The Oz Film Manufacturing Company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 (vice president), Harry Marston Haldeman (secretary),[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] 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 (in part) and no shorts survive. Founded in 1914, it was absorbed by Metro Pictures, which evolved into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Film industry |
Founded | 1914; 110 years ago (1914) |
Founder | L. Frank Baum |
Defunct | 1915; 109 years ago (1915) |
Fate | Absorbed into Metro Pictures |
Successors | |
Headquarters | Los Angeles, CA |
Key people | Louis F. Gottschalk (vice president) Harry Marston Haldeman (secretary) Clarence R. Rundel (treasurer) |
The company is best known for three of its films that survive today, albeit with missing footage: The Patchwork Girl of Oz, The Magic Cloak of Oz, and His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz.