Frank Brinton was the son of a wealthy Iowa farmer, who also built a number of early airships in the 1890’s. He traveled the Midwest from 1879 to 1915 with his wife Indiana, first showing their pre-cinematic magic lantern slides. Since 1895, they were among the first to show moving images in the US.
Michael Zahs, a retired teacher, discovered their fabulous magic lantern slide and film collection in 1981 in the basement of their old house. Part of the collection was preserved by the American Film Institute in the early 1980’s and deposited at the Library of Congress. The rest of the collection is being preserved today with the funding from Special Collections, the University of Iowa Library.
In 2014, Serge Bromberg identified a lost George Méliès film in dreadful condition among the treasures of the Brinton Collection. Bouquet d’illusions was restored at Lobster Films laboratories in 2016, and is presented in Bologna in official world premiere.