100 years ago in The Saratogian
Monday, Oct. 28, 1918
For the first time since October 3, Saratoga Springs’ movie theaters are open to the public today.
The theaters were ordered to close as part of city health officer Dr. A. Sherman Downs’ effort to slow the spread of Spanish flu. Downs announced last Thursday that the movie houses would be allowed to reopen today. The city’s churches reopened yesterday, while the public schools will resume classes one week from today, on November 4.
Across the region, the epidemic appears to be subsiding. In Ballston Spa, an emergency hospital set up in a Presbyterian chapel has only three patients this morning, and the village public schools are open once more.
After the evening edition of The Saratogian goes to press, however, five people from one family check into the emergency hospital.
What’s Happening
At the Broadway Theatre, Louise Glaum stars in “An Alien Enemy.” In this “timely patriotic picture,” Glaum plays Neysa von Igel, a German immigrant to the U.S. who resists recruitment by agents of the German government and kills the man who murdered her parents. She learns that her parents, who were killed in Germany, were actually American citizens, making her one as well.
At the Palace, Charles Richman and Anna Q. Nilsson lead an all-star cast in the 1917 film “Over There.” Richman plays Montgomery Jackson, who’s shunned by society for refusing to enlist when the nation goes to war, due to his fear of bloodshed. Monty finally signs up after his fiancée Bettie (Nilsson) dumps him and volunteers for oversees duty as a Red Cross nurse. He manages to save the lives of both Bettie’s father and her new fiancé, who steps aside after Monty himself is wounded. The picture boasts “authentic battle scenes” and “superb acting,” according to the Palace’s ad. A Harold Lloyd comedy short rounds out the program.
At the Lyric, Edna Goodrich is “more beautiful than ever” in her new film, “Treason.” The Mutual production reputedly “proves that it’s not safe to keep secrets from a woman.”
In the wartime drama, Goodrich plays a bored wife whose husband, a scientist, is obsessing over the formula for a new explosive. She starts a relationship with a German spy who convinces her to steal her husband’s formula and turn it over to him. Once she realizes that her husband was working for the U.S. government she tries to recover the formula, but has to be rescued by her husband and a Secret Service officer. To further atone for her misdeed, she enlists in the Red Cross after hubby joins the army.