The first film adaptation of Frankenstein was shot in Thomas Edison's studio

Here is a vintage horror gem for your mid-week blues: Back in 1910, when he wasn't coming up with civilzation-changing inventions, Thomas Edison lent his studio in the Bronx out to filmmakers. While the Edison Company began with "actualities" (newsreels, real-life events, etc.), the studio eventually turned to fiction. And, perhaps not surprisingly, science fiction. One of the company's productions was the first ever film adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, directed and written by J. Searle Dawley. Clocking in at about twelve and a half minutes, it must have been one of the more ambitious projects to come out of Edison's studio and features some dangerous-looking pyrotechnics. (via Geek Tyrant)

When she isn't nerding out that the holidays are coming, Jamie is a reader at Monday Night Fan Fiction at Fontana's in Chinatown, NYC (next date: TBA, 7:00 PM). All work is original, written by the readers, so if you have a brilliant fanfic idea stuck in your head, send it via Twitter: @jamielikesthis

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Back in 1910, when he wasn’t coming up with civilzation-changing inventions…

I guess that depends on your definition of “coming up with.”
- schlocktober
  
  It means acquiring patents to civilization-changing inventions.
  - Boundegar
    
    Stop that! It is important to perpetuate the mystique of the self-made man – capitalism itself could be at stake!
show me

Came for the (justified, IMHO) Edison bashing, leaving satisfied.
- retrojoe
  
  Same here. I think it’s pretty much a given on the webz these days.
http://jackfear.blogspot.com Jack Feerick

I’ve heard about this for years, but never seen it. Apparently the fellow who played the monster, Charles Ogle, created his own makeup by covering his face in a thick paste of flour and water ’til he looked like an uncooked biscuit, then added kohl around the eyes, big penciled-in eyebrows, and a palsied, drooping mouth. There’s a good close-up of Ogle in make-up here:

http://frankensteinia.blogspot.com/2012/02/edisons-frankenstein-physicalogical.html

Special effects!
http://twitter.com/BuildaLibrary Tom B.

The project was quickly greenlit to compete against Nikolai Tesla’s “Dracula” for the Memorial Day 1910 box office crown.
http://twitter.com/digitalArtform Joseph Francis

Somebody with sufficient software and energy could steady those backgrounds, average the noise out of them, and get a good look at them.
http://twitter.com/AbelUndercity Abel Undercity

I wish my college had offered monster creation, even just as a minor.
pierre fournier

Ogle’s Monster is so outrageous, the makeup stories tend to be highly exaggerated. A close look shows that he simply used greasepaint: White face, dark around the eyes, and expressive painted eyebrows. Add a skullcap and a large fright wig.

Another striking element of the makeup was The Monster’s branchlike hands. I made a post about these: http://frankensteinia.blogspot.ca/2012/03/silent-frankensteins-roving-props.html

Seems The Monster ‘s hands came from… Mars!
http://www.zazzle.com/InfinitudeTortoises* An Infinitude of Tortoises

Back in 2003 the Loew’s Jersey Theater hosted the premiere of the newly rediscovered, restored print, complete with an on-stage appearance by the distinctive gentleman in whose attic/basement/whatever the film turned up. A night to remember!