The Photo-Drama of Creation

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General information
Part of a series on Bible Students
Bible Students
Bible Student movement
Communities
Associated Bible Students Free Bible Students Layman's Home Missionary Movement
Publishing houses
Pastoral Bible Institute
Dawn Bible Students Association
Christian Millennial Fellowship
Publications
The Dawn · The Herald The New Creation Frank and Ernest (broadcast) Studies in the Scriptures The Photo-Drama of Creation
Biographies
Charles Taze Russell Paul S. L. Johnson· William Miller Nelson H. Barbour · Jonas Wendell
Beliefs
Jehovah · Nontrinitarianism · Ransom Dispensationalism · Sheol and Hades Resurrection · Annihilationism
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The Photo-Drama of Creation, or Creation-Drama was a religious film (4 parts, altogether 8 hours) produced under the direction of Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Bible Student movement. Production began as early as 1912, and the Drama was introduced in 1914 by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. It has the distinction of being the first major screenplay which incorporated synchronized sound, moving film, and color slides. A book by the same name was also published in 1914 and contained representative slide images with a page of accompanying text to explain the chronological progression of God's plan from the creation of the earth through to the end of the 1,000 year reign of Christ.

Combination shows of magic lantern slides and movies were common in this period, but the addition of recorded speech was unusual, and the sheer size of the distribution effort and the audience for a single religious production was extraordinary.

The premiere was in January 1914 in New York, in summer 1914 in Germany. In North America, Europe, New Zealand and Australia, over 9,000,000 people had already seen either the full "Photo-Drama" or its abbreviated version called the Eureka-Drama.