The Curious Case of the Lost ‘Little Women’ Movies

The only surviving image from the world’s first film adaptation of Little Women doesn’t reveal much: A group of young women, dressed in gowns, mingling with some men beneath a chandelier. It might be the pivotal party scene from Louisa May Alcott’s novel, where our writerly heroine Jo March meets her wealthy neighbor Laurie. But good luck parsing out who’s who. (Could that be Jo’s sister Meg, near the center, in the flat shoes?) Rendered in such grainy black-and-white, the still looks to be a relic from the actual Civil War era, though it dates to 1917.

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