekeeper and soon persuades her to stay for inspiration. He writes a satire on women that is turned down, while hers on men sells. After Erminie overhears Monte Ralston, who loves Sanford's fiancée Helen Reeves, threaten Sanford with Helen's incriminating letters, Erminie sacrifices her reputation to retrieve the letters. When the engagement is broken and Helen and Monte explain Erminie's behavior to Sanford, he loses his smugly superior attitude and confesses he loves Erminie.

Dir: Kenneth S. Webb

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Great Adventure perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Felicia Day is brought up in seclusion by her affectionate but narrow-minded grandfather, Major Trenton. One day, Dudley Hamilt, a choirboy, throws his ball across the fence which separates the rectory from the Trenton yard and meets Felicia, from whom he steals a kiss. Trenton sees the children smooching and, shocked, sends Felicia to Canada. Years pass and Felicia, now an adult, decides to go to New York and make her living as a seamstress. She still yearns for Dudley but decides against seeing him because of her old-fashioned wardrobe. Possessing a natural talent for dancing, Felicia is offered a job by lecherous theatrical manager Allen Graemer, and she accepts. Dudley, attending one of her performances, recognizes his long-lost love and follows her home where he rescues her from Graemer's advances and admits his enduring love for the girl from whom he stole a kiss.

Dir: Kenneth S. Webb

Rosa Roma, an aspiring singer, is signed by backer Ogden Ward on condition that she not fall in love, appear in public, or use her own name. But she meets composer Griffith Ames, falls in love with him, and stars in his new opera. When Ward upbraids her, Rosa tries to satisfy her contract by means of a ruby necklace, which he has been secretly trying to obtain through devious means, but the rubies are stolen. Ames is accused of the theft, but the culprit finally confesses, and Rosa is reunited with Ames and her rubies.

Dir: Kenneth S. Webb

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Girl Problem perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Two pairs of newlyweds are riding on a bus when the wives notice the strong resemblance between their husbands. Mrs. McGuire realizes that a police detective's car is following the bus and hatches a plot with Mrs. Williams to switch their husbands' identities long enough for Pinkey to escape from the police.

Dir: Kenneth S. Webb

To help her husband keep his job, a woman gives in to her employer's advances. When the husband finds out, he kills his rival.

Dir: Kenneth S. Webb

Ruth Hamilton, from a wealthy aristocratic family, cares little for society or its conventions and refuses the proposal of William Barton, a socialite of her parents' choice. While giving some poor children an outing on a beach, Ruth meets John Martin (Miles?), a young nouveau riche with no social standing who is snubbed by the aristocratic circles, and begins to visit him secretly. When Ruth visits John to show off a new costume, her father arrives to seek his financial aid. Ruth escapes, but she is observed by Barton, who informs her father. Hamilton insists that Martin marry his daughter, but Ruth refuses to be compromised by her father. Later, however, she consents to marry John, discovering that he really loves her.