bjgreen
By Betsy J. Green
In “Medallion,” a 1911 silent movie, the Santa Barbara Mission represents a monastery in Italy during the 1600s. This one-reel movie (about 10 minutes) was filmed by the Selig Polyscope studio at about the same time they filmed “The New Faith” in Montecito. (This film predates the arrival of the “Flying A” in our area.)
A young artist sees his fiancée with another man, and is convinced she is cheating on him. (It’s actually her brother, but for some reason, she can’t tell her boyfriend who he is.)
The fiancé is broken-hearted and goes to a monastery. A monk there asks him to paint a masterpiece to help him recover. Doesn’t work. The young man has a heart attack, and cannot finish the painting. Next, the fiancée finds him, and tells him the whole story. He forgives her, and dies in her arms. No happy Hollywood ending for this one.
Betsy’s Way Back When book — Movies & Million-Dollar Mansions — is now available in local bookstores and at Amazon.com. This is the seventh book in her series on the history of Santa Barbara. Learn more at .
