I recently watched some of the early surviving fragments of Thomas Edison’s first motion pictures. Below are some reflections I jotted down thanks to the magic of the digital age which permits us to freely view these cinematic relics of yesteryear.
On the Short Films of the Edison Studio
Blacksmithing Scene (1893) Director: W.K.L. Dickson
The aptly-named “blacksmithing scene” is a short clip which is significant to the history of cinema solely for being the first publicly screened Kinetograph motion picture in history. It was initially screened in May of 1893. This short clip features a stationary camera recording three blacksmiths hammering on an anvil, then pausing for a moment to share a drink of beer before continuing.
The footage for the “blacksmithing scene” has survived in much better condition than other early Dickson experimental films like the “Newark Athlete” which features a young boy juggling (shot in 1891). It is worth noting that these early clips of moving images primarily consist of ordinary people performing simple tasks, rather than lavish, expensive recreations of faux narratives. Nevertheless, the setting for these clips was entirely staged, a theme which continued to develop throughout the history of movie-making. The “blacksmithing scene” was exclusively shot at Edison’s Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey.
Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894-1895) Director: William Kennedy Laurie Dickson
This early experimental film combined with synchronized sound was recorded at Thomas Edison’s studio in West Orange, New Jersey (it was popularly dubbed the “Black Maria”). This film was a test of Edison’s “Kinetophone” project. Notably, a wax recording of the sound (as seen in the film) was believed to have been lost for many years until it surprisingly turned up in 1964 as a broken cylinder inside Edison’s National Historic Site. The disk was called the “Violin by WKL Dickson with Kineto.” In 1998, the wax cylinder was repaired and re-recorded in New York –it was the first time the film and sound were matched together since Edison and Dickson originally recorded them over 115 years prior.
Vaguely in the background, the audience can hear someone (perhaps Edison or Dickson) saying “Are the rest of you ready? Go ahead.” The film lasts a few seconds and shows a man (Dickson) playing a violin as it is being translated into a wax recording while two other men dance beside him. Another man appears in the background before the footage terminates.
There is no evidence that Edison or his team featured this film in any kind of public display, however there is reason to believe they produced many other joint “Kinetophone” films, yet sadly this brief clip represents the only short film of its kind to have survived. The song played on the violin is from an 1877 Robert Planquette opera called “The Chimes of Normandy.” The film lasts about 17 seconds while the wax cylinder contains about 23 seconds of total sound. Tragically there have been some latter-day more sophisticated interpreters who claim all manner of ‘homoerotic’ interpretations of this film because it shows two men dancing together, though I must say I think this brand of revisionism is a real stretch.
It is impossible to properly evaluate a film of such technological importance to the history of cinema, but I think it is still important to note that synchronized sound was a key objective of early film-making. What does this tell us about the ultimate goal of the cinematic art in its early desire to unite visual and sound representation?
Other early clips of this sort included a recording of a long-time Edison employee named Fred Ott inhaling his snuff and promptly sneezing; or a recording of Annie Oakley shooting glass balls (Edison was friends with Buffalo Bill and his traveling roadshow which featured Annie Oakley); and of course the famous clip entitled “The Kiss” which features the first onscreen romantic kiss which was performed by May Irwin and John Rice, both of whom were Broadway vaudevillians portraying the final scene from a popular show called “The Widow Jones.”
