Dayton Flood Disaster- 1913

The Great Flood of 1913 is forgotten by most of the world and probably little known in the areas affected by the disaster.  While the destruction began in Nebraska, where over 100 people were killed by several powerful tornadoes, Ohio suffered the most, with over 500 dead, hundreds more missing, and property damage of at least several billion in today's dollar.  A majority of the deaths and damage was in one city: Dayton.

After an estimated 10 inches of rain fell in a few days, levees around the city failed and flooded the city under upwards of 20 feet of water.  This was on March 25th, a Tuesday.  By the 27th,  relief trains were able to enter the area.  On these trains came several film crews, among them an Essany group, who were in the region recording the damage from the Nebraska tornadoes from a few days earlier, and another from Toledo, the American Feature Film Company, headed by Nelson Evans.

The American Feature Film Company was not a film producer, but an exchange.  It seems odd for a company that dealt exclusively in the distribution of foreign feature films (more on the business in a later post) to produce a one reel picture on a local event, but Evans was an astute businessman and knew what exhibitors and the public wanted.

In the April 1913 issue of Moving Picture World, Evans tells of making the film Dayton Flood Disaster.  They arrived in the city on the 27th as the water was receding.  Because of that, no film crew was able to capture footage of rescues; Evans warns exhibitors that any film showing rescues are fakes (one film available on YouTube does indeed show people being rescued, but it is clearly from a different source than the footage in the film showing the aftermath of the flooding).  Evans also touted the editing of his film, stating that he had "cut out all superfluous matter in the film, and that every foot will be interesting and full of action."  Also in the same issue is a full page ad for the film.

Does the film still exist?  Possibly.  A few years ago someone in northwest Ohio found one of the films on the flood in their attic.  Considering it was found in or near Toledo, it is possible that it is Evans' film.  Unfortunately, the copy on YouTube is missing it's title.  In any case, if it is not his film, it at least gives an idea of what the film would have been like.  (And I apologize for subjecting anyone to the ineptitude of the person who made this copy.  Be warned that viewing this will be occasionally frustrating and may lead you to yell at your computer screen.)