The Age of Ballyhoo

A short documentary about the making of D. W. Griffith's controversial 'The Birth of a Nation'.

Raymond Rohauer, an exhibitor and collector, claimed copyright ownership to every film that entered his collection-- and many that didn't. In 1970, film preservationist David Shepard decided to poke fun by making "RAYMOND ROHAUER presents The Sneeze", a biting parody of Rohauer's extravagant assertions via the use of Edison Studios' 1894 film. Imitating the "Rohauer style" of long descriptive title cards, one including the not-so-unfeasible claim: "Recently, persevering Film Archivist RAYMOND ROHAUER secured the Estate of Thomas A. Edison and so acquired exclusive world rights in perpetuity to all motion picture films produced with sprocket holes". The Sneeze itself takes up eight seconds at the end of the film-- itself broken up by title cards!