Underplayed Gems

The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays (1908)

The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays poster
Directed by
Otis Turner, Francis Boggs
Genre
silent film
Country
United States
Runtime
2h
Rating
1.2 of 10 from 2 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This early 1908 film mixed live actors, hand-colored slides, and movie footage to tell stories from L. Frank Baum's Oz books. Baum himself appeared on stage as a lecturer interacting with the characters. The show was well received but closed after two months due to high costs, and the film is now considered lost.

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What happens

The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays was an early attempt to bring L. Frank Baum's Oz books to the motion picture screen. It was a mixture of live actors, hand-tinted magic lantern slides, and film. Baum himself would appear as if he were giving a lecture, while he interacted with the characters (both on stage and on screen). Although acclaimed throughout its tour, the show experienced budgetary problems (with the show costing more to produce than the money that sold-out houses could bring in) and folded after two months of performances. It opened in Grand Rapids, Michigan on September 24, 1908. It then ran in Orchestra Hall in Chicago on October 1, toured the country and ended its run in New York City. There, it was scheduled to run through December 31, and ads for it continued to run in The New York Times until then, but it reportedly closed on December 16. Although today seen mostly as a failed first effort to adapt the Oz books, The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays is notable in film history because it contains the earliest original film score to be documented. The film is lost, but the script for Baum's narration and production stills survive. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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