Serialized space: Chinatown iconography in Universal’s The Master Key

Abstract

ABSTRACT Late in 1914, Universal released The Master Key, a motion picture serial in 15 installments. Robert Z. Leonard directed and starred, and the project was marketed as the ‘most expensive serial yet’. The weekly film release was paralleled by a syndicated newspaper feuilleton, illustrated by stills from the motion pictures. Stills were also incorporated into an illustrated reissue of Fleming Wilson’s story, as well as in promotional materials, like illustrated ads and a 20-page poster stamp album published by the Wentz Printing Company. By way of a cross-media investigation of the (1914) serial The Master Key, this study contributes a case in point of how film stills circulated outside the movie theater. The film material has been reported lost, but some reels have been preserved at the Library of Congress. One of the preserved reels contains the episode set in San Francisco’s Chinatown. For this paper, various materials from The Master Key’s-cross media release have been acquired through online fan forums and collectible auctions. Following recent historical studies on film serials and the ”seriality” of stock characters, Chinatown scenes and the picturesque and efforts to write spatial film history, this paper argues that the proliferation of film images across media formats conceptualized The Master Key’s imagery of San Francisco Chinatown as a ”serialized” space, standardizing cinematic iconography in the public eye.