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Dramatic Feature Films

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Dramatic Feature Films was an unsuccessful silent film venture by Frank Joslyn Baum, son of L. Frank Baum. The office was at 300 West 42nd Street in New York City (the building that currently houses the Times Square McDonald's in its first floors), while the films were made in the Hollywood studios of The Oz Film Manufacturing Company, which was the company's former identity. It was absorbed by Goldwyn Pictures in 1916.

Two films are known to have been produced by the company, neither of which survive. These include a slapstick short titled Pies and Poetry starring Betty Pierce. Pierce, along with Catherine Countiss and David Proctor starred in The Gray Nun of Belgium. The film was directed by Francis Powers from a script by Baum (some sources say the elder) and set during World War I. Advertisements in the trade papers gave the film a release date of April 26, 1915; however, it is now believed that the film was never released. The distributor, Alliance Film Program, apparently found the film inferior and refused to buy it.

Discover more about Dramatic Feature Films related topics

Silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound. Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements or key lines of dialogue may, when necessary, be conveyed by the use of title cards.

Frank Joslyn Baum

Frank Joslyn Baum

Frank Joslyn Baum was an American lawyer, soldier, writer, and film producer, and the first president of The International Wizard of Oz Club.

L. Frank Baum

L. Frank Baum

Lyman Frank Baum was an American author best known for his children's books, particularly The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its ten sequels. He wrote 14 novels in the Oz series, plus 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.

New York City

New York City

New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over 300.46 square miles (778.2 km2), New York City is the most densely populated major city in the United States and more than twice as populous as Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest city. New York City is located at the southern tip of New York State. It constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. by both population and urban area. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous megacities, and over 58 million people live within 250 mi (400 km) of the city. New York City is a global cultural, financial, entertainment, and media center with a significant influence on commerce, health care and life sciences, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, dining, art, fashion, and sports. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy, and is sometimes described as the capital of the world.

McDonald's

McDonald's

McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hamburger stand, and later turned the company into a franchise, with the Golden Arches logo being introduced in 1953 at a location in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1955, Ray Kroc, a businessman, joined the company as a franchise agent and proceeded to purchase the chain from the McDonald brothers. McDonald's had its previous headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois, but moved its global headquarters to Chicago in June 2018.

Hollywood, Los Angeles

Hollywood, Los Angeles

Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and Universal Pictures, are located near or in Hollywood.

The Oz Film Manufacturing Company

The Oz Film Manufacturing Company

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, Harry Marston Haldeman (secretary), 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 and no shorts survive. Founded in 1914, it was absorbed by Metro Pictures, which evolved into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Goldwyn Pictures

Goldwyn Pictures

Goldwyn Pictures Corporation was an American motion picture production company that operated from 1916 to 1924 when it was merged with two other production companies to form the major studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was founded on November 19, 1916, by Samuel Goldwyn, an executive at Lasky's Feature Play Company, and Broadway producer brothers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn, using an amalgamation of both last names to name the company.

Slapstick

Slapstick

Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such as saws and ladders.

The Gray Nun of Belgium

The Gray Nun of Belgium

The Gray Nun of Belgium was a 1915 film announced for release on the Alliance Program by Dramatic Feature Films, Frank Joslyn Baum's short-lived successor to The Oz Film Manufacturing Company.

Francis Powers (actor)

Francis Powers (actor)

Francis Powers was a silent film actor, screenwriter, and director from the United States.

Film distributor

Film distributor

A film distributor is responsible for the marketing of a film. The distribution company may be the same with, or different from, the production company. Distribution deals are an important part of financing a film.

Source: "Dramatic Feature Films", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, December 3rd), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_Feature_Films.

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References
  • Richard Mills and David L. Greene. "The Oz Film Manufacturing Company." The Baum Bugle. Autumn 1973.
  • Katharine M. Rogers. L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz. HarperCollins, 2004.
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