Item Info

Publication Date: 7/30/1914
Media Type: House Organs
Source: Theatre Collection
Notes:

With possibly one exception, no other motion-picture studio can claim sisters as leading women, yet among the Lubin constellation there are no brighter lights, nor more adored girls, than Louise Huff who for a year has been the sprightly little heroine of those photoplays produced by Edgar Jones, and her sister Justina, who has played alternate leads in Colonel Joseph Smiley’s productions. They have often been mistaken for twins, but should they appear on the screen together the slight difference in height and features would quickly distinguish each as a distinct representative of the same type. For they are both slender, violet-eyed girls, with masses of pale gold curls shadowing delicate oval faces, and an appealing gentleness of speech and manner. 

Louise is called the “Kate Greenaway Girl of the Screen” because of her likeness to the creations of the English artist of the last generation. But she autographs her pictures Louise Huff, and under the name she writes “Lubin.” When she skips into a picture she brings five feet of tender, wistful charm and quaintness no matter what character she is called upon to play. She may be the heroine of a merry little comedy, or, as in “When the Last Leaf Falls,” a devoted village girl who climbs a tree during the storm and fastens on some leaves in order that the dying miser’s prodigal nephew may return and, to satisfy his uncle’s whim, claim his portion before the leaves are blown away. But she is always a lovable little body who might have been Little Nell or Dorrit in the days when Dickens found his characters in the streets of London. 

She says she’s just an old-fashioned girl who likes to stay at home, when she can, and sew and play an old-fashioned mahogany piano which used to grace the drawing-room of her old home in the South. To think of Little Nell doing the tango would seem almost profane, but the Kate Greenway Girl loves quadrilles and minuets, with an occasional waltz for excitement. Rosemary and lavender seem to be wafted as Louise Huff trips her dainty way into the hearts of the picture public. 

And in no lesser measure is the charm of Justina made manifest in her pride at being Louise’s big sister. At that, she is just five feet three inches tall and her authority is only one hundred pounds heavy. But the additional ‘teen which gives her the right to censor her gay little sister’s speech and actions she thinks a very good reason indeed. Justina Huff is serious in spite of her girlishness and reads Poe, Hugo and Maeterlinck. She is thoughtful, she says, because it’s such a responsibility, this business of life, and she wants to be to the picture public not merely “that slender girl with the aristocratic air,” but Justina Huff who really acts. And she is working for that name. 

From Georgina the Huffs came, and Justina made her debut in the drama of silence as a dairymaid in “Tess of The D’Urbervilles,” having been chosen by Mrs. Fiske for the part. But she didn’t have her little sister to look after in that photoplay, so she really wasn’t doing herself justice. Justina’s hobby is old-fashioned cookery. Nothing delights her more than to envelop herself in a big, business-like apron and concoct dishes that can only be made by the Southern cook. As a proof of her skill, she has been urged by a large distributor to supply their shops with her inimitable jellies and jams, but it is not likely that her work at the Lubin Studio will admit of that added effort. Her freshness and wholesome sweetness belong in the Liberty Bell pictures, not in jars. 

Call Number: Lubin - Bulletin I:14