Joseph Byron Totten Explained

Joseph Byron Totten was a playwright and an actor in theater^[1] and silent films in the United States. He also directed films for Vitagraph.

He was an actor for Essanay. He had a 47 acre farm in Pendleton Hill, Connecticut where he kept horses, cattle, and a kennel.^[2]

He wrote No Gold Could Buy Her, No One Pity Her, The Cowboy and the Squaw, The Ranchman's Daughter, The Queen of the Cowboys, and The First Lady in the Land, both copyrighted in 1907.^[3] He wrote the play Spook House.^[4] He wrote The Forger, "a society problem play", copyrightednin 1908.^[5] He wrote and directed Lighthouse by the Sea, cooyrighted in 1915.^[6] He also cooyrighted the 3-reel, 3-act, The Boys Will Be Boys in 1915.^[7]

He wrote the play The World and a Woman.^[8]

He wrote a dramatization of Harold McGrath's novel The Woman Armsan. It was staged in 1915.^[9] He wrote and staged Love's Call. He was described as having a "primitive passion for triplicate nomenclature".^[10]

He wrote the words to the song "Piquita" with music by Arthur Bergh, copyrighted in 1925.^[11]

In 1917 he starred in Some Crooks.^[12]

In 1925, Charles Sidney Gilpin starred in his play So That's That.^{[13] [14]}

He was a member of the Authors League of America.^[15]

Filmography

• The Amateur Prodigal (1915) as John Life
• The Blindness of Virtue (1915), director
• The Awakening Hour (1915), starring role^[16]
• The Village Homestead (1915), author^[16]
• Like Father Like Son (1916)
• The Day Resurgent (1920), director
• The Dream (1920), director, starring Alice Calhoun
• While the Auto Waits (1920), director^[17]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Dramatic Mirror of the Stage and Motion Pictures. November 24, 1917. Dramatic Mirror Company. Google Books.
2. Web site: Nickelodeon. November 24, 1915. Google Books.
3. Web site: Catalog of Copyright Entries. Library of Congress Copyright. Office. November 24, 1907. U.S. Government Printing Office. Google Books.
4. https://findingaids.uflib.ufl.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/291397
5. Web site: Catalogue of Copyright Entries: Books, Dramatic Compositions, Maps and Charts. Copyright. Office. November 24, 1908. Google Books.
6. Web site: Catalog of Copyright Entries: Works of art. Part 4. November 24, 1915. Library of Congress, Copyright Office.. Google Books.
7. Web site: Catalog of Copyright Entries: Works of art. Part 4. November 24, 1915. Library of Congress, Copyright Office.. Google Books.
8. Web site: The New York Dramatic Mirror. November 24, 1909. Dramatic Mirror Company. Google Books.
9. Web site: The Stage Year Book, with which is Included the Stage Periodical Guide. November 24, 1915. Carson & Comerford. Google Books.
10. Web site: The Best in the World: A Selection of News and Feature Stories, Editorials, Humor, Poems, and Reviews from 1921 to 1928. John K.. Hutchens. George. Oppenheimer. November 24, 1973. Viking Press. Google Books.
11. Web site: Catalogue of Title-entries of Books and Other Articles Entered in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, Under the Copyright Law ... Wherein the Copyright Has Been Completed by the Deposit of Two Copies in the Office. Library of Congress Copyright. Office. November 24, 1926. U.S. Government Printing Office. Google Books.
12. Web site: Reedy's Mirror. books.google.com.
13. Web site: Harlem Renaissance Lives from the African American National Biography. books.google.com.
14. Web site: New York Star. books.google.com.
15. Web site: Bulletin of the Authors' League of America. books.google.com.
16. Web site: To-day's Cinema News and Property Gazette. books.google.com.
17. Web site: The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. books.google.com.