Children in the Surf, Coney Island -1904

Filmed August 3, 1904.
American Mutoscope & Biograph Company
Coney Island's Sea Gate in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Cameraman: G. W. Bitzer
Ring-around-the-rosie
Young children wade and play in the surf at Sea Gate in Coney Island as some women swim in the distance. A jump cut [2:40] shows a toddler as he moves for the camera holding a cricket paddle. A moment later a man fetches the paddle out of the water, leaving the boy with a toy boat with which to play. He seems more interested in the real schooner sailing far out in the distance, but only momentarily. He'd rather be back on the beach with everyone else. After a few more attempts at making him a star the boy picks up the toy and leaves.
By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea!
You and me, you and me, oh how happy we'll be!
When each wave comes a-rolling in
We will duck or swim,
And we'll float and fool around the water.
Over and under, and then up for air,
Pa is rich, Ma is rich, so now what do we care?
I love to be beside your side, beside the sea,
Beside the seaside, by the beautiful sea!
- By The Beautiful Sea (Harold Atteridge / Harry Carroll) (1914)

The X Rays (1897, United Kingdom)

Also known as 'The X-Ray Fiend', this comedy by G.A. Smith combines two very recent innovations: Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of X-rays in 1895, and Georges Méliès' accidental realisation of the special-effects potential of the jump-cut in 1896. The central couple is played by the Brighton comedian Tom Green and Smith's wife Laura Bayley, and we know that they were filmed in October 1897 from Smith's cashbook, now preserved in the BFI National Archive. (Michael Brooke)

Dock Front, Galveston -1900

American movie. A film from the Edison Manufacturing Company, done in 1900.

Cupid and Psyche - 1897

American movie. A film from the Edison Manufacturing Company, done in 1897.

Betsy Ross Dance - 1903

SUMMARY
Opens on a bare stage with a painted backdrop of an interior theater wall and pillar. From screen right, a woman twirls onstage and performs an enthusiastic dance. It appears she is a woman dressed to look like a little girl, in a short, ruffled dress and sash, tights, and ballet slippers, with long, dark hair worn in curls. Her movements include some with an apparent ballet influence, such as pirouettes and walking on pointe. She also performs various feet and leg movements, leg kicks both to the front and side, spins, and twirls, all the while flouncing and lifting her skirt and smiling coquettishly. She ends by throwing a kiss to the camera as she twirls offstage.
From R. Snyder, The voice of the city, 1989: The "Betsy Ross Dance," filmed in 1903, shows a young girl in a frilly skirt cut above the knee. As she dances, she kicks her leg, swings her skirt, climbs up on pointe, lifts her skirt and twirls around. The camera catches an occasional glimpse of a garter just above her knee (p. 137).
CREATED/PUBLISHED
United States: American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, 1903.
NOTES
Copyright: American Mutoscope & Biograph Co.; 25June1903; H32944.
Camera, G.W. "Billy" Bitzer.
Performer: Little Anita.
Filmed June 18, 1903 in the Biograph New York City studio.
SUBJECTS
Dance--United States.
Dancers--United States.
Ballet dancing--United States.
Silent films.
Dance.
Vaudeville.
Shorts.
RELATED NAMES
Little Anita, performer.
Bitzer, G. W., 1872-1944, camera.
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company.
Paper Print Collection (Library of Congress)

Dog Factory - 1904

SUMMARY
In the middle of a store or factory set sits a machine identified as the "Patent Dog Transformator." On the walls behind it are coils of sausages or hot dogs, labeled with the name of the dog they represent: Pointer, Setter, Fighting Bull, Bull, Terrier, Spaniel, Poodle, Plain Dog, Trained Dog, Bull Pups, Boston Bull, Daschund [sic], Mut, and Pug. At the top of the back wall is a sign that reads "Dogs made while you wait--Dog Factory--Dogs mixed to order." A bearded man in a suit stands by the machine looking bored, as his partner in a cap and apron dusts the rows of sausages. A tramp enters the store with a string of three dogs, which he sells to the man in the suit. One by one, the three dogs are loaded into the top of the machine, cranked by the man in the apron, and transformed into links of sausage that come out the right end of the contraption. These links are then hung up in their proper places on the wall: Plain Dog, Trained Dog, and Boston Bull. A man identified as a dandy with his cane and straw topper enters and orders a spaniel. The process is then reversed, as the appropriate coil of meat is taken off the wall and put in the top of the machine, resulting in a dog exiting from the left end of the transformator. The next customer, a woman, orders a dachshund, but the dog proves too jumpy for her and is changed back to a sausage; the woman then settles on a terrier, and leaves happily with her purchase.
A man in a suit enters the factory and orders a trained dog. The resulting canine does tricks such as a back-flip at the urging of the owner in the apron, and the customer leaves satisfied. When the next woman requests a small dog, a string of bull pups are produced for her, from which she selects her favorite; the rest of the puppies are turned back to sausage. Finally, a "tough" enters the store and orders a Boston Bull, but he rejects the resulting dog as not mean enough. The factory owners then create a fighting bull, which comes out of the transformator biting. In the resulting commotion, with the Boston Bull also running around the store, the fighting bull grabs the tough by the seat of his pants and the two wrestle. The factory owners laugh as the bull and customer exit the shop, still fighting.
From Edison films catalog: On the walls of the factory a lot of different varieties of frankfurters are hung. Each is marked with the breed of dog it is made from. A combined dog and bologna making machine is seen in the foreground, and two Germans are working industriously over it. A tramp enters with about a dozen dogs of various types, and sells them to the Germans. They are soon transformed into sausage and the tramp departs with his cash. A dude now enters who wants to buy a spaniel. The dog is quickly made and sold. A number of customers follow and are supplied with dogs that suit their fancies. Finally a tough enters who wants a bull dog. A Boston Bull is produced, but does not suit him. He wants a fighting bull. The dog is made, and as he jumps from the machine he grabs the tough by the pants, and dog and man mix up in a rolling match all over the floor. The tough finally releases himself and disappears, leaving the fighting bull dog to be again turned into bologna. 240 ft. $36.00.
CREATED/PUBLISHED
United States: Edison Manufacturing Co., 1904.
NOTES
Copyright: Thomas A. Edison; 21Apr1904; H44668.
Camera, Edwin S. Porter.
Filmed in Edison's New York City studio.
SUBJECTS
Dogs--United States--Buying--Drama.
Dog industry--United States--Drama.
Dog owners--United States--Drama.
Factories--United States--Drama.
Sausages--United States--Drama.
Frankfurters--United States--Drama.
Bulldog--United States--Drama.
Silent films.
Comedies.
Vaudeville.
Shorts.
RELATED NAMES
Porter, Edwin S., camera.
Thomas A. Edison, Inc.
Paper Print Collection (Library of Congress)

The artist's dilemma - 1901

American movie. The Artist's Dilemma, 1901.