06.06.2006
When Nordisk Film killed lions
Ole Olsen’s silent movie “Lion Hunting” from 1907 was not only a blockbuster, it created also a lot of publicity in the media and various associations for the prevention of cruelty to animals both in Denmark and abroad.
In the summer of 1907 Ole Olsen shut “Lion Hunting” at the little Island, Elleore, in Roskilde Fjord. The movie was about two big-game hunters and their black waiter, who kill two lions at the African savannah. For that occasion Elleore was decorated with artificial palms and Ole Olsen bought two moth eaten lions in Germany. However, objections from a local society for the prevention of cruelty to animals resulted in a ban on the shootings, but nevertheless Ole Olsen carried out the shootings as planned. Afterwards they were smuggled to Sweden, where the film launched in 1907. In Denmark the movie was banned, but in 1908 the ban was cancelled and “Lion Hunting” was launched in Denmark in 1908. It became an enormous blockbuster, not only because of the publicity in the media.
