{"id":2065,"date":"2014-01-11T19:06:08","date_gmt":"2014-01-11T19:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/news\/2014\/01\/11\/a-100-year-old-epic-of-faith-photo-drama-of-creation\/"},"modified":"2014-01-11T19:06:08","modified_gmt":"2014-01-11T19:06:08","slug":"a-100-year-old-epic-of-faith-photo-drama-of-creation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/a-100-year-old-epic-of-faith-photo-drama-of-creation\/","title":{"rendered":"A 100-Year-Old Epic of Faith Photo-drama of creation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u201cThat looks more like Brother Russell than Brother Russell himself!\u201d\u2014Viewer of the \u201cPhoto-Drama\u201d in 1914.<\/div>\n
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THIS year marks the 100th anniversary of the premiere of the \u201cPhoto-Drama of Creation,\u201d an epic visual presentation designed to build faith in the Bible as the Word of God. In an age when belief in evolution, higher criticism, and skepticism had eroded the faith of many, the \u201cPhoto-Drama\u201d championed Jehovah as the Creator.<\/div>\n
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Charles T. Russell, who took the lead among the Bible Students, constantly searched for the most effective and fastest means possible to spread Bible truth. The Bible Students had already been using the power of the printed page for more than three decades. Now a new possibility caught their attention\u2014motion pictures.<\/div>\n
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SPREADING THE GOSPEL THROUGH MOTION PICTURES (video pdf and slides can find\u00a0here<\/strong><\/a><\/strong>)<\/div>\n
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The 1890\u2019s introduced silent motion pictures to the public. As early as 1903, a religious film was shown in a New York City church. The motion-picture industry was thus in its infancy in 1912 when Russell boldly launched preparations for the \u201cPhoto-Drama.\u201d He realized that this mode of communication could convey Bible truth in a way that the printed page alone could not.<\/div>\n
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The eight-hour \u201cPhoto-Drama\u201d presentation, usually shown in four parts, featured 96 brief recorded Bible lectures narrated by a well-known speaker with one of the most recognizable voices of that era. Classical music accompanied many scenes. Skilled operators played the voice and music recordings on phonographs, synchronizing the sound with color slides and film reenactments of famous Bible stories.<\/div>\n
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\u201cIt encompassed the total picture from the creation of the stars to the glorious climax of Christ\u2019s Thousand Year Reign.\u201d\u2014F. Stuart Barnes, age 14 in 1914<\/div>\n
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Most of the film footage and many of the glass slides came from commercial studios. Professional artists in Philadelphia, New York, Paris, and London hand painted the glass slides and the films, frame by frame. Teams of workers in Bethel\u2019s Art Room also did much of the painting, often \u00a0making replacements for broken slides. In addition to the purchased films, Bethel family members were filmed in nearby Yonkers, New York, as they played the parts of Abraham, Isaac, and the angel who prevented Abraham from actually sacrificing his son.\u2014Gen. 22:9-12.<\/div>\n
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With precision timing, trained operators coordinated the presentation of two miles of film, 26 phonograph records, and some 500 glass slides<\/div>\n
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An associate of Brother Russell told the press that this medium would \u201cinterest countless thousands in Scripture, more than anything that [had] been done for religious advancement in the past.\u201d Would the clergy applaud such an innovative effort to reach the spiritually hungry masses? On the contrary, Christendom\u2019s ministers as a whole denounced the \u201cPhoto-Drama,\u201d some even using sly or brazen tactics to prevent the public from seeing it. In one venue, a ministers\u2019 union had the electricity cut off.<\/div>\n
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Usherettes from local congregations gave out millions of free copies of the Scenario containing \u201cPhoto-Drama\u201d images<\/div>\n
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Those in attendance also received \u201cPax\u201d pins with a picture of the boy Jesus. The pins reminded the wearer to be a \u201cson of peace\u201d<\/div>\n
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Nevertheless, audiences packed out theaters to view the \u201cPhoto-Drama\u201d free of charge. In the United States, up to 80 cities each day hosted the \u201cPhoto-Drama.\u201d Many amazed viewers were seeing their first \u2018talking movie.\u2019 Time-lapse photography enabled them to watch a chick peck its way out of its shell and a blossom gracefully unfold. Scientific information of the day highlighted the marvelous wisdom of Jehovah. As mentioned at the outset, seeing Brother Russell on-screen introducing the \u201cPhoto-Drama,\u201d one viewer even thought that the speaker looked \u201cmore like Brother Russell than Brother Russell himself!\u201d<\/div>\n
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A MILESTONE IN BIBLE EDUCATION<\/div>\n
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The \u201cPhoto-Drama\u201d premiered on January 11, 1914, at this fine New York City theater then owned and staffed by the International Bible Students Association<\/div>\n
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Author and film historian Tim Dirks described the \u201cPhoto-Drama\u201d as \u201cthe first major screenplay which incorporated synchronized sound (recorded speech), moving film, and magic lantern color slides.\u201d Films that preceded the \u201cPhoto-Drama\u201d had used some of these techniques but not all of them in one presentation, especially one with a Bible theme. And none had a greater audience\u2014totaling some nine million in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand during the first year alone!<\/div>\n
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The \u201cPhoto-Drama\u201d premiered on January 11, 1914, in New York City. Seven months thereafter came the cataclysm later called World War I. But crowds around the world continued gathering together to view the \u201cPhoto-Drama,\u201d drawing solace from its vivid scenes of Kingdom blessings to come. By any measure, for the year 1914, the \u201cPhoto-Drama\u201d was truly a remarkable presentation.<\/div>\n
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Twenty individual \u201cPhoto-Drama\u201d sets were used by teams throughout North America<\/div>\n
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http:\/\/www.jw.org\/en\/publications\/magazines\/w20140215\/photo-drama-of-creation\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThat looks more like Brother Russell than Brother Russell himself!\u201d\u2014Viewer of the \u201cPhoto-Drama\u201d in 1914. THIS year marks the 100th anniversary of the premiere of the \u201cPhoto-Drama of Creation,\u201d an epic visual presentation designed to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}