My Dad's rare "Photo Drama Of Creation" -- given to Watchtower Bethel

Quotes

Up until October 18th, 2004, my (elder in good standing who generally talks to me almost never) father had a copy of the original "Photo Drama Of Creation".

For those of you not familiar with it, the "Photo Drama Of Creation" was a multimedia experience from the turn of the century, combining (hand painted?) glass slides with phonograph records resulting in an audio/video presentation years before "talkies". I think this is mentioned in the Proclaimers book. (Blondie, please feel free to elaborate).

Sometime in teh 1970s, my dad came into possession of a (complete?) set of the glass slides, which were stored in several large custom cases. I believe some Brother(tm) was moving out west and couldn't take them with him, and somehow my dad got possession of them. I think the collection also contained a written copy of the script, although he did not have the actual audio recording (phonograph) discs.

He had converted some of the slides to 35mm, edited the script, recorded his script to cassette tape, and made his own "Photo Drama" (nowadays I guess we would call it a "REMIXED" version). Note only "some" slides could be used because some of the pics had the "cross and crown", others showed Jesus on a cross (gadzooks!), some showed angels with wings (horrors!), there was probably even some pictures of the Great Pyramid (yikes!). So he had to edit it down to include only those items that were consistent with New Light(tm).

He was quite proud of his work, and showed it to many local congregations in the late 1970s or early 1980s (if I remember the time period correctly). Those congregations were (I think genuinely) thrilled to have something different from the normal routine. Unfortunately, after a while, he didn't seem to show it to any congregations any more. I don't know why, but I suspect it became "verbotten" because it wasn't on the list of "approved" Sunday talks supplied by the Watchtower Society(tm).

I would have loved to add some of these truly rare images to the Watchtower Quotes web site. I was biding my time, waiting for the day when I would have the opportunity to borrow the "Photo Drama" and make it available to a World Wide Audience in a way that C.T. Russell never imagined.

Now, that opportunity will never come.

On Monday, October 18th, my parents drove approx 3 hours from their home to "Watch Tower of Canada" (i.e. Bethel Canada) and delivered the entire collection, even including Dad's own 35mm slides, to the Archives department.

I told him and my mother "I think that was a mistake. The Society(tm) is always saying they need money. You could have sold that for thousands of dollars (to another Brother/collector, or a University Religious Studies dept., or perhpas an early movie buff, didn't have to be apostates(tm)) and then donated some or all of the money to Watchtower. They don't need another copy of something they probably already have several times over taking up space, they need money".

Of course, what I was thinking was "I think that was a mistake. Another piece of truly unique and damning Watchtower history is lost into the information control and destruction machine.". Hey, not even Watchtower can retrieve and destroy every copy of the tens-of-thousands of copies of Studies In The Scriptures, but they just might be able to retrieve every copy of Photo Drama of Creation and make it disappear.

"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past" -- Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell

~Quotes, of the "Winston Smith" class

candidlynuts

thats terrible..

i remember seeing parts of it in the 70s at a kingdom hall. i think i lived in florida at the time but i cant be sure cuz i was a young girl at the time.

also i'm sure i seen one for sale on ebay not 2 weeks ago when i ordered my paradise book. (just checked i think what i seen was the book for sale not the slides)

http://www.biblestudents.org/absco/greatpyramid/index.htm has a gallery of the pics.

Quotes

Ebay, eh??????? Hhhhhhmmmmm......

I'm surprised ebay hasn't been outlawed by WT; it is such a great source of "old light(tm)".

Quotes

Regarding http://www.biblestudents.org/absco/greatpyramid/index.htm, I see a bunch of pics about the Great Pyramid, but I don't see any of the "Photo Drama". Am I missing something?

candidlynuts

no i posted the wrong link..... http://www.biblestudents.org/absco/photodrama/

click on any clickable part in the paragraphs and it takes you to other pictures as well as the ones shown on the main page.

sorry i'm internet challenged.

candidlynuts

http://www.biblestudents.org/absco/photodrama/pd0015b.htm

lucifer has a nice place..

Quotes

Hay, THANKS CN, that is a great find! I wouldn't call your internet challenged at all!

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lucifer has a nice place..
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Yup, it is entirely missing both fire and brimstone. Not suprising that WT would promote "Hell-Lite" with 1/3 the carbs but all the taste!

candidlynuts

did you find the pictures quotes? i know it doesnt have all 8 hours of slides but it had a few.

Quotes

Yes CN, I found them. I agree, I think it is missing some, but it is a start. I'll be adding a link from the Quotes web site.

Thanks again.

My Dad's rare "Photo Drama Of Creation" -- given to Watchtower Bethel

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