Oz Film Company (United States)

### Background

Founded in 1914, Oz Film Company, also known as The Oz Film Manufacturing Company, produced silent films based on L. Frank Baum's books, most notably the *Oz* series. Every single one of them bombed commercially. The movies they made had various colors and custom themes playing over it, like silent films traditionally do.

In 1915, the company would be absorbed into Metro Pictures (now Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer). Only four of their films are known to survive: *The Patchwork Girl of Oz*, *His Majesty the Scarecrow of Oz, The Magic Cloak of Oz* and *The Last Egyptian*, the last of which is only partially found.

(September 28, 1914-1915)

Nicknames: "Princess Ozma", "Oz Lady of Doom," "The first Scary Logo", "VID's Granny", "VID/BИD Has an Older Sister", "The Grandmother of All Nightmare Logos", "V for Vivian"

Visuals:

* Opening: On a black background, Princess Ozma from the book series (played by Vivian Reed in *The Patchwork Girl of Oz* or Violet Macmillan in *His Majesty the Scarecrow of Oz*, see "Trivia") wearing two flowers and a crown-like object on her forehead with a Z inside a circle (supposed to represent the company name) with a few loose curls hanging down fades in. She looks around the screen and smiles. No obvious indication of the name of the company is shown; it only appears in the title card of the movie.
* Closing: Essentially just Ozma looking around the screen for about four seconds.

Trivia:

* The women in these logos are Vivian Reed (1894-1989) in the normal, orange, magenta/purple, red and yellow variants, and Violet Macmillan (1887-1953) in the green variant and all of the close - up variants. Both were American actresses of the silent era and had acted in all of the Oz Film Manufacturing Company's films. Vivian appeared in 36 films between 1914 and 1938; Violet had made 26 motion pictures. For these logos, both women only wore black clothes so that only their faces were visible. Vivian appears in the opening logo for *The Patchwork Girl of Oz*; Violet appears in the closing logo for *The Patchwork Girl of Oz* and the opening and closing logos of *His Majesty the Scarecrow of Oz*.
* The usage of dark clothes on Vivian and Violet to make only their faces visible predates chroma-key technology, which would be created years later.
* This logo is not seen on *The Magic Cloak of Oz*.
* Several print versions of the logo exist, most frequently appearing on promotional posters for movies from Oz Films; one stylised version was even used in an official letter from L. Frank Baum himself.

Variants:

* The logos, including the films, have been shown in gray, red, yellow, blue, green, and purple tones.
* The logo has also featured Ozma's head in a close-up, to the point where her head almost covers the entire screen. Her loose curls are also missing.
* The logo may, at times, simply cut in, with the fade-in effect being removed.
* There is a variant where Ozma's clothes are shown briefly.
* There is a title card variant where the company name is shown below Ozma's head. This is only seen on *The Patchwork Girl of Oz*.

Technique: Live-action.

Cheesy Factor: There is no text, so this barely qualifies as a logo. It is also very old, as evidenced by the scratchy prints.

Audio: None for the close-up variant; the regular variant may use a custom opening/closing theme on some films.

Availability: Only seen on *The Patchwork Girl of Oz* and *His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz*, with the rest having been decomposed or lost.

Scare Factor: Depends on the variant:

* Original Version: Medium to nightmare. The rather cold, lifeless, thousand-yard stare of Vivian may freak some people out. The music that accompanies the logo or the silence may also add to the scare factor, along with the old film scratches.
* Short Variant: Medium to high. Vivian is still creepy, but this variant is only four seconds long.
* Close-up Variant: High to nightmare. The "in-your-face" style of the logo is bound to scare many unsuspecting viewers that were expecting the normal variant, not to mention that this variant is usually silent.