''A Florida Enchantment'' (1914) is a

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

directed by

Sidney Drew Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Drew were an American comedy team on stage and screen. The team initially consisted of Sidney Drew (August 28, 1863 – April 9, 1919) and his first wife Gladys Rankin (October 8, 1870 – January 9, 1914). After Gladys died in 19 ...

and released by the

Vitagraph Vitagraph Studios, also known as the Vitagraph Company of America, was a United States motion picture studio. It was founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, as the American Vitagraph Company. By 1907, ...

studio. The feature-length comedy/fantasy was shot in and around

St. Augustine, Florida St. Augustine ( ; es, San Agustín ) is a city in the Southeastern United States and the county seat of St. Johns County on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, it is the oldest continuously inhabi ...

, where its story is set. It is notable for its cross-dressing lead characters, much later discussed as

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whic ...

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

, and

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...

. The film is based on the 1891 novel and 1896 play (now lost) of the same name written by Fergus Redmond and

Archibald Clavering Gunter Archibald Clavering Gunter (25 October 1847 – 24 February 1907) was a British-American writer primarily known today for authoring the novel that the film ''A Florida Enchantment'' was based upon, and for his hand in popularizing "Casey at the B ...

Plot

In the film, Lillian Travers, a wealthy Northern woman about to be married, visits her aunt in Florida. While there, she stops in a curiosity shop and buys a small casket which contains a note and a vial of seeds. At her aunt's house she reads the note which explains that the seeds change men into women and vice versa. Angry with her fiancé, Fred, Lillian decides to test the effects of the seeds. The next morning, Lillian discovers that she has transformed into a man. Lillian's transformation into Lawrence Talbot has also sometimes been read as a transformation into a butch

. This reading is bolstered by the later transformation of Lillian's fiancé into what could be an effeminate

gay man ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

. However, as Lillian and her fiancé are shown attracted both to each other and to the same sex (albeit at different times), the film has also been considered to have the first documented appearance of bisexual characters in an American motion picture.

Cast

Edith Storey Edith Storey (March 18, 1892 – October 9, 1967) was an American actress during the silent film era. Early life Storey was born on March 18, 1892, in New York City to William Chase Storey and Minnie Storey (née Thorn). Her younger brother, R ...

- Lillian Travers/Lawrence Talbot *

- Dr. Frederick Cassadene * Ethel Lloyd - Jane *

Grace Stevens Grace may refer to: Places United States * Grace, Idaho, a city * Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois * Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office * Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uni ...

- Constancia Oglethorpe * Charles Kent - Major Horton * Jane Morrow (screen name for Lucille McVey, aka Mrs. Sidney Drew) - Bessie Horton * Ada Gifford - Stella Lovejoy *

Lillian Burns Lillian or Lilian can refer to: People * Lillian (name) or Lilian, a given name Places * Lilian, Iran, a village in Markazi Province, Iran In the United States * Lillian, Alabama * Lillian, West Virginia * Lillian Township, Custer County, N ...

- Malvina * Allan Campbell - Stockton Remington *

Cortland van Deusen Cortland may refer to: Places In space * 27776 Cortland, an asteroid United States * Cortland, Illinois, a town * Cortland, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Cortland, Nebraska, a village * Cortland, New York, a city * Cortland, Ohio, a c ...

- Charley Wilkes *Frank O'Neil - Gustavus Duncan

Production background

The film includes white actors in

blackface Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...

, an aspect carefully dissected in Siobhan B. Somerville's book ''Queering the Color Line Race and the Invention of Homosexuality in American Culture'' (Duke University Press, 2000). Since its inclusion in

Vito Russo Vito Russo (July 11, 1946 – November 7, 1990) was an American LGBT activist, film historian, and author. He is best remembered as the author of the book '' The Celluloid Closet'' (1981, revised edition 1987), described in ''The New York Tim ...

's 1981 book ''The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies'' and the documentary film adaptation, ''

The Celluloid Closet ''The Celluloid Closet'' is a 1995 American documentary film directed and written by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. The film is based on Vito Russo's 1981 book ''The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies'', and on lecture and film clip ...

'' (Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, 1995), ''A Florida Enchantment'' has been seen as one of the earliest screen representations of

homosexuality Homosexuality is Romance (love), romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romant ...

and

cross-dressing Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes usually worn by a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and self-express oneself. Cross-dressing has play ...

in American culture.

In Popular Culture

The film is a central element of the 2020 novel ''

Antkind ''Antkind'' is the 2020 debut novel of American screenwriter and film director Charlie Kaufman. Kaufman said in 2016 that the novel was being written so as to be unfilmable, and is itself about "an impossible movie." Synopsis Neurotic failed ...

'' by Charlie Kaufman.Charlie Kaufman's Debut Novel Reveals His Genius Has Its Limits
("The novel's premise has B traveling to St. Augustine, Florida, to research an obscure silent film about a gender-bending couple. (The movie, ''A Florida Enchantment'', is real.)"). Retrieved February 28, 2021.

References

External links

* Video file of ''A Florida Enchantment'' is downloadable at the Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/a-florida-enchantment-1914. The Vitagraph motion picture is in the public domain. * 1914 films American silent feature films American LGBT-related films American black-and-white films 1914 comedy films Vitagraph Studios films Films based on American novels American films based on plays Films set in Florida Films based on adaptations Silent American comedy films 1910s LGBT-related films Blackface minstrel shows and films 1910s American films {{1910s-comedy-film-stub