This film is based on a true story. The inventor of Vaseline, Robert Cheesebrough, began selling his product via street cart in New York in 1870. As he professes its miracle healing properties, we flash forward through time to see how his premonitions actually came true. It ends with the crowd in 1870 dispersing as they do not believe in his product or his claims. We then transition to modern day where we see his miracle product is still being used over 140 years later.

Robert Chesebrough is inventor as Vaudevillian, passionate and inspired to an almost religious fervor. He had to be played for truth, so a veteran stage and film actor was cast for the role. It was important that he could project his back story and you felt he spent years working on a product only he believed in, whilst also drawing you into his future vision.

The additional cast where strong actors with period-appropriate faces, a ruddy, seal-skinned explorer. Two professional boxers were cast for the fight. A prima ballerina from the Mexico city ballet played the ballerina. A young, innocent teenager played the soldier. The modern day woman was a young athlete, to give her just as much power and interest as the other characters.

We set out to make these historical depictions as accurate as possible. Having decided on the vignettes we wanted to use, we sourced the original Vaseline bottles from each era from Vaseline’s archives. From there, art department, production design and wardrobe played a huge role in truly transporting us through time. We started with re-creating the Brooklyn docklands in 1870. The details are all accurate to the time and the building of the unfinished Manhattan bridge sets us in that era. From there we move to Commander Robert Peary’s successful expedition to the North Pole; A Ballet dancer performing Diaghilev Stravinsky’s Firebird in the 1920s; A prize fight in Madison square garden in the 1940’s, and finally the Vietnam war. The film culminates in modern day Brooklyn where we see the Manhattan bridge is now complete.