The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}

{{Italic title}}

{{Infobox film

| name = The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man

| director = Ron Rice

| starring = {{Plainlist|

}}

| distributor = The Film-Makers' Cooperative

| released = {{Film date|1963}}

| runtime = 109 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

}}

The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man is a 1963 American experimental film directed by Ron Rice.[https://www.loc.gov/item/jots.200156787 Library of Congress] It stars Winifred Bryan as the Queen of Sheba and Taylor Mead as the Atom Man. Featured players are Ron Rice, Julian Beck, Judith Malina, Jack Smith, and Jonas Mekas.

Summary

A violent but sincere protest against the industrial world, Atom Man (Mead) is a mischief maker (sometimes wearing a Chaplinesque bowler hat) who can be seen having fun with Vaseline and Ajax or wandering about in New York.

Production

Rice shot The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man on 16 mm film starting in 1962.{{cite magazine |last=Batten |first=Mary |year=1962 |title=Ron Rice & His Work |magazine=Film Comment |volume=1 |issue=3 |page=30 |jstor=43752660}} It was notable for recording Central Park, Grand Central Terminal and the New York waterfront of that era.[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/movies/film-series-in-nyc-this-week.html 5 Film Series to Catch in N.Y.C This Weekend - The New York Times] Scenes of the Atom Man were shot at the Union Carbide Building, where an exhibit on the "World of the Future" had models explaining atomic energy.{{cite book |last=Nieland |first=Justus |year=2019 |title=Happiness by Design: Modernism and Media in the Eames Era |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |pages=197–198 |isbn=978-1-5179-0205-6}}

Rice put together a rough cut of the film. At a 1963 benefit to raise funds, he screened over 100 minutes of a purported 3 hours total.{{cite book |last=Renan |first=Sheldon |author-link=Sheldon Renan |title=An Introduction to the American Underground Film |year=1967 |publisher=E. P. Dutton & Co. |pages=175–178 |isbn=978-0-525-47207-0}} Rice died before the editing was complete, so Anthology Film Archives commissioned Mead to finish the film in the early 1980s. The film was restored by Anthology in 2018. {{Cite web|url=https://lightboxfilmcenter.org/programs/the-queen-of-sheba-meets-atom-man|title=The Queen of Sheba Meets Atom Man}}

References

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