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Message From Mars: 1913
Submitted by Dave on Sat, 10/13/2012 - 11:24am.
Marquette, Michigan, circa 1913. "Washington Street, showing opera house." Now playing at the picture show: "Message From Mars" and "Flaming Arrrow." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Another Flaming Arrow
Submitted by JellyBelly on Mon, 10/15/2012 - 11:22am.
The Flaming Arrow film mentioned previously was released in 1911. A film with the same title was made and released in 1913 by the Bison Picture Company. The latter film is most likely the one we see the advertisement for.
Parade
Submitted by CGW on Mon, 10/15/2012 - 7:50am.
I think this is a Salvation Army band marching; I found a couple of pictures with a similar cap.
The Fate of the Opera House
Submitted by Ray D. O-Czech on Sun, 10/14/2012 - 1:11pm.
Like seemingly many old theaters, it's fate was to burn down. But, this being the UP of Michigan, naturally it happened during a blizzard.
Like any good opera story, there may have been some skullduggery going on behind the scenes!
Read more about it here: http://bit.ly/V00a52
There is a sign for The Mining Journal newspaper in the background, which is today still publishing.
Mar's Man
Submitted by Phaedrus on Sat, 10/13/2012 - 5:12pm.
With a plot similar to Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Richard Ganthoney's A Message from Mars was a hugely successful satirical play. It was made into a four-reel picture in 1913 in the U.K.
A Martian is sentenced to visit earth to cure a selfish man.
Horace Parker, "the most selfish man on earth" is such a snob that even his fiancee turns her back on him. But on Christmas Eve, a messenger from Mars (in a bizarre, scaly costume) comes to Earth to show Parker the error of his ways. The two of them become invisible and eavesdrop on all the terrible -and true -- things Parker's friends and family are saying about him. etc.
The Flaming Arrow
Submitted by Phaedrus on Sun, 10/14/2012 - 1:53pm.
From: http://mubi.com/films/the-flaming-arrow
"At the age of 13 Joris Ivens was fond of cowboy and Indian stories, so he decided to invent one himself. He wrote a script and used a camera from his father’s shop. This became his first film Wigwam, with his own family as the cast. Black Eagle, a bad Indian, kidnaps the daughter of a farmer’s family. Flaming Arrow, played by the young Joris Ivens, saves the child from the kidnapper and brings her back to her family."
Joris Ivens (18 November 1898, Nijmegen – 28 June 1989, Paris) was a Dutch documentary filmmaker.
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