Today in History—May 21: America’s First Horror Movie Starred Jekyll and Hyde
On this day in 1908, some lucky audience members watched the first horror movie in American history.
For the bargain price of just one dime, viewers in Chicago were treated to a story that was—at least according to its advertising—“thrilling,” “marvelous,” “mystifying,” and “peculiar.” These seem like appropriate words to describe a film adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella about a doctor who separates the “good” and “evil” sides of his personality…to disastrous results.
There’s only one problem with the first American horror movie ever made: No one alive today has seen it.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, produced by the Selig Polyscope Company, is what we call a “lost film.” A lost film is one that only exists in incomplete forms—like clips, still images, ads, trailers, summaries, reviews, or bloopers.
This isn’t an issue unique to Jekyll and Hyde: The Library of Congress lists 7,200 lost American films created between 1912 and 1929.
A 1931 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde film was also almost lost—purposefully. MGM tried to destroy all copies before releasing its new version in 1941.
But even though the physical film reel is lost to time, newspaper clippings and press coverage tell us a lot about this historic moment in horror. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde made some big changes from Stevenson’s original text, instead taking inspiration from a stage play of the same name that had premiered in 1887. That play was a hit—and it allegedly depicted the transformation between good Jekyll and evil Hyde so convincingly that an audience member accused the lead actor of being Jack the Ripper. Sounds like the perfect inspiration for a monster movie.
This 1908 film sparked something of a Jekyll and Hyde renaissance: Six more versions of the story were released on film in the next four years. If you want to watch a Jekyll and Hyde story today, you have dozens of films—across the genres of horror, romance, comedy, and even musicals—to choose from.
You just can’t watch the original.
- 1 shilling: Cost to buy a copy of Stevenson’s book in 1886
- 3 days: Time it took Stevenson to write his first draft (allegedly)
- ~17 minutes: Maximum length of a single film reel
- 1881: Clara Barton founds the American Red Cross
- 1901: Connecticut passes the first motor speed limit laws (12 mph in town)
- 1932: Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic
