The World-War-I-era actress Pearl White used the term "weenie" to identify whatever object (a roll of film, a rare coin, expensive diamonds, etc.) impelled the heroes, and often the villains as well, to pursue each other through the convoluted plots of The Perils of Pauline and the other silent film serials in which she starred.[9] In the 1930 detective novel The Maltese Falcon, a small statuette provides both the book's title and its motive for intrigue.