Barney Oldfield’s Race to Save a Life (1913) is the film running on the Seeburg R Photoplayer played for guests at the American Treasure Tour.  It is a 13-minute comedy produced and directed by Mack Sennett, who also stars as ‘The Boy.’  Mack Sennett established himself as the "King of Comedy" during his lifetime in large part because of the slapstick comedies that came out of his his Keystone Studios - the home base for the Keystone Kops, the Little Rascals, and too many other now-iconic comedians to list. 

Barney Oldfield, the star of this film, was a real-life celebrity race car driver of the era who was famous for breaking records and, occasionally, his own bones with his high-velocity driving.  In the film, Oldfield helps “The Boy” chase down a train in the effort to save ‘The Girl,’ played by Mabel Normand, from the evil Ford Serling ‘The Jealous Villain.’  The villain is manning the engine of the train in one of the very first silent films to incorporate the archetypal image of the bad guy tying the damsel in distress to the tracks in front of a fast-approaching locomotive.