Five cameramen were assigned by Charles Urban, who owned Natural Color Kinematograph Company, to film India's huge pageantry honoring the earlier coronation of England's King George V and Queen Mary in Delhi on December 12, 1911. The final color footage Urban collected, 22 segments in all, premiered at the Scala Theater in London on February 2, 1912.
The program with all the combined segments shown back to back clocked over two hours. A 48-piece orchestra with a chorus of 24 singers, a 20-musician fife and drum corps and 3 bagpipers accompanied this extravaganza. The promoters constructed a fake Taj Majal on the stage. Additionally, there was a narrative of each segment read by the theater manager. King George personally attended a May 11, 1912 performance at the Scala Theater, with Empress Maria of Russia at his side. She was so bowled over by the presentation she wrote a letter to her son Nicholas II in excited terms.
"With The King And Queen Through India" is considered the first color blockbuster movie in cinematic history.
Despite the popularity of the series and the long combination of the 22 segments, today there are only two reels that have survived showing the Indian spectacular. But the brief glimpses of the Kinemacolor prints show how audiences could have been moved by such a unique experience captured by Urban's crew half way around the world.
The program with all the combined segments shown back to back clocked over two hours. A 48-piece orchestra with a chorus of 24 singers, a 20-musician fife and drum corps and 3 bagpipers accompanied this extravaganza. The promoters constructed a fake Taj Majal on the stage. Additionally, there was a narrative of each segment read by the theater manager. King George personally attended a May 11, 1912 performance at the Scala Theater, with Empress Maria of Russia at his side. She was so bowled over by the presentation she wrote a letter to her son Nicholas II in excited terms.
"With The King And Queen Through India" is considered the first color blockbuster movie in cinematic history.
Despite the popularity of the series and the long combination of the 22 segments, today there are only two reels that have survived showing the Indian spectacular. But the brief glimpses of the Kinemacolor prints show how audiences could have been moved by such a unique experience captured by Urban's crew half way around the world.
