Making Moving Pictures Locally
This yet-to-be-released film, “The Painting,” filmed in November of 2000, is the most recent movie to be made in Johnson County, but filmmaking in the county has a much earlier history. The Overland Park Film manufacturing Company was established in Overland Park in 1916 with a $200,000 charter. The company was established at William Strang’s Aviation Field on 90 acres with five buildings. Strang was forced to sell the field in 1916 to raise needed capital. The announcement of the sale was reported in the April 23, 1916, issue of the Kansas City Star, but news of the endeavor was first reported by the Olathe Mirror on January 6. That report stated “that a Frenchman was flirting with Overland Park capitalists, many of them farmers, for the location of a “Universal City.” Strang’s actual involvement in the movie company is unclear, but it is known that he did produce one of the first films.
Waiting at the Church starred a number of Overland Park residents and one of the famed Strang Line Interurban cars. The film was shot along parts of the Strang Line between Olathe and Kansas City. The silent picture was a comedy in which a groom was attempting to make it to the church on time for his wedding. After his automobile ran out of gas and then a railway handcar malfunctioned, the entire wedding party boarded a Strang Line car and made it to the church on time. The film was shown in Kansas City venues for the price of 25 cents and also at Strang Hall with reports that it “proved to be quite interesting to all who saw” it.
Another early film involved aviation as a theme. A young pilot’s plane caught fire and he was rescued from the plane by two Red Cross nurses. The company also promoted their services to families. They were advertised as “private reels [which would be] ordered by families to preserve the home circle in characteristics home life.” No evidence exists that any families purchased such services, and the dream of making Overland Park a “movie city that would rival California and New York” was never realized. The Overland Park Film Manufacturing Company went bankrupt in the early 1920s.
--ALBUM vol. 14, no. 3 (summer 2001)