The Thomas Alva Edison Game

[Speck Tater]

While waiting for the TV to clear of RR coverage, I cooked up this worthless idea (see also The 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon):

The Edison Index, or the degrees of Kevin Bacon stretched back to the beginning of time.

On October 17, 1888 Thomas Alva Edison went on record with the U.S. Patent office by filing this statement: "I am experimenting upon an instrument which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear, which is the recording and reproduction of things in motion ...."

In December of 1892 Edison opened the first motion picture production studio in West Orange, New Jersey. This marks year zero, or the beginning of time for the American film industry.

Every Hollywood personality can trace his or her lineage back to this movie studio through a chain of directors, producers, actors and actresses who have been involved in the production of each movie in the chain. The distance between a personality and Thomas Edison himself is that person's Edison Index.

For example: Frank Oz index = 6 movies named

Frank Oz directed The Score (2001) with Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando in A countess from Hong Kong (1967) directed by Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin in Mabel's Married Life (1914) with Mabel Normand
Mabel Normand in Over the Garden Wall (1910) with Maurice Costello (Grandfather of Drew Barrymore)
Maurice Costello in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1905) directed by J. Stuart Blackton
Stuart J. Blackton in Blackton Sketches No. 2 (1896) Produced by Thomas A. Edison

Now try Rachael Leigh Cook :)

[Speck Tater]

1. Too hard, or just too boring?

This is the best I've come up with so far for Rachael Leigh Cook:

Cook, Rachael Leigh <7> in The Eighteenth Angel with Christopher McDonald <6>
McDonald, Christopher <6> in The Faculty with Elijah Wood <5>
Wood, Elijah <5> in Deep Impact with Leelee Sobieski <4>
Sobieski, Leelee <4> in Never Been Kissed with Drew Barrymore <3>
Barrymore, Drew <3> Granddaughter of Maurice Costello <2>
Costello, Maurice <2> in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1905) directed by J. Stuart Blackton <1>
Blackton, Stuart J. <1> in Blackton Sketches No. 2 (1896) Produced by Thomas A. Edison <0>