Cottingly Fairies

Remember this movie? It has to be one of my favourite of all time. Call me totally out of it, but it took me up till three years ago to realize that it was actually based on a true story, even though it says on the video "A true story" blah blah blah...

So, if you don't know the story, there were five photographs taken by Elsie Wright, 16, and Frances Griffiths, 10, cousins who lives in Cottingly, England. The first two were taken in 1917. The photos caught the attention of the media, so there was all thiss buzz going round as to whether they were genuine or not. This had all calmed down by 1921, 'cause, y'know, after a couple of months, no one cares about what was in the papers oh so long ago. Then in 1966 the Daily Express traced Elsie, who left open that she believed she photographed her thoughts. This caused a big media kerfuffle once again, until the early 1980's when the girls both admitted that the photographs they had taken were done using cardboard cutouts of faries copied from a childrens book. However, Frances went on to claim that the fith photo taken, the one with niether of the girls in it, was genuine.

First photo, taken by Elsie Wright, is of Frances Griffiths surrounded by fairies

Second photo is of Elsie with a foot tall Gnome

Third photo, of Frances

Fourth photo, of Elsie

The fith photograph, which Frances claimed to have been genuine, however, Elsie said that it was a fake, along with the rest. Both claimed to have taken the photo.

Genuine, or another fake?