Romola Remus

Romola Remus
Romola Remus (rear center) and other cast members in 1908
Born	(1900-04-07)April 7, 1900
Died	February 17, 1987(1987-02-17) (aged 86)
Occupation	Stage and film actress

Romola Remus Dunlap (April 7, 1900 – February 17, 1987) was an American actress who was the first to play Dorothy Gale in film, in the 1908 multimedia stage/film production The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays, an adaptation of the Oz books. She worked directly with author L. Frank Baum, the creator of the character.

Remus was the daughter of the highly successful bootlegger George Remus and his first wife Lillian Klauff Remus. Her father, a pharmacist, later became a successful criminal defense lawyer in Chicago and a bootlegger in Cincinnati.

The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays was produced by the Selig Polyscope Company in Chicago, and Remus was paid $5.00 per day for her performance. Remus was cast in the film by L. Frank Baum himself.

After the film was completed, Remus and other cast members toured with L. Frank Baum. "Mr. Baum himself took the film on the road and narrated the story onstage," Remus said. "There was an orchestra and we stood offstage, singing occasionally. . . . I remember that after the film, I would come onstage to take a bow and then go to the back of the theater and sell the Oz books" Remus recalled.

Remus also appeared in other early silent films, including Mary: Ten Nights in a Bar Room and The Four-Footed Hero. When Chicago's film studios relocated to Hollywood, her parents decided that she should stay in Chicago, and her film career ended.

In 1918, her parents separated, and later divorced. Her father married Imogene Holmes, and relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio. Romola Remus was devoted to her father. In Cincinnati, he began defending accused bootleggers, and later became a successful bootlegger himself, acquiring control of the Fleischmann Company distillery. In 1925, George Remus was convicted of violating the Volstead Act and spent two years in federal prison. During that time, his wife began an affair with Franklin Dodge, a government agent. Upon his release from prison, George Remus shot and killed his estranged wife. He was prosecuted for murder, but acquitted on the basis of temporary insanity. Romola Remus was at his side in the courtroom constantly during his trial, and took a job as a cabaret singer to help pay his legal bills.