Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/This Is th' Life

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was speedy keep. Nomination withdrawn with no remaining deletion proposals. (non-admin closure) Atlantic306 (talk) 23:11, 16 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This Is th' Life

[Hide this box] New to Articles for deletion (AfD)? Read these primers!

(Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL)

Does not appear notable, tagged in 2023. Nothing found in a BEFORE DonaldD23 talk to me 17:01, 12 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: Film and United States of America. DonaldD23 talk to me 17:01, 12 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Keep, The Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep ,'14, p. 1144) has a very detailed plot summary (that the Imdb page for the film reproduces extensively, fwiw). This film about electric inventions including cars is not to be confused with the 1915 Adele Farrington film that goes by the almost same title. (Both seem notable but only this one has a page here).— MY, OH, MY! 22:29, 15 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Keep per the significant coverage in multiple independent reliable sources.
1. "Electricity Vital to Development. Interesting "Flying A" Subject". Motography. Vol. 12, no. 8. 1914-08-22. pp. 263–264. Retrieved 2023-04-16 – via Internet Archive.
  The article was published in 1914, so is in the Wikipedia:Public domain. The article notes:
  Containing a truth of life, splendidly portrayed through a series of closely connected developing incidents, the two-reel release of the American Film Manufacturing company for August 24, entitled "This Is Life," is a production which is of more than mere entertainment value.
  The relation of modernized methods, especially those in which electricity figures, to those of the old days when every little duty about the farm was performed by hand, forms the theme of this pleasing comedy drama and the convincing manner in which the plot has been rounded out, leaves no doubt as to the purpose of the picture.
  Charlotte Burton, in the leading feminine role, that of a country girl, is delightfully natural in her acting, while Ed Coxen take the male lead in equally charming manner. George Fields completely loses his personality in the role of a hard-headed old farmer, who considers all modern improvements a waste of time, and the character portrayal further proves this actor's versatility. A number of the "Flying A" favorites appear in the supporting roles, all doing good work in their respective parts.
  The interior settings and the exterior locations on the farm are pleasing and abound in atmosphere. A number of new electrical inventions worked into the latter part of the second reel is a novelty in itself, while several larger engines seen earlier in the picture are also well worth notice, irrespective of their bearing upon the plot. The photography is of the best and the sub-titling and vision work well handled.
  The story opens with a friendly call of the Browns upon the Millers, the families living on neighboring farms. Brown and Miller engage in a checker game, while John and Rita, their son and daughter, respectively, slip away to the garden. Mary Brown and Mrs. Miller are great friends and visit with each other on the porch. All goes very well and the young lovers in the garden have forgotten there are any other persons in the world until Brown finds himself cornered on the checker board and a quarrel between him and Miller results which leads to the sudden departure of the Brown family and the separation of the lovers.
  Brown is set in his ideas and will not consider forgetting the matter. John is industrious and studies electricity when alone in his room. His father learns of this and angrily throws the books away, telling his son that the modern ideas are all a foolish waste of time, and that the only real way to do things is by the old methods.
  John is determined to succeed in the work he has chosen, however, and that night leaves home to go to the city. He stops at the Miller home and says good-bye to Rita, telling her that he will return when he has made good. Brown disowns John. In the city he finds work oiling some huge electrical engines and, given this opportunity to study their construction, quickly learns the principles of the work. He continues his study during the evenings and it is not long before he is promoted.
  On the Miller farm electricity replaces all the former slow and tedious methods, but Brown, although he has again established friendly relations with his neighbor, refuses to even consider any improvements in the methods he employs, and his daughter, Mary, is forced to do all her work by hand. Rita is sent to a boarding school in the city, and there John and her again see much of each other, and her company inspires him to even greater efforts. The spark of genius has been lying dormant in the young man and under the pressure of his daily work it appears, and it not long until he turns to invention.
  Time passes and one after another of John's inventions become successful, but still his father refuses to forgive him for leaving home. Rita has returned home, but receives letters from John almost daily. The inventor is unable to leave his work, however, even for a moment, as he is now working on an X-ray machine which promises to become the greatest of its kind in the world.
  Mary works far into every night in order to complete her household duties and in time the strain wears on her and she begs her father to get the many little modern inventions which would make her tasks lighter, but he stubbornly refuses. The frail girl does the best she can, but it is only a short time before the inevitable happens. One day as she is ironing a sharp pain shoots up her back and she falls to the floor in a faint. Rita has just come to the Brown home to visit Mary and finds her in agony. It is now that Brown begins to realize the worth of the modern inventions, and when Rita secures a doctor by telephone he is very thankful. The doctor, however, can do nothing for the girl and says that she will be paralyzed for life.
  Again Brown sees the wonderful uses of electricity when Rita reaches John in the city over the long distance telephone and asks him to come to his sister's aid with his latest invention, the X-ray, and a specialist. While the little party consisting of the Miller family and Brown anxiously wait in the little farm house, the son who had been disowned speeds homeward in an automobile, and as soon as he arrives the doctor and he start to work on the stricken girl with the new invention. Brown waits outside the door of the room, anxiously praying for the best, and when half an hour later the pair come from within and announce that through the medium of John's wonderful X-ray the girl will be restored to health, Brown repents and forgets all the malice he has felt towards his son.
  A short time later Mary is again well, and when she is able to work again she finds all the modern conveniences at her command and is surprised on the day of John's and Rita's wedding when her father calls for her in an electric automobile. He is highly pleased with the new mode of living he has adopted and enthusiastically exclaims "This is th' Life."
  The cast for the production is as follows:
  Farmer Brown—Geo. Field
  His Son—Ed Coxen
  Farmer Miller—John Steppling
  His Daughter—Charlotte Burton
  Farmer Brown's Daughter—Edith Borella
  Farmer Miller's Wife—Josephine Ditt
2. "This Is Th' Life". The Moving Picture World. 1914-08-22. p. 1144. Retrieved 2023-04-16 – via Internet Archive.
  The article was published in 1914, so is in the Wikipedia:Public domain. The article notes:
  This Is Th' Life (Two Parts—August 24).—Farmer Brown, a man who clings to old ideas, is so set against the wheels of progress and modern science, that his son John is compelled to steal away from home in order to complete his education in electricity.
  In contrast, Erown's neighbor, Farmer Miller, installs modern ideas and machinery. His farm products and stock thrive and bring great results, while his daughter Rita, can attend boarding school. Rita and John are sweethearts and Rita applauds and encourages John in his struggle toward progression. John becomes a genius and invents many electrical meters and a powerful X-Ray, but time nor success will soften his father's heart or reconcile them.
  Miller even lightens his wife's household burdens by installing electrical washing and ironing devices, while Brown's frail daughter, Mary, is a slave to the heat and drudgery of the old methods of housekeeping. One day Mary, while lifting a heavy wash boiler strains her back and falls to the floor. Brown finds her and for the first time fully realizes the necessity of a telephone. Rita just home on her vacation comes to his aid and rushing over home summons a doctor, then by long distance summons John to bring a surgeon and his new X-Ray. The country doctor announces that Mary has suffered a paralytic stroke and will never recover. Brown's heart is crushed, but the next day John and the surgeon arrive. After an examination the surgeon declares to Brown that through the aid of the wonderful X-Ray and modern science his daughter will be permanently restored to health. The wedding day of Rita and John arrives and Brown's gift to the couple is in the nature of a new home completely equipped electrically even to the stove and cooking utensils. He becomes a convert to progress and modern science, and declaring "this is th' life" takes his neighbor Miller for a drive in his own electric car.
3. ""This Is Th' Life"". Reel Life. Vol. 4, no. 2. Mutual Film. 1914-08-15. p. 16. Retrieved 2023-04-16 – via Internet Archive.
  The article was published in 1914, so is in the Wikipedia:Public domain. The article notes:
  Jasper Brown had no use for new fangled notions. His father and his grandfather before him had wrested a good living out of Pine Crest Farm by the old methods, using plenty of brawn and leaving the rest to Providence. The trouble was, they had exhausted most of their stamina in the process, and the last generation was physically weakened, Mentally, however, Brown's children had forged ahead the more eagerly, as though to invent by their wits some means of escape from ancestral servitude.
  Only, Farmer Brown couldn't see this. His son John early had developed a mechanical genius which irritated his father not a little. When he had become absorbed in electricity and refused to get down to stone picking in the old "granite lot," Brown made his young life a burden. The result was, John ran away to the city to complete his electrical education.
  At about the same time, Joseph Miller's daughter, Rita, went away to boarding school. Brown wondered how his neighbor could commit such an extravagance. He had taken his own daughter, Mary, out of the Academy to do her share of drudgery at home.
  Besides, Miller spent large sums on his place.
  The truth was, Miller was as progressive as Brown was backward. He had installed labor-saving machinery both indoors and out. He took the Cornell Agricultural Bulletin, and made frequent trips to experiment stations to observe improved methods of cultivating the soil. He knew to his own satisfaction, and to the profit of his family, that scientific farming paid. Mrs. Miller, though a farmer's wife, enjoyed life. She was as enthusiastic about the electrical washing and ironing devices which Joseph had given her on their last wedding anniversary as her husband was about the new orchard spraying outfit. When she ran in for a friendly call on the Browns, it made her heart ache to see frail Mary Brown bending over the tubs in the hot, steamy kitchen.
  "She'll give out sudden, one of these days," she told her husband. "Men like Jasper Brown ought to be jailed for living back in the Dark Ages!"
  It was not long after this that Mary, lifting a heavy wash-boiler one day, strained her back and fainted dead away. For the first time in his life her father recognized the need of a telephone. But Rita Miller, who was back on a vacation, running in just in time, went rushing home to phone the village doctor. Then, by long distance, she called up John Brown at the Technical Institute, telling him to come at once, with a surgeon and his new X-ray device.
  Jasper Brown had thought less of his son than ever since he had heard of his success as an inventor. Electrical meters and X-rays! What earthly use were such things on a farm? The breach between them had widened with John's progress. When the country doctor arrived, he announced that Mary had had a stroke. "Most likely, she won't recover," he said, gloomily.
  The next twenty-four hours remained always the bitterest memory of Jasper Brown's fife. His obstinate spirit was completely crushed. He began to see his sins as though he were facing his own end in the fate of his frail and lovely daughter.
  "I worked her to death," he muttered to himself. "Worked her like a horse—till I broke her back." He shuddered, recoiling from himself. At noon next day, John and the city surgeon reached the farm. John was pale and silent. Brown felt miserably that his son was judging him—worse, that he had a right to do so. The physician was making a thorough examination of Mary. It seemed endless.
  "With the aid of your son's X-ray instrument, and by using the most recent scientific appliances," the specialist said at last, "I have reason to hope all will be well."
  The words sounded to Brown like an incantation in a dream, "X-rays! Modern science!" Had he not exorcised these demons? But these things, the great man was saying would save her."
  About a year later, John and Rita were married and Jasper Brown's gift to them was a monument to his conversion—a new house, completely equipped electrically, even to stove and cooking utensils.
  A few days after the wedding, Brown took Joseph Miller for a drive in his own electric car. John had helped his father select the motor and had taught the old man how to run it. As they rolled comfortably through the beautiful Ohio countryside, comparing the prosperity of their gardens and orchards with much friendly rivalry, they came into view of the commodious cottage of the young couple. Brown heaved a happy sigh. And as though no word nor deed in this latter day could now shock him by its modernity, he muttered. "This is th' life!"
4. ""This Is Th' Life"". Electrical Merchandise and Selling Electricity. Vol. 13, no. 11. November 1914. Retrieved 2023-04-16 – via Internet Archive.
  The article was published in 1914, so is in the Wikipedia:Public domain. The article notes:
  The life electric has found its way into the movies with a vengeance. Under the title "This Is Th’ Life," the American Film Manufacturing Company of Chicago, offers a two-reel drama showing the advantages of electric service, or, to quote its Barnum-like poster, "An absorbing drama exploiting the advance of civilization—a transition from old to new, from ancient to modern, from perilous custom to immutable methods of scientific economy."
  The feature is offered in the regular way to photo-play houses and there is nothing to indicate that the film has any advertising purpose.
  There is a real story in the pictures, in which electric pumping for irrigation, electric utensils for reducing drudgery, electric therapeutics for alleviating suffering and electric table-ware are successfully shown. A real plot is developed in which a full cast of characters, including villain and comedian, play their alloted, parts. the climax being a wedding-breakfast for two. at which the heroine offers the hero four electrically soft-boiled eggs. Verily, this is th' life.
  We do not know the system by which moving picture films are supplied to photo-play theatres but any central station man who influences a local house to put this feature on its program will be doing a neat piece of advertising of a very good sort.
5. Less significant coverage:
  1. ""Flying A" Sidelights". Billboard. Vol. 26, no. 33. 1914-08-15. Retrieved 2023-04-16 – via Internet Archive.
    The article was published in 1914, so is in the Wikipedia:Public domain. The article notes: "The title of Converting Dad has been changed to This Is th' Life, and the subject proves to be the most apropos for the present age and state of development of industrial and sociological affairs. It is a two-reel subject and will be released August 24."
There is sufficient coverage in reliable sources to allow This Is th' Life to pass Wikipedia:Notability#General notability guideline, which requires "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject".
Cunard (talk) 10:23, 16 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

WITHDRAWN per new sources found by Cunard. DonaldD23 talk to me 15:29, 16 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.