The Mermaid is a 1910 American silent short comedy produced by the Thanhouser Company. The film focuses on John Gary, a hotel owner, who wants to revitalize his business. After reading about a reported mermaid sighting, he has his daughter Ethel pose as a mermaid and gets a newspaper reporter to witness and photograph the mermaid. The publicity results in the hotel becoming famous, but Ethel eventually discloses the joke to the guests of the hotel in her mermaid suit. The film was released on July 29, 1910 and was met with mostly positive reviews. The film is presumed lost.
Film poster
The Thanhouser Company was one of the first motion picture studios, founded in 1909 by Edwin Thanhouser, his wife Gertrude and his brother-in-law Lloyd Lonergan. It operated in New York City until 1920, producing over a thousand films.
British One Sheet, 1910s
A still from The Actor's Children. It shows the family with the father doing some theatrical acting for the amusement of his children.
Multiple silent-film scenes being simultaneously filmed under the glass roof of the Thanhouser studio, c. 1914. Visible are actors in costume, directors, cameramen, sets, a Klieg light, and four Pathé silent film cameras
