Ella Lola, a la Trilby - 1898

American movie. A young, dark-haired woman performs a dance inspired by George du Maurier's character Trilby, in an early modern dance style reminiscent of Isadora Duncan. She dances barefoot without stockings and is dressed in a long, flowing gown bound across the bosom in Grecian style, with inside fringe and a draped cape hooked to her wrist. She also wears what appears to be a garland headpiece. Holding her gown with one hand throughout, the dancer performs a series of kicks and turns with leg kicks front and back, rocking, and round de jambe.

Ella Lola - 1898

American movie. Ella Lola - Turkish bellydancer - 1898
From the New York clipper, 4/19/02, p. 167: Ella Lola was born Sept. 2, 1883, in Boston, and made her first appearance as a dancer at the age of eleven years, and by her clever work has steadily come to the fore, until now she takes rank among the best in her class. She has been featured at various times with road companies, and has met with success at the leading vaudeville houses through the country.
Apparently filmed in Edison's "Black Maria" studio in West Orange, New Jersey.

Crissie Sheridan - 1897

American movie. Crissie Sheridan bellydancing with isis wings in 1897. Filmed in Edison's "Black Maria" studio in West Orange, New Jersey.

The Lone Fisherman - 1896

Amnerican movie. A short film from The Edison Manufacturing Company from 1896.

Buster Makes Room for His Mama at the Bargain Counter - 1904

American movie. Summary: By the time Edwin S. Porter made this film, Buster Brown had become a household name. The brain child of comic strip artist Richard Outcault, Brown first appeared in the New York Herald in 1902 and went on to a long career as an advertising icon for Buster Brown shoes.

Bargain Day -14th Street, New York - 1905

Summary:
This short film captured throngs of shoppers crowding into the Rothschild Co. five and dime store in one of the busiest shopping districts in the city. Actuality films such as this turned bargain day and other new experiences of urban life into spectacles to be consumed by movie audiences.
Notes:

Panorama from the Times Building, New York - 1905

Photographed April 11, 1905.
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company
Location: Broadway and 7th Avenue, between 42nd and 43rd Streets
Camera: Wallace McCutcheon
The view is from the top of 1 Times Square Originally named Longacre Square, it was renamed Times Square on April 8, 1904, by proclamation of Mayor George B. McClellan, Jr. at the urging of Adolph Ochs, owner and publisher of the New York Times. It is also known as 1475 Broadway, New York Times Building and New York Times Tower. The north end later became Duffy Square. The building is a 25 story, 365 foot (110.6 m) high skyscraper at 42nd and Broadway in Times Square. It was the second tallest building in the world when it opened.
The camera pans to the north over the tops of the buildings from Bryant Park, south of 42nd Street (behind the New York Public Library) [0:39] up 6th Avenue to the Hippodrome Theatre, between 43rd & 44th Streets [1:04]. A marquee on the theater reads 'A Yankee Circus On Mars.' The camera continues to rotate toward 44th and 45th Streets between 6th and 7th Avenues, until coming to rest looking directly north up Times Square to 46th Street, where Broadway (left) and 7th Avenue (right) diverge again.
The Hippodrome Theatre [1:04] also opened in 1905 and was, at the time, New York's largest indoor stage. It was built and owned by Frederick Thompson, the man responsible for creating Luna Park in Coney Island. The Hippodrome closed in 1939.
Recommended reading:
AIA Guide to New York City
- Norval White and Elliot Willensky
(The most essential reference guide to New York's architecture)
The Devils Playground / A Century of Pleasure and Profit in Times Square - James Traub
The Kid of Coney Island / Fred Thompson and the Rise of American Amusements - Woody Register