The Awakening of John Bond

THE AWAKENING OF JOHN BOND. (1911, silent, 1reel, b&w, 35mm) Sponsor: national Association for the Study and prevention of tuberculosis. production Co.: thomas A. Edison inc. director: Charles Brabin. Writer: Bannister Merwin. CASt: Mary Fuller, Harold M. Shaw, Bigelow Cooper, Miriam nesbitt. resources: Copyright 5dec1911 J164290-93; “picture Show as Educator,” LAT, June 16, 1912, ii6; Boyd Fisher, “Motion pictures to Make Good Citizens,” Am City 7 (Sept. 1912): 236–37; Martin S. pernick, “thomas Edison’s tuberculosis Films: Mass Media and Health propaganda,” Hastings Center Report 8 (June 1978): 21–27. Holdings: not reported. Narrative commissioned by a national advocacy group to encourage the prevention of tuberculosis, then a leading cause of death in the United States. In this melodrama John Bond refuses to improve living conditions in a tenement that he owns. However, when his wife contracts tuberculosis, he sees the error of his ways and joins the fight against the disease. note: One of many early public health films shown free in selected American cities. Twenty thousand were said to have seen this title during its first week of exhibition in New York City parks.