I have just seen the silent film SALLY OF THE SAWDUST, the silent film version of the movie POPPY. It follows the same basic plot as the later version of the film, but is actually radically different from POPPY and even includes an early car chase. In this film, the fate of Polly/Sally's mother is shown for the first and only time; it was cut from POPPY, and McGargle is shown to be with her mother, Mary Trevor, as she lies dying and commends the girl into her care. In this original film version, Mary Trevor elopes with a man from the circus, but several years later she dies, according to W. C. Fields's grandson William Fields in his book, after falling from a trapeze,
although he could be mistaken as there is no evidence of that in the film.
Apparently the girl was renamed Sally for this version because of another film named POPPY released about six years before this one, in 1917.