| The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays | |
|---|---|
 One of the few surviving stills from the film displaying the quality of the Radio-Play coloring process. | |
| Directed by | Francis Boggs Otis Turner |
| Written by | L. Frank Baum |
| Produced by | William Selig John B. Shaw, Jr L. Frank Baum |
| Starring | L. Frank Baum Romola Remus Frank Burns George E. Wilson Joseph Schrode Burns Wantling Grace Elder |
| Music by | Nathaniel D. Mann |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Selig Polyscope Company |
Release date |
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Running time | 120 minutes (3600 m) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
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.[1] 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.[2]
Although today seen mostly as a failed first effort to adapt the Oz books,[1] 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.[1]
- ^ a b c Swartz, Mark Evan (2002). Oz Before the Rainbow: L. Frank Baum's the Wonderful Wizard of Oz on Stage and Screen to 1939. JHU Press. pp. 161–165. ISBN 9780801870927. Retrieved February 29, 2016.
- ^ Swartz, Mark Evan (2002). Oz Before the Rainbow, p. 270