Terrible Teddy, the Grizzly King - 1901

Dance, Franchonetti Sisters - 1903

SUMMARY
Three young women with dark, curly hair stand on a stage with a black background and patterned carpet or tile underfoot. They wear tights, ballet shoes, and frilly dresses to the knee with multiple petticoats and ruffled drawers. They begin by raising their right legs up by their heads, and then perform a dance with a variety of kicks and leg movements, their hands either in the air or pulling up their skirts. The sisters also grab their right legs again and hop in a circle, then do cartwheels and land on the floor in the splits. Jumping back to their feet, the women twirl in circles and around each other in circles in what appears to be a type of pirouette, while holding up their skirts and showing their bloomers in a manner similar to the cancan.
From Biograph picture catalogue: 22 feet. The French quadrille dance by a popular team of vaudeville artists.
CREATED/PUBLISHED
United States: American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1903.
NOTES
Copyright: American Mutoscope & Biograph Co.; 24Apr1903; H30723.
Performers: Franchonetti Sisters.
Filmed in the Biograph New York City studio.
SUBJECTS
Quadrille (Dance)--United States.
Dance--United States.
Dancers--United States.
Silent films.
Dance.
Vaudeville.
Shorts.
RELATED NAMES
Franchonetti Sisters.
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company.
Paper Print Collection (Library of Congress)

A Wake in "Hell's Kitchen" - 1900

 SUMMARY
Takes place on a rather plain room set, with a single religious picture and a coat hanging from the plain, white walls. An open coffin sits in the center of the room, with its lid leaning against the back wall. An older, grey-haired woman--presumably the widow--stands holding a bunch of flowers to the left of the coffin, wailing and wiping away her tears with her apron. On the other side of the coffin sit two male mourners in three-piece suits, drinking beer. As the two men talk and light a pipe and the woman turns away in her grief, the occupant of the coffin--an older, balding man--sits up and looks around. He spies a large mug of beer to the side, picks it up, drinks all of the ale, and lies back down. When the woman places her flowers in the coffin, she notices the empty mug and questions the two mourners. The three engage in a heated argument, during which the ""corpse"" throws the flowers out of the coffin. Seeing this, the woman falls in a faint. In their hurry to get away, the two men knock over the coffin, spilling the supposed deceased on top of the woman.
From Biograph picture catalogue, Nov. 1902 [MI], p. 39: 30 feet. This scene is laid in the parlor of a New York tenement. Two watchers at the wake are smoking and drinking, while the widow is weeping over the coffin. The attention of the three is attracted for an instant, and the supposed corpse rises up, drinks all the beer in the pitcher which is standing on a table nearby, and lies down in the coffin again. The mourners return, and seeing that the beer is gone, engage in a controversy over it. During the scrap the corpse jumps out of the coffin and takes part in the melee.
CREATED/PUBLISHED
United States: American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, [1900?]
NOTES
Copyright: American Mutoscope & Biograph Co.; 12June1903; H32563.
Camera, Arthur Marvin.
Filmed July 26, 1900, on the roof of the Biograph New York City studio.
SUBJECTS
Wake services--New York (State)--New York--Drama.
Dead--Drama.
Death, Apparent--Drama.
Hell's Kitchen (New York, N.Y.)--Drama.
Coffins--New York (State)--New York--Drama.
Mourning customs--New York (State)--New York--Drama.
Drinking of alcoholic beverages--New York (State)--New York--Drama.
Beer--New York (State)--New York--Drama.
Silent films.
Comedies.
Vaudeville.
Shorts.
RELATED NAMES
Marvin, Arthur W., 1861-1911, camera.
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company.
Paper Print Collection (Library of Congress)

Old Man Drinking a Glass of Beer - 1897

Tom Green was a comedian and arranger of pantomime harlequinades at the Brighton Aquarium, where it is likely he ran into director G.A. Smith as he exhibited his early films. Smith employed Mr. and Mrs. Green to perform in his comedies at 10 shillings a time.
In this film, Green is on his own performing what is known as a 'facial', that is a piece direct to camera showing changing facial expressions. The ability to get close up to the star was a great advantage that film had over the stage and early filmmakers were keen to exploit it. Here Tom Green quaffs a glass of beer and gets progressively drunker and more leery. (Bryony Dixon)

The World's First Caterpillar Track (1908, UK)

(The only surviving materials of this title feature German intertitles).
Mud has defeated many a conquering army. In the days of horse-drawn transport or ponderous and hugely heavy steam-powered engines, R. Hornsby and Sons nippy little petrol-driven caterpillar track must have seemed like the technological development of the century.
In this promotional film, shot in Grantham, Lincolnshire and delivered by the company in a spirit of optimism reminiscent of an edition of 'Tomorrow's World', the little vehicle is put through its paces, making light of its load over clay, mud, soft sand, marshy land and streams. It leaves the horse-drawn load stuck in a bog, and ends the display turning gleefully on the spot in a celebration of manoeuvrability.
7 or 8 years later, could years of trench warfare have been shortened if the engineers had been encouraged by the British military? (Bryony Dixon)

Dreams of Toyland (1908, UK)

This is quite a creative little film, but it doesn't really go anywhere, At eight minutes long it has just four scenes; the first shows a small boy and his mother entering a toyshop where an attentive shopkeeper shows the excited boy a variety of toys. This scene seems to go on forever, and is unfortunately marred by the fact that the boy stares directly at the screen as if the director is issuing an instruction to him. Then, when mother and son leave the shop, people can be seen peeping from neighbouring shop doorways. The following scene shows the boy being put to bed and we are immediately shown the dream he has about all the toys his mother has bought for him. It has to be said that this kid seems to have some kind of anger management issues judging by the things the residents of Toyland get up to in his dream. Golliwogs and bears wrestle on the floor, dolls are run over by buses, other dolls are sat on by a horse while one unfortunate chap is pecked by a goose in the most painful area imaginable .
This is a pretty good example of a filmmaker mastering a process (stop-motion) and then putting it to use into a film without giving any real thought as to how to make the best use of the process.

The Thieving Hand - 1908

Details

Country: USA

Language: English

Release Date: 1 February 1908 (USA)

Filming Locations: Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co: Vitagraph Company of America

Technical Specs

Runtime: 5 min  | USA: 5 min (16 fps)

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Aspect Ratio: 1.33 : 1

A one-armed street peddler notices that a well-to-do man has dropped his ring, and the peddler returns it to him. The wealthy man is very grateful, and to show his appreciation he takes the peddler to a 'Limb Store', where he pays for a new arm to be attached where his own is missing. But the man soon finds out that his new arm seems to have a will of its own, as it does some things that cause him considerable embarrassment.