arthur conan doyle the coming of the fairies

But the film takes the point of view that the photographs were genuine and that the fairies were real. This film ostensibly tells the 'true story' of the girls who photographed the 'Cottingley Fairies' in Yorkshire. The original photos, and the cameras the girls used to take them, are now in the National Media Museum in Bradford, England. Frances died in 1986, and Elsie died in 1988.

However, Frances insisted until her death that at least one of the 'fairy photos' was real. Elsie explained that they were too embarrassed to admit the truth about the photos after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the legendary creator of Sherlock Holmes, accepted them as genuine. Years later, as adults, the girls admitted they had faked the photos using cardboard cutouts of fairies taken from a children's book. The two girls never accepted any money for them, or tried to swindle anyone with their claims of fairy encounters. Several photographic experts examined them and pronounced them 'genuine,' while other photo experts found 'evidence of fakery.' (A few experts who examined the photos noted that the 'fairies' had 'Parisienne-style haircuts,' which were popular in the day.) In the end, no real harm came from the photos. Opinions over the authenticity of the photos were divided.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published the photos with an article on spiritualism in 'The Strand' Magazine in December 1920. (The woodland scenes in 'FairyTale: A True Story' are filmed in Cottingley Beck, the actual location where Frances and Elsie supposedly encountered the fairies in 1917.) The photographs became public in 1919 (not during World War I, as depicted in the film), when Elsie's mother gave the photos to Edward Gardner, President of the Theosophical Society of Bradford. Using Arthur Wright's camera, the girls took a series of pictures of themselves with fairies in the nearby woodland brook of Cottingley Beck. In the summer of 1917, Frances Griffiths (then ten years old) and her cousin Elsie Wright (then sixteen years old) were living with Elsie's parents in the town of Cottingley in West Yorkshire. The film is based on the true story of the Cottingley Fairies.

Arthur conan doyle the coming of the fairies