Dancing Flowers [2025 Preservation Print]
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A stop-motion film of primroses dancing to a Strauss waltz. According to John Ott's autobiography, My Ivory Cellar: The Story of Time-Lapse Photography, this film was conceived one evening when he "dreamed up a wild idea of controlling the light, temperature and moisture to make the leaves of the plants move in different directions."
Credits
John Nash Ott Jr. (filmmaker)
Complete catalog record
Date: circa 1941
Cfa collection: John Nash Ott Collection
Notes: Dancing Flowers begins with a closeup of an anthropomorphized potted primrose plant whose leaves rise and fall synchronously to the rhythm of the waltz, “Rosen aus dem Süden” (Roses from the South), composed by Johann Strauss II. After several seconds, the plant appears on stage and is soon joined by nine other primroses that form a ballet chorus line. The film culminates as the first primrose’s pot spins feverishly, they all take a bow, and the curtains close.; John Ott made this film over the course of five years while he was an officer at First National Bank of Chicago in the early 1940s. In order to control the movements of the flowers, Ott created special flower pots with automated heating elements, water tubes, and wheels. The heating elements were turned on at the proper time to wilt the leaves down, then the plants were given just the right amount of water to revive them again. A battery of lights was programmed to attract the leaves from side to side. The pots were pulled around on a track at a speed of about one half inch per hour.; The beginning closeup shot also served as the opening and closing title sequence for Ott's weekly televised program, How Does Your Garden Grow?
Subjects: Flowers; Dance; Ballet; Plants; Performances
Places: North America > United States > Illinois > Winnetka
Language: English
Film notes: This 16mm preservation print was made in 2025, thanks to a Basic Preservation Grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
Cfa elements: Preservation print, 98 feet
Cfa records: https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objects/43266
Cfa collection: John Nash Ott Collection
Notes: Dancing Flowers begins with a closeup of an anthropomorphized potted primrose plant whose leaves rise and fall synchronously to the rhythm of the waltz, “Rosen aus dem Süden” (Roses from the South), composed by Johann Strauss II. After several seconds, the plant appears on stage and is soon joined by nine other primroses that form a ballet chorus line. The film culminates as the first primrose’s pot spins feverishly, they all take a bow, and the curtains close.; John Ott made this film over the course of five years while he was an officer at First National Bank of Chicago in the early 1940s. In order to control the movements of the flowers, Ott created special flower pots with automated heating elements, water tubes, and wheels. The heating elements were turned on at the proper time to wilt the leaves down, then the plants were given just the right amount of water to revive them again. A battery of lights was programmed to attract the leaves from side to side. The pots were pulled around on a track at a speed of about one half inch per hour.; The beginning closeup shot also served as the opening and closing title sequence for Ott's weekly televised program, How Does Your Garden Grow?
Subjects: Flowers; Dance; Ballet; Plants; Performances
Places: North America > United States > Illinois > Winnetka
Language: English
Film notes: This 16mm preservation print was made in 2025, thanks to a Basic Preservation Grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
Cfa elements: Preservation print, 98 feet
Cfa records: https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objects/43266
Sources
- Chicago Film Archives · record ↗ — title, year, creator, format, color, sound, genre, description, credits, catalog record, video
Record added 2026-11-08 21:25:25