The Photo-Drama of Creation
About The Photo-Drama of Creation
In four parts and eight hours, the presentation runs from the creation of the earth through the life of Christ to the end of his thousand-year reign, as Charles Taze Russell taught it. Moving pictures, magic-lantern slides, and recorded speech are locked together so a lecturer does not have to be in the hall.
Cast & crew
More about The Photo-Drama of Creation
The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania produced it under Russell's direction. It premiered in New York in January 1914 and reached Germany that summer. Recorded speech, film, and color slides ran in sync. The full cost was put at $300,000. A shorter cut was called the Eureka-Drama. Russell also published a book, Scenario of the Photo-Drama of Creation.
Themes
Background
In 1914 most film programs were short. An eight-hour religious show, free or cheap and booked into halls, was a different circuit from the nickelodeon.
Making
Russell's staff built a road show that did not depend on a live speaker: a phonograph, a film projector, and a lantern had to start together and stay together for hours.
Audiences
Nine million people saw the full show or the shorter Eureka-Drama in North America, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia.
Technique
Film, color lantern slides, and phonograph speech were run together, so the program could play without a lecturer in the room.
Music
Recorded speeches were synchronized to the pictures and the slides. No composer is credited.
Preservation
Film material and lantern slides survive. The Internet Archive holds a transfer of the drama and separate slide sets.
Notes
- Nine million people in North America, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia saw either the full Photo-Drama or the Eureka-Drama.
- Harry Humphrey is credited among the speakers.
- The accompanying Scenario was printed in several languages so audiences could follow the four parts.
- Slides from parts of the presentation are on the Internet Archive apart from the film transfer.
Scenes
- The program joins a moving-picture passage to a run of color slides without a speaker on the platform.
Also available
- Internet Archive (the-photo-drama-of-creation-by-charles-taze-russell)