Ruth Roland

Ruth Roland and Frank Lackteen, actors
Fred Jackson, director.
The Timber Queen: Episode 11,
"Runaway Engine" (Pathéserial: 1922).
Produced by Ruth Roland Serials, Inc.
Lobby card, offset lithograph, 1922
Prints & Photographs Division (130.5)

Women were among the most popular serial action stars in the early days of the cinema. Serialized action melodramas presented one chapter at a time in weekly installments over the course of several months. Battling dastardly villains each week, actresses such as Pearl White, Helen Holmes, and Marie Walcamp performed their own stunts in the face of countless perilous situations, managing hair-raising escapes from fires, floods, explosions, runaway trains, and mill saws, just in the nick of time. Serial queen Ruth Roland is seen here in yet another knock-down fight with an unscrupulous opponent.