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41 Chapter 3 Superspecials, Specials, and Programs, 1916–1927 A month after the premiere of The Birth of a Nation in New York the weekly release chart in The Motion Picture News marked the extent to which films were now available “in two distinct formats. The industry’s oldest firms, and a few younger rivals, were marketing program releases of short films, one to three reels in length, which were issued like clockwork on a daily schedule,” as Richard Koszarski has noted. Also listed were “the offerings of a half-dozen feature distributors, whose products were generally four to six reels in length and not necessarily tied to specific release dates.” Charts such as these “plotted the end of a distribution system that was rapidly approaching irrelevance. Out of the dozens of producers listed, only a handful would survive three years hence, and most of these in significantly changed form. As for the daily change of program releases, its remaining tenure could be measured in months.”1 Among the new longer features released in the mid-1910s were Neptune’s Daughter (1914), Civilization, A Daughter of the Gods, and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea (all 1916). Neptune’s Daughter and A Daughter of the Gods were vehicles for Annette Kellermann, an Australian swimming star who had forged a career with a swimming and diving act in England and the United States. According to her biographers, Kellermann herself came up with the idea and the basic scenario for Neptune’s Daughter, which was produced by IMP for Universal and directed by Herbert Brenon.2 It was premiered at the Globe Theatre in New York in the roadshow manner, with reservedseat , twice-daily performances at a top price of fifty cents per ticket. It played at the Globe for seven months prior to its release as a Universal Special Feature. A Daughter of the Gods was produced by Fox. It opened with simultaneous premiere runs at the Lyric in New York (at a top price of two dollars per seat), the Chestnut Street Opera House in Philadelphia, and the Pitt in Pittsburgh in October 1916. It was then roadshown more widely with a score composed by Robert Hood Bowers. Universal produced 20,000 Leagues under the Sea and Thomas Ince produced Civilization. The 42 C H A P T E R 3 former premiered at the Broadway in New York, the latter at the Majestic in Los Angeles under its initial title, He Who Returned, then at the Criterion in New York. Both were subsequently distributed on a states rights basis, the latter initially as a roadshow in New York State under the management of A. H. Woods.3 These films were all long and expensive. A Daughter of the Gods was ten reels long and was advertised as costing a million dollars. Variety estimated its true cost at $850,000, still well in excess of the average feature and more than the cost of The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance combined.4 Neptune’s Daughter (at seven reels), 20,000 Leagues under the Sea (at eight reels), and Civilization (at ten reels) have been costed at $35,000, $500,000, and $100,000 respectively.5 A Daughter of the Gods tells the story of Alicia (Kellermann), who falls in love with a prince and who enlists the help of the inhabitants of Gnomeland in order to aid him in his struggles against his enemies. Neptune’s Daughter tells the story of a mermaid who seeks to avenge the death of her sister, but who falls in love with the king responsible for granting the fishing rights that led to her death. 20,000 Leagues under the Sea was an adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel with additional plot material from The Mysterious Island and additional flashback scenes set in India. Civilization was a pacifist allegory that culminated in a vision of the horrors of war shown by Christ to Wredpryd’s king. All four films could be categorized as fantasie, one of the terms used to describe A Daughter of the Gods.6 All four films use aquatic settings, underwater sequences, and special photographic effects. And all four films were box-office hits: according to Variety , Neptune’s Daughter netted $480,000, A Daughter of the Gods $1,390,000, and Civilization $768,000; according to an advertisement in The Moving Picture World, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea broke every house record at the...

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