Otis Turner

Biography

A Hoosier farm boy who learned to spin stories before he could spell “camera,” Otis Turner left Fairfield, Indiana, on 29 November 1862 and never stopped moving. By 1908 he was conjuring cinema’s first Technicolor dream, *The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays*, a part-live, part-celluloid carnival that had children rushing the screen to touch emerald fairies. Seven years later he locked audiences inside *The Black Box* (1915), a sci-fi cliffhanger that cracked open the serial craze, then chased it with the racing comedy *Get the Boy* (1916). Between shoots he stole moments with actress Etta French, the woman who became his off-screen co-star until death rolled the final reel in Los Angeles on 28 March 1918.