Romola Remus

Romola Remus Dunlap (April 7, 1900 – February 17, 1987) was an American actress who was the first to play Dorothy Gale in film,

Silent film career L. Frank Baum surrounded by the characters in The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays

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.

Later years

Following her work in silent films, she became a vaudeville performer and an instructor of dance and music. In the last dozen years of her life, she was an organist at Chicago's 12th Church of Christ Scientist.

In 1984, Remus appeared at the 28th annual "Ozmopolitan" fan convention, organized by The International Wizard of Oz Club, where she sang several songs, including "I Was a Flora Dora Baby", originally popularized by Fanny Brice in the Ziegfeld Follies. She also appeared in the 1985 Public Broadcasting System documentary The Whimsical World of Oz, which was released at the same time as the Walt Disney theatrical film Return to Oz.

She died in a Chicago hospital on February 17, 1987.