[Scene: Cincinnati — Winter, 1917]
Snow sticks in patches along the cobblestones. Streetlamps glow dim amber in the fog. Tyrone D. Jennings, coat collar turned up, hustles down a narrow alley toward the back entrance of the Grand Savoy Theater. Inside, the orchestra is tuning up for a silent picture, and Tyrone has a camera case clutched under his arm.
Tyrone (narration, older voice):
"That winter, I was just a kid with a camera and a dream. Sixteen years old, running reels for a dime and sneaking into projection booths. I didn't know yet that film wasn't just a way to make a living — it was the way I was gonna change my whole world."
[Backstage]
Stagehand: "Jennings! You're late — the reels need to be switched in twenty minutes."
Tyrone: "Then I got nineteen to check the light levels." (grins, setting his camera down.
The reel change goes smoothly. After the show, Tyrone sticks around to talk to an older projectionist named Mr. Lanning, who teaches him how to splice film without visible seams.
Mr. Lanning: "You got a knack, kid. But you gotta think bigger than running pictures for other men."
Tyrone: "I plan to. Someday, folks will pay to see my name before the title."
[Interview clip — 1984, Galaxy Studios Archive]
Film historian: "1917 was the year Tyrone started experimenting with hand-painted title cards and double exposures. Those early tricks — nobody was doing them in Cincinnati."
Tatiana Jennings (daughter): "He told me once, 'If you can make a picture magical with no sound, you can make it magical with anything.' That was his whole philosophy."
[Scene: Tyrone's family kitchen, Spring 1917]
His mother is scrubbing laundry, while Tyrone sketches a rough storyboard for The Lady from the Old Sea in a notebook.
Mother: "Don't you think about college like your brother? This movie business… it's just flickers."
Tyrone: "And jazz is just noise to some people, Ma. But it's the future. I can feel it."
[Interview clip — 1979, Cincinnati Gazette]
Old neighbor, Mrs. Calloway: "He was always drawing, always carrying that camera. Once he filmed my cat chasing laundry in the yard. Said it was for a 'test scene.' I thought he was touched in the head."
[Scene: July 4th, 1917 — Riverside Park]
Tyrone hauls his tripod and camera into the park to film the Independence Day festivities. He captures the parade, soldiers preparing to leave for Europe, and children waving flags. He experiments by placing a mirror in front of the lens to double the image — a technique that would later be recognized as his "vision mirror shot."
[Interview clip — 1990s documentary, The World of Tyrone D. Jennings]
Stan Lee: "He had that thing — y'know, he could make a street corner feel like the center of the universe. I think that's why people connected to his comics later. He could take the ordinary and make it larger than life."
[Scene: Late autumn, 1917 — Projection Room]
Tyrone screens a two-minute test film for Mr. Lanning — his first real edited sequence. It's a dreamy, slightly surreal montage of a girl walking down a foggy dock, looking over her shoulder as if something's following her.
Mr. Lanning: "Kid, that… that's something."
Tyrone: "I'm calling it The Lady from the Old Sea. I'm gonna make it longer."
Mr. Lanning: "You got no actors, no budget—"
Tyrone: "I'll find 'em. Or I'll make do."
[Closing narration — Older Tyrone voice]
"That was the first time I felt it — that spark in my gut that said, 'You can build a whole world out of nothing but light and shadows.' 1917 wasn't the year I made my fortune. But it was the year I knew I'd die trying."
[Scene: Tyrone's attic room, Winter night, 1917]
A bare bulb swings from the ceiling, casting shadows across the walls covered in taped-up scraps of film, penciled storyboards, and newspaper clippings about movies and boxing matches. Tyrone sits at his desk, scribbling in a worn leather notebook.
Older Tyrone (narration):
"Dreams are cheap. Film's expensive. Every frame was a gamble in those days — and I was all in."
He pauses his writing to polish the lens of his camera — a battered hand-me-down — before carefully tucking it under his bed as if it's a sleeping child.
[Flash-forward Interview — 1986, Galaxy Studios Anniversary Special]
Tatiana Jennings: "Dad always kept that first camera. Said it reminded him that genius doesn't start with the best tools — it starts with the guts to use whatever you've got."
[Scene: November, 1917 — Riverside Warehouse District]
Tyrone has convinced three neighborhood kids to help him film a chase scene for The Lady from the Old Sea. The "villain" is played by his friend Eddie, wearing a floppy hat two sizes too big. They dash between crates, with Tyrone perched on a stack filming from above.
Eddie: "Tyrone, this thing's heavy — can we stop now?"
Tyrone: "No! Run past the barrel one more time, but this time — look scared, like you just saw God wink at you!"
(They laugh, but do it again.)
[Interview — 1974, Cincinnati Herald]
Eddie Thompson: "He was bossy, even then. But in a good way. You wanted to see what he saw. You felt lucky just being part of it."
[Scene: December 24th, 1917 — Jennings Family Home]
The living room smells of pine and fresh bread. Tyrone's father sits reading the paper about the war in Europe. Tyrone slips a small package under the tree — inside, a single frame of film mounted in a paper holder.
Mother: "What's this?"
Tyrone: "It's my Christmas gift to all of you. Proof that someday, my pictures will be up there on the big screen for the whole world to see."
[Flash-forward Interview — 1991, Legends of the Golden Reel documentary]
Tatiana: "We still have that frame. It's in the Galaxy Studios vault. Dad said it was his promise — not just to his family, but to himself."
[Scene: Tyrone walking home through snow, late night, 1917]
Streetlamps turn the snow into falling gold dust. Tyrone looks up at the dark sky, camera case slung over his shoulder.
Older Tyrone (narration):
"Everyone else saw Cincinnati. I saw the opening credits of my life."