The one silent movie serial most people have heard of is "The Perils of Pauline." The 20-episode serial premiered on March 23, 1914, followed with a new 30-minute film released every two weeks. In the serial's plot, Pauline, played by actress Pearl White, stands to inherit a fortune from her late dad when she gets married. She has a sweetheart who desperately wants to marry her, but Pauline wants adventure in her life and puts him off for a year. However, her father's male secretary is next in line for a fortune if Pauline dies before she marries.
France's Pathe Studios had just opened a United States production house in Ft. Lee, N. J., under the name The Eclectic Company. After the original serial was played out in America, all the movies were shipped to Pathe's Paris headquarters. The title cards were translated from English to French for European audiences seeing it for the first time in 1916. Years later, when the serial was reintroduced to American viewers, the title cards were amateurishly retranslated, containing ungrammatical errors, misspellings and horrendous punctuation.
There's a misconception that Pauline was tied to railroad tracks and saw mill blades ready to cut her in half. None of those events happened in the original series. Because the serial was shot around the New Jersey Palisades, where Pauline was dangled over its cliffs, the term "cliffhanger" originated. Some life-threatening dangers were resolved before the end of some episodes, but others ended with Pauline fighting for her life, only to resolved in the beginning of the next movie.
Numerous remakes were produced following the end of the original, including Universal Pictures's sound serial with a different plot, Betty Hutton memorable title role in 1947's "The Perils of Pauline" and a 1967 comedy of the same name.
Pearl White, who did most of her stunts in "Pauline," injured her spine during one shoot, causing much pain the rest of her life. She was the ultimate "serial melodrama queen," starring in several later serials. A wise investor, she retired from acting in 1924 as a multi-millionaire. She died in 1937 at the age of 39 from liver failure. Ms. White had to take pain pills and alcohol for years to relieve the pain suffered from her back injury, resulting in damaging her liver. She's buried in Paris' famous Cimetière de Passy.
