Synopsis
Johnstown
Period Drama / Love Story set against the 1889 Johnstown flood
WGAw Reg # 1697926
A construction company is tearing down an old bridge on the Little Conemaugh River in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, when the company owner finds buried in the mud the skeleton of a victim of the 1889 flood, believing the diamond on its finger to be an engagement ring. He summons an archeologist to recover the skeleton and as he and his employee wait, they speculate on who this unfortunate young woman was…
The diamond sparkles on the finger of a woman with her hand in moving water. The lovely Victoria ‘Vickie’ Donnelson is trailing her hand in the water of a pristine mountain lake as she’s being rowed across the lake by her recent fiancé, Guy Mansley, both of them dressed in elaborate Victorian clothes of 1889, a picnic hamper and blanket in the boat. On the shore behind them are the elaborate summer homes and large clubhouse of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, the millionaire’s retreat in the mountains east of Johnstown. At the far end of the lake is the dam that formed the lake and which will fail in a storm to create the flood that devastates the city and kills over 2,000 people.
In the woods, they have to hide from a meandering bear and Guy runs to get help. As Vickie is menaced by the bear, Sean Patrick, a worker at the club, arrives and saves her life, Guy not pleased to be upstaged, especially as Vickie and Sean obviously are attracted to one another.
Vickie’s father visits Sean at his regular job at the iron works in Johnstown, and when he finds that Sean is skilled in the new art of electricity, he offers him a job putting in electricity at his Pittsburgh theatre where Vickie often sings, having an extraordinary Bel Canto voice. Vickie is thrilled Sean will be working for her father.
Guy, an executive at Vickie’s father’s theatre, is annoyed to find Sean becoming a rival for Vickie’s affection, their own relationship beginning to sour. He drugs Sean and makes certain Vickie finds him unconscious in the company of prostitutes, and then sabotages Sean’s electrical system in the theatre so that the test of the new electric lights sets fire to the building.
Vickie and her father want nothing more to do with Sean who returns in disgrace to Johnstown. But a chance statement makes Vickie wonder about Sean’s trysts with prostitutes and she uncovers Guy’s schemes, rushing off to Johnstown in a vicious storm to find Sean. Guy sets off in pursuit to intercept her. Sean has gone to the club where he finds the storm is about to burst the dam, sending the lake down the river to inundate Johnstown. He hijacks the train to race back to the city to give the warning, meeting up with Vickie and Guy just as the flood catches up.
In the maelstrom, Guy slips the diamond ring from Vickie’s finger and puts it on his own pinkie for safety as he pushes her from the raft to join Sean in the flood to murder both of them to keep his secret. Ironically, the raft is crushed by a tumbling locomotive that kills Guy while pushing Sean and Vickie towards the shore. They escape the flood to safety, but then go back in to rescue a woman and her children and Vickie is swept away.
Sean finds that Vickie is caught in a debris pile against the brick railway bridge at the end of town, in danger of being burned to death as the pile has caught fire. He uses an electric hoist he built for the local iron works to free her from the debris but falls down into the river himself. Vickie risks her own life to bring him to safety on the bank where he revives and…
He and Vickie are marrying at her family’s estate when the sky threatens another storm and they all rush inside remembering what the earlier storm brought.
The construction crew at the present day site finds the skeleton isn’t wearing the diamond ring on its index finger but its pinkie, the skeleton not that of a woman but a man. It is the remains of Guy, and the construction company owner is, in fact, the great-grandson of Sean and Vickie.
Johnstown
Period Drama / Love Story set against the 1889 Johnstown flood
WGAw Reg # 1697926
A construction company is tearing down an old bridge on the Little Conemaugh River in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, when the company owner finds buried in the mud the skeleton of a victim of the 1889 flood, believing the diamond on its finger to be an engagement ring. He summons an archeologist to recover the skeleton and as he and his employee wait, they speculate on who this unfortunate young woman was…
The diamond sparkles on the finger of a woman with her hand in moving water. The lovely Victoria ‘Vickie’ Donnelson is trailing her hand in the water of a pristine mountain lake as she’s being rowed across the lake by her recent fiancé, Guy Mansley, both of them dressed in elaborate Victorian clothes of 1889, a picnic hamper and blanket in the boat. On the shore behind them are the elaborate summer homes and large clubhouse of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, the millionaire’s retreat in the mountains east of Johnstown. At the far end of the lake is the dam that formed the lake and which will fail in a storm to create the flood that devastates the city and kills over 2,000 people.
In the woods, they have to hide from a meandering bear and Guy runs to get help. As Vickie is menaced by the bear, Sean Patrick, a worker at the club, arrives and saves her life, Guy not pleased to be upstaged, especially as Vickie and Sean obviously are attracted to one another.
Vickie’s father visits Sean at his regular job at the iron works in Johnstown, and when he finds that Sean is skilled in the new art of electricity, he offers him a job putting in electricity at his Pittsburgh theatre where Vickie often sings, having an extraordinary Bel Canto voice. Vickie is thrilled Sean will be working for her father.
Guy, an executive at Vickie’s father’s theatre, is annoyed to find Sean becoming a rival for Vickie’s affection, their own relationship beginning to sour. He drugs Sean and makes certain Vickie finds him unconscious in the company of prostitutes, and then sabotages Sean’s electrical system in the theatre so that the test of the new electric lights sets fire to the building.
Vickie and her father want nothing more to do with Sean who returns in disgrace to Johnstown. But a chance statement makes Vickie wonder about Sean’s trysts with prostitutes and she uncovers Guy’s schemes, rushing off to Johnstown in a vicious storm to find Sean. Guy sets off in pursuit to intercept her. Sean has gone to the club where he finds the storm is about to burst the dam, sending the lake down the river to inundate Johnstown. He hijacks the train to race back to the city to give the warning, meeting up with Vickie and Guy just as the flood catches up.
In the maelstrom, Guy slips the diamond ring from Vickie’s finger and puts it on his own pinkie for safety as he pushes her from the raft to join Sean in the flood to murder both of them to keep his secret. Ironically, the raft is crushed by a tumbling locomotive that kills Guy while pushing Sean and Vickie towards the shore. They escape the flood to safety, but then go back in to rescue a woman and her children and Vickie is swept away.
Sean finds that Vickie is caught in a debris pile against the brick railway bridge at the end of town, in danger of being burned to death as the pile has caught fire. He uses an electric hoist he built for the local iron works to free her from the debris but falls down into the river himself. Vickie risks her own life to bring him to safety on the bank where he revives and…
He and Vickie are marrying at her family’s estate when the sky threatens another storm and they all rush inside remembering what the earlier storm brought.
The construction crew at the present day site finds the skeleton isn’t wearing the diamond ring on its index finger but its pinkie, the skeleton not that of a woman but a man. It is the remains of Guy, and the construction company owner is, in fact, the great-grandson of Sean and Vickie.
