The Oz Film Manufacturing Company

Last updated
Oz Film Manufacturing Company
Company type Private
Industry Film industry
Founded1914;110 years ago (1914)
Founder L. Frank Baum
Defunct1915;109 years ago (1915)
FateAbsorbed into Metro Pictures
Successors
Headquarters Los Angeles, CA
Key people
 Louis F. Gottschalk (vice president)
Harry Marston Haldeman (secretary)
Clarence R. Rundel (treasurer)

The Oz Film Manufacturing Company was an independent film studio from 1914 to 1915. It was founded by L. Frank Baum (president), Louis F. Gottschalk (vice president), Harry Marston Haldeman (secretary), [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] and Clarence R. Rundel (treasurer) as an offshoot of Haldeman's social group, The Uplifters, that met at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Its goal was to produce quality family-oriented entertainment in a time when children were primarily seeing violent Westerns. It was a critical but not a commercial success; even under a name change to Dramatic Feature Films, it was quickly forced to fold. The studio made only five features and five short films, of which four features (in part) and no shorts survive. Founded in 1914, it was absorbed by Metro Pictures, which evolved into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Contents

The company is best known for three of its films that survive today, albeit with missing footage: The Patchwork Girl of Oz , The Magic Cloak of Oz , and His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz .

Studio

The studio was located on Santa Monica Boulevard between Gower Street and Lodi Street. The facility would later be used by Famous Players–Lasky (now called Paramount Pictures) and National Film Corporation of America. It was considered state-of-the-art at the time. It was used almost exclusively for interior shots. Exterior shots were done outdoors rather than simulated in the studio. In some scenes, it is evident that some 'interior' scenes were also filmed outdoors.

Stock company

J. Farrell MacDonald directed all of the film productions and acted in some of them. L. Frank Baum wrote all the scripts, and Louis F. Gottschalk wrote complete original scores that were sent out with the films, at time when improvising stock cues from the repertoire was common. James A. Crosby was the studio cinematographer, and Will H. White was the technical director. The records do not show who was responsible for film editing.

Among the major players at the company were Violet MacMillan, Frank Moore, Pierre Couderc, Juanita Hansen, Mai Wells, Raymond Russell, Todd Wright, Vivian Reed, and J. Charles Haydon, with animals portrayed by Fred Woodward, who had appeared in the stage version of The Wizard of Oz in 1902. A newcomer on the second project, Mildred Harris, would become more famous for her marriage to Charles Chaplin. Another member of the company was Richard Rosson, whose younger brother, Harold Rosson, would go on to shoot The Wizard of Oz (1939).

Distribution

The Patchwork Girl of Oz was accepted onto the Paramount distribution program, but when the picture fared poorly, Paramount refused to take on the additional productions. [8] The remaining films were finally accepted onto the Alliance program. The Magic Cloak of Oz was not released until 1917. The prints currently circulating are based on two two-reelers of a British release, known as The Magic Cloak and The Witch Queen, and are missing a reel of material.

The ident for the Oz Film Manufacturing Company showed a smiling Princess Ozma staring into the camera, portrayed by Vivian Reed. [9]

Features

The Patchwork Girl of Oz was released in early September, The Magic Cloak of Oz ready by late September, and His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz was screened in October but did not get distribution. The Alliance program released a fourth feature, The Last Egyptian , from an exotic orientalist adventure novel that Baum had written but declined authorship credit for commercial reasons, in early December. The studio claimed to be going strong well into the next year, but released only short subjects, and the held-up His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz, retitled The New Wizard of Oz to capitalize on the popularity of the stage play well-remembered from the previous decade.

Short subjects

Lost from the company are a series of four short subjects titled Violet's Dreams, which starred Violet MacMillan and Fred Woodward. This was the whole of the company's new output in 1915 prior to the name change.

  1. A Box of Bandits (based on Baum's short story, "The Box of Robbers" from American Fairy Tales )
  2. The Country Circus
  3. The Magic Bon Bons (based on Baum's short story, "The Magic Bon-Bons" [punctuation sic], also from American Fairy Tales
  4. In Dreamy Jungleland (working title: "The Jungle") [Note: Alan Goble's International Film Index cites this title as In Dreamy Jungletown with MacMillan as director, though there seems little evidence for either claim.]

Each of these films depicted Violet's interaction with animals (played by Woodward), and magical opportunities to do things she is otherwise not allowed to do, such as visit a country circus prohibited to her because of her gender.

George Cochrane produced a film in 1917 based on these materials titled Like Babes in the Woods. This film should not be confused with The Babes in the Woods, an adaptation of the Hansel and Gretel story made by Chester Franklin and Sidney Franklin, also from 1917. The Babes in the Woods has been released on videocassette; Like Babes in the Woods is a lost film.

Decline

The studio was rented out to others, and was eventually demolished. Unlike the case with The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays (1908), Baum invested none of his own money in the venture and was not financially affected by the studio's failure, though it is probable it impacted his health, which took a turn for the worse not long after the failure.

Frank Joslyn Baum, Baum's eldest son and sometime attorney, who handled East Coast distribution from an office in Times Square, took over the company and renamed it Dramatic Feature Films, which made one feature and one short, probably from scripts by the younger Baum. Although ads announced the release of the feature film, The Gray Nun of Belgium , it does not appear to actually have been released. While some speculate that Baum would have allied himself with United Artists had he been able to sustain the company, there is no evidence for this, nor evidence that he had ever met UA's founding members, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith, though Gottschalk went on to work with all of them. It is known that fairy tale/fantasy films were produced more frequently by 1917.

The four feature films were considered lost for many years. By the 1980s, all three fairy tale films were made available on home video. All of the feature films have been released on both DVD and VHS with the exception of The Last Egyptian. The Museum of Modern Art owns a worn copy that was used in Bill Morrison's Decasia , but it remains unreleased and is not part of their screening repertoire. The shorts remain lost.

In fiction

In L. Frank Baum's pseudonymous novel, Aunt Jane's Nieces Out West , the series' principals are introduced to a filmmaker named Otis Werner, who is clearly a send-up of Otis Turner, who made some earlier Oz films, mostly without Baum's input. The nieces decide to establish their own film company for children, and Uncle John name-drops "Hans Andersen, Frank Baum, and Lewis Carroll" as among those whose fairy tales had already been adapted to the screen. The novel was written during the midst of the company's existence and published before the company's fall, and ends before the girls actually do establish such a company.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L. Frank Baum</span> American author of childrens books (1856–1919)

Lyman Frank Baum was an American author best known for his children's fantasy books, particularly The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, part of a series. In addition to the 14 Oz books, Baum penned 41 other novels, 83 short stories, over 200 poems, and at least 42 scripts. He made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen; the 1939 adaptation of the first Oz book became a landmark of 20th-century cinema.

<i>The Patchwork Girl of Oz</i> 1913 novel by L. Frank Baum

The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum is a children's novel, the seventh in the Oz series. Characters include the Woozy, Ojo "the Unlucky", Unc Nunkie, Dr. Pipt, Scraps, and others. The book was first published on July 1, 1913, with illustrations by John R. Neill. In 1914, Baum adapted the book to film through his Oz Film Manufacturing Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Gale</span> Fictional protagonist in Oz novels

Dorothy Gale is a fictional character created by American author L. Frank Baum as the protagonist in many of his Oz novels. She first appears in Baum's classic 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and reappears in most of its sequels. In addition, she is the main character in various adaptations, notably the classic 1939 film adaptation of the novel, The Wizard of Oz.

<i>Queen Zixi of Ix</i> 1905 novel by L. Frank Baum

Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak, is a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by Frederick Richardson. It was originally serialized in the early 20th-century American children's magazine St. Nicholas from November 1904 to October 1905, and was published in book form later in 1905 by The Century Company. The events of the book alternate between Noland and Ix, two neighboring regions to the Land of Oz. Baum himself commented this was the best book he had yet written. In a letter to his eldest son, Frank Joslyn Baum, he said it was "nearer to the "old-fashioned" fairy tale than anything I have yet accomplished," and in many respects, it adheres more closely to the fairy tale structure than the Oz books.

<i>His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz</i> 1914 American film

His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz is a 1914 American silent fantasy adventure film directed by J. Farrell MacDonald, and written and produced by L. Frank Baum. It stars Violet MacMillan, Frank Moore, Vivian Reed, Todd Wright, Pierre Couderc, Raymond Russell, and Fred Woodward.

Louis Ferdinand Gottschalk was an American composer and conductor born in St. Louis, Missouri. The son of a Missouri governor, also named Louis, he studied music in Stuttgart, Germany, where his father, a judge, was American consul. Louis Moreau Gottschalk was his great-uncle.

<i>The Magic Cloak of Oz</i> 1914 American film

The Magic Cloak of Oz is a 1914 film directed by J. Farrell MacDonald. It was written by L. Frank Baum and produced by Baum and composer Louis F. Gottschalk. The film is an adaptation of Baum's 1905 novel, Queen Zixi of Ix.

<i>The Patchwork Girl of Oz</i> (film) 1914 American film

The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914) is a silent film made by L. Frank Baum's The Oz Film Manufacturing Company. It was based on the 1913 book The Patchwork Girl of Oz.

Queenie Rosson was an early American silent film actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Violet MacMillan</span> American actress

Violet MacMillan, was an American actress in Broadway theatre productions, vaudeville, and silent films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glass Cat</span> Fictional character from L. Frank Baums Oz-series

Bungle, the Glass Cat is a character in the Oz books of L. Frank Baum.

<i>American Fairy Tales</i> 1901 collection of twelve fantasy stories by L. Frank Baum

American Fairy Tales is the title of a collection of twelve fantasy stories by L. Frank Baum, published in 1901 by the George M. Hill Company, the firm that issued The Wonderful Wizard of Oz the previous year. The cover, title page, and page borders were designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour; each story was furnished with two full-page black-and-white illustrations, by either Harry Kennedy, Ike Morgan, or Norman P. Hall.

Adaptations of <i>The Wizard of Oz</i>

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a 1900 children's novel written by American author L. Frank Baum. Since its first publication in 1900, it has been adapted many times by L. Frank Baum and others: for film, television, theatre, books, comics, games, and other media.

<i>L. Frank Baums Juvenile Speaker</i> 1910 anthology of literary works by L. Frank Baum

L. Frank Baum's Juvenile Speaker: Readings and Recitations in Prose and Verse, Humorous and Otherwise is an anthology of literary works by L. Frank Baum, author of the Oz books. The book was first published in 1910, with illustrations by veteran Baum artists John R. Neill and Maginel Wright Enright; a subsequent 1912 edition was retitled Baum's Own Book for Children. The book constitutes a complex element in the Baum bibliography.

<i>Little Wizard Stories of Oz</i> 1914 set of six short stories by L. Frank Baum

Little Wizard Stories of Oz is a set of six short stories written for young children by L. Frank Baum, the creator of the Oz books. The six tales were published in separate small booklets, "Oz books in miniature," in 1913, and then in a collected edition in 1914 with illustrations by John R. Neill. Each booklet is 29 pages long, and printed in blue ink rather than black.

<i>Animal Fairy Tales</i> 1969 collection of short stories written by L. Frank Baum

Animal Fairy Tales is a collection of short stories written by L. Frank Baum, the creator of the Land of Oz series of children's books. The stories first received magazine publication in 1905. For several decades in the twentieth century, the collection was a "lost" book by Baum; it resurfaced when the International Wizard of Oz Club published the stories in one volume in 1969.

The plays of L. Frank Baum are an important aspect of Baum's writing career about which very little is known. While even most brief biographies, long before the Internet, have noted Baum's work as a playwright, these works have been rarely performed beyond his lifetime, and almost none have been published aside from two scenarios and a first act of three unfinished works in The Musical Fantasies of L. Frank Baum, compiled with an introduction by Alla T. Ford. Aside from his youthful success with The Maid of Arran, his blockbuster eight-year run with The Wizard of Oz, his failure with The Woggle-Bug, and The Tik-Tok Man of Oz as source material for his novel, Tik-Tok of Oz, very little is known about his dramatic output, and mostly from the publications of Michael Patrick Hearn, Susan Ferrara, and Katharine M. Rogers. Hearn identifies 41 different titles in the bibliography of the 2000 edition of The Annotated Wizard of Oz, plus one play without a title, although some of these titles clearly refer to drafts of the same play, such as the early titles of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz.

Violet's Dreams was a series of short films written and produced by L. Frank Baum with The Oz Film Manufacturing Company in 1915 and starring Violet MacMillan. The films are not known to survive. Each film depicted MacMillan entering a different fantasy scenario, which, uncharacteristically for Baum, in spite of The Wizard of Oz , turned out to be a dream.

This is a complete bibliography for American children's writer L. Frank Baum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Woodward (actor)</span> Canadian actor

Fred J. Woodward was a Canadian actor and animal impersonator during the silent film era who specialized in playing animal parts.

References

  1. ↑ Loncraine, Rebecca (2009). The real Wizard of Oz : the life and times of L. Frank Baum. New York, N.Y. ISBN   9781592404490.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ↑ Schwartz, Evan I. (2009). Finding Oz : how L. Frank Baum discovered the great American story. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN   9780547055107.
  3. ↑ Hearn, Michael Patrick (2010). "Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story, and: The Real Wizard of Oz: The Life and Times of L. Frank Baum (review)". Children's Literature Association Quarterly. 35 (3): 313–319. doi:10.1353/chq.2010.0002. S2CID   144462702. researchgate.net 236810887
  4. ↑ "The Patchwork Girl Of Oz (1914)". AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A SCIENTIST!. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
  5. ↑ Baum, Lyman Frank (2000). The Annotated Wizard of Oz: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN   978-0-393-04992-3 . Retrieved 22 June 2022.
  6. ↑ "HOW L. FRANK BAUM INVENTED THE FILM FRANCHISE: EXCERPT FROM THE HISTORY OF INDEPENDENT CINEMA". Film Threat. 22 October 2009. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
  7. ↑ C, H, Rundel sec. Oz Film Company - Newspapers.com
  8. ↑ Dulac, Nicolas (2 April 2012). A Companion to Early Cinema. Wiley-Blackwell.
  9. ↑ "Farnsworth Collective presents 'Wizard of Oz' trivia night". PenBay Pilot. January 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2018.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.