THE GHOST OF SLUMBER MOUNTAIN lay the
bedrock for O’Brien’s triumphant effects for—and the greatest legal obstacle to—THE LOST WORLD. Around this same time, Chicago promoter and producer Watterson R. Rothacker signed O’Brien to produce more “novelty shorts,” but he had his eye on a bigger prize. That opportunity came when Rothacker purchased the adaptation rights to Conan Doyle’s THE LOST WORLD. The subsequent building of O’Brien’s effects team—including model-builder Marcel Delgado, glass matte artist Ralph Hammeras, and the eventual participation of premiere cinematographer Arthur Edeson (THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, 1924)—cemented their ef­ forts, and the rest is history. There is reason to question precisely when
Rothacker obtained the rights to Conan Doyle’s novel: Scott MacQueen’s extensive notes accom­ panying his restoration cites the date of Septem­ ber of 1922, and is accompanied by proper studio documentation. However, Conan Doyle himself debuted a reel of O’Brien’s dinosaur effects to the American Society of Magicians on June 2, 1922; evidence that O’Brien, and/or Rothacker, had “jumped the gun” with an effects reel before securing the necessary rights, with the author’s tacit approval and complicity. Conan Doyle’s stunt staggered the gathered magicians (including Harry Houdini), illusionists, and reporters, who were unable to guess how such realistically alive dino­ saurs might have been photographed. THE NEW YORK TIMES breathlessly reported, “His monsters of the ancient world or of the new world which he has discovered in the ether, were extraordinarily lifelike. If fakes, they were masterpieces.” The next day, Conan Doyle tipped his hand in a letter to Houdini, saying, “The dinosaurs and other mon­ sters have been constructed by pure cinema, but of the highest kind.” Braced by Doyle’s self-evident glee with the
fruits of their labor, and the convincing “ reality” of the raw effects reel, O’Brien and Rothacker proceeded with their production of THE LOST WORLD, though the publicized stunt prompted a flurry of litigations. Prominent among the litigants was Herbert Dawley, who had covertly patented O’Brien’s articulated stop-motion model technol­ ogy one year after the release of THE GHOST OF SLUMBER MOUNTAIN. Notarized statements con­ cerning O’Brien’s earlier application of his stop- motion techniques prompted Dawley to settle out of court (principal photography of THE LOST WORLD began in the fall of 1923). Indeed, Dawley’s GHOST-related press releases claimed that the film’s dinosaurs had been full-sized
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recreations, silly ballyhoo based in part upon Dawley’s own unsuccessful experiments with ani­ mating full-size construct saurians prior to his association with O’Brien.1 In subsequent years—despite the refinements
and innovations of O’Brien’s own subsequent work in KING KONG (1933), and that of successors like Ray Harryhausen—the reputation of O’Brien’s accomplishments for THE LOST WORLD attained mythic stature. In his 1959 book CLASSICS OF THE SILENT FILM, NYC talk show fixture Joe Franklin declared O’Brien’s dinosaurs the most realistic ever filmed, an opinion that was shared well into the 1960s. (Note that the late, great film historian William K. Everson reportedly “ghosted” Franklin’s book.) At least most film fans and historians ac­ curately reported on O’Brien’s effects techniques; among the most daft explanations proffered about O’Brien’s work was that of naturalist Ivan T. Sanderson, who noted that Obie’s saurians “were utterly realistic—close-ups of their heads showed drooling saliva, nictitating membranes, and flash­ ing eyes.” (Indeed, they do.) Sanderson’s matter- of-fact insights to how they were created, though, remain inadvertently hilarious: “ Incidentally, these ‘dinosaurs’ were wearing skillfully constructed ‘suits’ made by a man who had a degree in pale­ ontology, and were fitted over live chickens!”2 Fortunately, the bulk of O’Brien’s effects sur­
vived for future generations to enjoy, though the same cannot be said about THE LOST WORLD as a feature film. In 1929, with the silent era at an end, First National (by this time absorbed by Warner Bros.) and Watterson Rothacker’s wife Aileen (not, as previously noted in MacQueen’s notes, “his widow” ; Watterson was still very much alive at the time, his wife presumably represent­ ing his film rights for business and/or tax pur­ poses) agreed to withdraw THE LOST WORLD from theatrical distribution. The Rothackers were paid all due final profit shares and a generous settlement fee, while retaining remake rights. Warner Bros, quietly junked all remaining prints and the foreign negative, though Rothacker and Warners were to retain possession of the domes­ tic negative. Sadly, that negative disappeared, it’s eventual fate forever unknown. In July 1929, First National contracted with
Kodascope Libraries, Inc. to abridge the film for 16mm non-theatrical venues. As Scott MacQueen reports in his restoration notes: “A 35mm laven­ der positive print from the camera negative was edited to 5 reels [from the original 10 reels]. From that, a 35mm nitrate dupe negative was made for reduction printing 16mm safety film release
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