Robert J. Connelly — The Screen Children’s Gallery (1914) 🇺🇸

The interview with Master Robert J. Connelly [Bobby Connelly], aged four, was robbed of all privacy through the enthusiastic interest displayed in the proceedings by the staff and the bystanders in the offices of the Vitagraph publicity department.

by W. Stephen Bush

At an early stage of the affair it was deemed wise to suspend the ordinary formalities attendant upon an interview, and to conduct negotiations through the helpful medium of the mother, who urged the young man “to tell the nice gentleman all about himself.” Master Robert was far from being impressed, and only when it was further explained to him that the “nice gentleman” would put his picture in The Moving Picture World was there anything like a cheerful response, and even then he caught his clue rather from his mother’s manner than from any inward conviction, that the proceedings would result in any tangible benefit to him.

Master Robert, when queried as to his preferences, made the most remarkable statement, that he liked “sick parts.” This no doubt was due to the fact that he had just been in a picture where the action required him to walk on a crutch.

Robert is a clever, manly little chap, earnest in his manner and possessed of that frankness which is the chief charm of extreme youth. He has tremendous respect for his director, and. upon demand, will shed real tears. His mother has perfect control over his emotions, and when the action in the film require him to cry he asks his mother “to get him started.” The mother then pictures a woeful vision of domestic tragedy, and instantly the lachrymal flow is in motion. Bedewed on the right cheek and the left with bona fide tears, Robert “enters.” The camera does the rest. Asked for a few biographical data, the mother was about to impart the desired information when Master Robert very ingenuously interrupted her and related how, upon a recent occasion, his mother and his aunt had enjoyed an ice cream debauch in which he had not participated. Oh. the wrongs of our childhood, our horrible infantile wrongs. Robert assured the interviewer that he received his “enghelope” promptly on the Saturday of every week.

Robert has appeared to great advantage in “Bunny’s Mistake,” “Carpenter,” “Street Singers,” “Goodness Gracious,” etc. He has developed wonderfully in the last year, and in a number of coming Vitagraph releases he will be seen to the great delight of audiences all over the world. Two of these releases in the near future will be “The Crutch” and “The Portrait.” I heard it rumored that he will soon be featured in a series of special pictures.

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The young actor at his work.

Collection: Moving Picture World, March 1914