Join the Campaign to Rescue Historic Oz Films. Films of the Oz Film Manufacturing Company face destruction unless restored. Early motion pictures were printed on nitrate, a stock so flammable it could spontaneously combust. Sadly, the majority of the silent films that do survive will someday be lost as the nitrate stock continues to decay.
The films of L. Frank Baum’s own Oz Film Manufacturing Company are no stranger to that fate. The four Violet’s Dreams shorts made by the company are already lost. Of the company’s four features, only one partial copy of The Last Egyptian survives (3 of 5 reels), and The Magic Cloak of Oz only exists in incomplete form. On the positive side, complete copies of The Patchwork Girl of Oz exist, and most of His Majesty, The Scarecrow of Oz has survived.
Having preserved and restored His Majesty, The Scarecrow of Oz, filmmaker and Oz Club board member Nate Barlow now seeks to save Baum’s other films before it’s too late. The International Wizard of Oz Club has joined the campaign to raise funds to support Nate’s work.
The first project in the campaign is transferring from nitrate stock to 4K digital media a print of The Magic Cloak of Oz owned by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. The Magic Cloak is a 1914 film adaptation of Baum’s 1905 novel, Queen Zixi of Ix, which is considered one of Baum’s finest fantasies. Though the book was not part of the Oz series, the film moves the location to Oz. The film was written by Baum and produced by Baum and pioneer film music composer Louis F. Gottschalk.
The Club set a target of raising $5,000 for the first film of the campaign. Additional funds raised will go for transferring other extant Oz Film Manufacturing nitrate prints until all have been preserved. With nitrate constantly degrading, we are working against a ticking clock to save these films before they are lost forever.
You can contribute to the campaign by making a tax-deductible contribution to The International Wizard of Oz Club, a 501(c)(3) educational charity through the Club’s website https://www.ozclub.org/product-category/donations. On the Checkout Page, please indicate your contribution is for the “Oz Film Restoration Campaign” in the Donation Comments box. You can also donate by sending a check to Wizard of Oz Club, Inc. P.O. Box 150230, Grand Rapids, MI 49515-0230. Contributions of any size are welcome!
Nate Barlow is an American film director, actor, screenwriter and producer. He supervised the preservation and restoration of the Oz Film Manufacturing Company’s His Majesty, The Scarecrow of Oz, which premiered at a Charlotte, North Carolina Oz festival in September 2024.
Additional screenings are being scheduled. Nate is working on a film documentary and book on the history of the company. For more information about the projects, please visit https://ozfilmcompany.com.