“The Lucky Holdup“ (1912) Starring Titanic Survivor Dorothy Gibson

This 8-minute fragment of “The Lucky Holdup,” is the only surviving film featuring silent movie star and Titanic survivor Dorothy Gibson. The “lost film” was found by David Navone in the early 2000s in a sea chest that he bought at a California flea market and professionally restored by the American Film Institute. The original film is now safely archived for future generations at the Library of Congress. In the movie, Miss Barton (Dorothy) and her beau Mr. Chapin (played as usual by dapper Lamar Johnstone) find themselves caught up in a feud between their affluent families. Their fathers are partners in a brokerage firm and come to blows over a deal. While at a banquet some time later, on seeing their children dancing, the embittered old men demand the young lovers end their courtship at once. The couple, refusing to do so, elopes out West to a place “in the mountains” called Bear Gulch where they’re robbed by two bandits and taken to their hideaway. The kidnapped youths convince the robbers t