The Oz Film Manufacturing Company facts for kids

The Oz Film Manufacturing Company was a movie studio that made films for a short time, from 1914 to 1915. It was started by L. Frank Baum, the famous writer of the Oz books, along with Louis F. Gottschalk, Harry Marston Haldeman, and Clarence R. Rundel.

Their main goal was to create fun, family-friendly movies. At that time, many films, especially Westerns, were quite violent. The Oz Film Manufacturing Company wanted to offer something different for kids and families.

Even though their films were liked by critics, they didn't make much money. The company tried changing its name to Dramatic Feature Films, but it still closed down quickly. The studio only made five full-length movies and five short films. Today, parts of four of their movies still exist, but none of the short films have survived. The company was founded in 1914 and later became part of Metro Pictures, which eventually turned into the well-known studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

The company is most famous for three of its movies that you can still see today, even if some parts are missing. These are The Patchwork Girl of Oz, The Magic Cloak of Oz, and His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz.

The Oz Film Studio

The Oz Film Manufacturing Company had its studio in Los Angeles, California. It was located on Santa Monica Boulevard. This studio was very modern for its time. It was mostly used for filming scenes that took place indoors. Outdoor scenes were filmed outside, not on a set. Later, other big film companies like Paramount Pictures used this same studio space.

People Behind the Oz Films

Many talented people worked at the Oz Film Manufacturing Company.

• J. Farrell MacDonald directed all the movies and also acted in some of them.
• L. Frank Baum wrote all the stories and scripts for the films.
• Louis F. Gottschalk created original music for each movie. This was special because back then, many films just used common music that musicians would play live.
• James A. Crosby was the main camera person, called the cinematographer.
• Will H. White was in charge of the technical side of things.

The company also had a group of actors who appeared in many of their films. Some of the main actors included Violet MacMillan, Frank Moore, Juanita Hansen, and Vivian Reed.

One interesting actor was Fred Woodward, who played animals in the films. He had also been in the stage play The Wizard of Oz years before. Another actor, Mildred Harris, later became famous for marrying Charlie Chaplin. Also, Richard Rosson worked there, and his younger brother, Harold Rosson, later became the cinematographer for the famous 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz.

How the Oz Films Were Shared

The first movie, The Patchwork Girl of Oz, was picked up by Paramount Pictures to be shown in theaters. However, the movie didn't do very well, so Paramount decided not to distribute any more of the Oz films.

The other movies eventually found a distributor called the Alliance program. One film, The Magic Cloak of Oz, wasn't released until 1917, a few years after it was made. Some parts of this movie are still missing today.

Oz Film Company Logo

The company's logo, which appeared at the start of their movies, showed a smiling Princess Ozma. She was played by the actress Vivian Reed, who looked directly at the camera.

Full-Length Oz Movies

The Oz Film Manufacturing Company made a few full-length movies:

• The Patchwork Girl of Oz was released in September 1914.
• The Magic Cloak of Oz was ready by late September 1914.
• His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz was shown in October 1914, but it took a while to find a distributor. It was later released as The New Wizard of Oz to connect with the popular stage play.
• The Last Egyptian was another movie released in December 1914. This was based on an adventure novel that L. Frank Baum wrote, but he didn't use his name for it.

The company claimed to be doing well into 1915, but they mostly released short films that year, along with the delayed His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz.

Short Films from Oz

The company also made a series of four short films called Violet's Dreams. These films starred Violet MacMillan and Fred Woodward, who played animals. Sadly, all of these short films are now lost.

The short films were:

• A Box of Bandits (based on a story by L. Frank Baum)
• The Country Circus
• The Magic Bon Bons (also based on a Baum story)
• In Dreamy Jungleland

In these shorts, Violet would interact with animals (played by Woodward) and experience magical things she couldn't normally do, like visiting a circus that girls weren't allowed to attend.

Why the Company Closed

After a short time, the Oz Film Manufacturing Company closed down. The studio building was rented out to other companies and was eventually torn down.

L. Frank Baum had not put his own money into this company, so he didn't lose money when it failed. However, it's thought that the company's failure might have affected his health.

Baum's oldest son, Frank Joslyn Baum, took over the company for a while and renamed it Dramatic Feature Films. They made one movie and one short film, possibly written by the younger Baum. One movie, The Gray Nun of Belgium, was announced but might not have been released.

For many years, the four main movies made by the Oz Film Manufacturing Company were thought to be lost. But by the 1980s, the three Oz fairy tale films became available to watch at home. Most of the full-length movies have been released on DVD and VHS, except for The Last Egyptian. The short films are still lost today.

Oz Films in Fiction

In one of L. Frank Baum's novels, Aunt Jane's Nieces Out West, he wrote about a filmmaker named Otis Werner. This character was a playful reference to Otis Turner, who had made some earlier Oz films without much help from Baum. In the story, the characters decide to start their own film company for children. This novel was written while the Oz Film Manufacturing Company was still active.