The Gibson Goddess

19091909
6m

IMDb RATING

5.0/10

171

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

443,107

99,936

Comedy Short

A pack of admirers won't leave a beautiful woman alone at a seaside resort, so she devises a plan. She appears in a leg-revealing swimsuit, but the stockings have been stuffed with cotton to... Read allA pack of admirers won't leave a beautiful woman alone at a seaside resort, so she devises a plan. She appears in a leg-revealing swimsuit, but the stockings have been stuffed with cotton to make her limbs appear misshapen. All but one of the men is driven off, and regret it when... Read allA pack of admirers won't leave a beautiful woman alone at a seaside resort, so she devises a plan. She appears in a leg-revealing swimsuit, but the stockings have been stuffed with cotton to make her limbs appear misshapen. All but one of the men is driven off, and regret it when she removes the misleading leggings.

IMDb RATING

5.0/10

171

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

443,107

99,936

Top credits

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7User reviews

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Trivia
Released as a split reel along with What's Your Hurry? (1909).

User reviews7

Review

Featured review

7/10

Wow! 100 Year Old Comedy

OK, technically it's 99 years old when I saw this on YouTube. It's interesting for several reasons: D.W. Griffith directed and wrote this "short". What is on YouTube is just over 8 minutes in length - many movies of the time were often very short compared to films in the next decade - Griffith a few years later will direct the epics "Birth of a Nation" and "Intolerance".

Mary Pickford has a minor role. Mack Sennett is one of the admirers of the Gibson Goddess (Marion Leonard) Nanette Ranfrea. I have no idea if the last name has any meaning - it's not exactly a common last name. The "Gibson Girl" was held up as an ideal image of beauty in America in the early 1900's, based on the drawings of Charles Gibson in various magazines including Harper's and Collier's.

Miss Ranfrea attracts a group of admirers as she's walking to a beach house, one of the admirers is the effeminate Billy Quirk ("Algie the Miner"). The group of admirers grows, until a maid comes up with an idea that will get these admirers to leave her alone.

This is an interesting window on life on the New Jersey shore almost 100 years ago. It's definitely worth a look if you are into history or early films.

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