“The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” at the Dionysus Theatre
A snippet of film from 1911.
Mrs. Langston from the Historical Society stopped by on her way to the town office this morning. She explained that they have been digitizing old film canisters that were recently discovered in the basement of the old high school.
To her surprise, one of the reels contains a short snippet of a movie being shown at the Dionysus! It was “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” a silent film that had its premiere in the fall of 1911.
An article in “DRAMATIC MIRROR” from August of 1911 indicates that Cornelius Tibble had acquired a film camera that very month, something so noteworthy that it made it into the papers!
The premiere of the silent movie took place a few months after this article was published.
This made me wonder: is it possible that this footage could have been filmed by Cornelius himself?
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I absolutely love this! This theater is like going through the looking glass into a word of beauty and history and art, and it brings me hope that we can restore the world to those states. Thank you for leading the way! You are a master!
Utterly delightful. What a fascinating little newspaper record as well!