the blue bird preserved

A very rare film in its entirety. The Blue Bird is a 1918 film directed by Maurice Tourneur in the United States, under the auspices of producer Adolph Zukor. The story begins with two children, Tyltyl and Mytyl, whom are sent out by the fairy Bérylune into various lands to search for the bluebird of happiness. Returning home empty-handed, the children see that the bird has been in a cage in their home the whole time. Tyltyl later gives the bird as a present to a sick neighbor. However, the bird flies away and never returns. The moral is that happiness comes more from the journey than the reward and that happiness is fleeting.

The film was shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey when many early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based there at the beginning of the 20th century. In 2004, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.