BERTHA, THE SEWING MACHINE GIRL

   Although it achieved only nine performances in New York, where it opened on 13 August 1906 at the American Theatre, Theodore Kremer's melodrama based on an earlier pulp serial found favor with popular audiences on the ten, twent,' thirt' circuit. In the thrilling climax, the hapless Bertha is tied to a conveyer belt that carries her toward the jaws of a machine. Virtue triumphs, of course.