This film's script implies that Pearl White came to acting in her early 20s, after quitting a job as a seamstress in a sweatshop. In truth, White first appeared on stage at the age of six, and was thus a seasoned veteran by the time she landed the title role in the highly popular silent serial The Perils of Pauline.
George 'Mac' McGuire:
How do you like that? Everything happens to me! War! They couldn't hold off until after the wedding? No. They gotta do it now and gum up everything.
Pearl White:
War... but it's horrible.
George 'Mac' McGuire:
You said it. Now we gotta re-write the last six episodes!
In real life, after sustaining a back injury as a result of an accident while filming The Perils of Pauline (1914), Pearl White used a stunt-double, although this was never publicized until after he himself died as a result of an accident during the making of Plunder (1923), at which time the truth came out, and Pearl retired from films and moved to Paris, where she died in 1938 as a result of a liver ailment, alcoholism and drugs. In the film, Pearl's accident occurs on the Paris stage after her film career was over, and we are led to believe that now, unable to walk, she lived happily ever after with her fictitious husband.
[Prologue during a silent recreation of a Pauline Peril]
WILL PAULINE AGAIN ESCAPE CERTAIN DEATH?
See Next Episode of "The Perils of Pauline" Friday at this Theatre
Although this was thirty years ago, we assure you that Pauline DID escape. Week after week, our heroine, portrayed by Pearl White, defied death and foiled the dastardly villains who always pursued her. She HAD to -- on account of the next episode. But let's start at the beginning. . . . . .
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