It was founded by L. Frank Baum (president), Louis F. Gottschalk (vice president), Harry Marston Haldeman (secretary),[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] and Clarence R. Rundel (treasurer) as an offshoot of Haldeman's social group, The Uplifters, which met at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
It was a critical but not a commercial success; even under a name change to Dramatic Feature Films, it was quickly forced to fold.
Among the major players at the company were Violet MacMillan, Frank Moore, Pierre Couderc, Juanita Hansen, Mai Wells, Raymond Russell, Todd Wright, Vivian Reed, and J. Charles Haydon, with animals portrayed by Fred Woodward, who had appeared in the stage version of The Wizard of Oz in 1902.
The prints currently circulating are based on two two-reelers of a British release, known as The Magic Cloak and The Witch Queen, and are missing a reel of material.
The ident for the Oz Film Manufacturing Company showed a smiling Princess Ozma staring into the camera, portrayed by Vivian Reed.
The Alliance program released a fourth feature, The Last Egyptian, from an exotic orientalist adventure novel that Baum had written but declined authorship credit for commercial reasons, in early December.
Each of these films depicted Violet's interaction with animals (played by Woodward), and magical opportunities to do things she is otherwise not allowed to do, such as visit a country circus prohibited to her because of her gender.
The Museum of Modern Art owns a worn copy that was used in Bill Morrison's Decasia, but it remains unreleased and is not part of their screening repertoire.
The nieces decide to establish their own film company for children, and Uncle John name-drops "Hans Andersen, Frank Baum, and Lewis Carroll" as among those whose fairy tales had already been adapted to the screen.