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The films in Inventing Entertainment document life during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries with footage of events such as the Spanish-American War, the Pan-American Exposition of 1901, and the funeral of President William McKinley. Unlike contemporary feature-length films, these short pieces were often exhibited as a series within a vaudeville program. Special Presentations in the collection chronicle Thomas Edison's life and his involvement in the phonograph and motion picture industries. The presentations also provide historical context for the development of the popular twentieth-century medium of narrative films. Please Note: The bibliographic pages of the collection's items contain links to the Early Motion Pictures Search Engine. This search function accesses films from other American Memory collections that are not otherwise available via the Inventing Entertainment collection and its search engine. For best results, please be aware of which search function you are using at all times. Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was a prolific inventor and successful businessman who dramatically influenced modern life in the twentieth century. This collection's Special Presentations, magazine articles, and audio and video recordings provide information about Edison's personal life and his commercial success. Edison earned the first of 1,093 patents in 1869 for an electric vote recorder. The Special Presentation, "The Life of Thomas Edison," explains that when politicians were reluctant to use the machine, "he decided that in the future he would not waste time inventing things that no one wanted." This emphasis on function and profit is reflected in the inventor's comments in "Edison Views the World at Seventy," (one of two 1917 interviews available in this collection), when he explains his recent work in chemistry:
Another side of Edison is revealed in the 1919 recording, Let Us Not Forget. In this rare public speech, the inventor comments on the national sacrifices made during World War I, addresses the end of the conflict, and celebrates national courage: "The word, American, has a new meaning in Europe . . . We are proud of the North Americans who risked their lives for the liberty of the world."
The Phonograph and Motion Picture IndustriesDuring the February 1917 interview, "Edison Views the World at Seventy," the inventor said that his favorite creation was the phonograph: "[T]he development . . . was most interesting, but it took a long time-thirty years," (page 2). The Special Presentation, "The Life of Thomas Edison" explains that the phonograph was an outgrowth of the inventor's work on the telephone and telegraph. He successfully recorded sound "with a tinfoil-coated cylinder and a diaphragm and needle" in 1877. A year later, he formed the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company.
Edison guaranteed the quality of his machines. In "Edison Views the World at Seventy," he declared: "[T]here is not much more to be done with the [improvement of the] phonograph," (page 2). The motion picture industry, however, was a different story. Edison invented the Kinetograph, a single camera recording a series of images, in 1891. The Special Presentation, "History of Edison Motion Pictures," chronicles the evolution of the technology over subsequent decades as studios developed motion picture projectors and produced a variety of films for a growing audience. The filmography, "Chronological Title List of Edison Motion Pictures," supplements this history with examples from the first three decades of the motion picture industry.
Spanish-American WarOn February 15, 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine exploded and sank in Cuba's Havana harbor killing 260 sailors onboard. While the cause of the explosion was unclear, many people in the United States sought to hold Spain accountable for the incident. A search on the term, battleship Maine, yields footage of the aftermath in the films, Burial of the 'Maine' Victims and Wreck of the Battleship "Maine," which was shot in Havana harbor two months after the blast. International relations between the United States and Spain were already tense due to a debate over the island of Cuba and its independence from Spanish colonial rule. In April 1898, the United States proclaimed Cuba free from Spanish rule and declared war on Spain. A search on the phrase, Spanish-American War produces documentary footage and reenactments of the four-month conflict. (Additional footage and information on the war is available in the collection, The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures and in the exhibit, "The World of 1898: The Spanish-American War.")
The Paris Exposition of 1900 and the Pan-American Exposition of 1901International expositions or "World's Fairs" were popular pastimes in the United States and Europe from the middle of the nineteenth century to the start of World War I. These venues entertained millions while celebrating culture, commerce, and technology.
A year later, the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, drew approximately 8 million people between May and November 1901. The official start of the Pan-American Exposition occurred on May 20, 1901 with Vice President Theodore Roosevelt leading a procession across the fairgrounds in Opening, Pan-American Exposition.
Other pieces in the collection feature performances from the fair's foreign villages, including Spanish Dancers, acrobats in the Japanese Village, and dogsleds running across the Esquimaux Village. The final day of the Exposition featured a Sham Battle between six Native American tribes and the U. S. infantry in the fair's stadium. The two-part film of this reenactment features cavalry charges, hand-to-hand combat, and a lot of gunplay.
The Assassination of President William McKinleyThe Pan-American Exposition became part of the tragic history of the United States on September 6, 1901, when anarchist Leon Czolgosz approached President William McKinley in the Temple of Music and fired two shots into the president's chest and abdomen. The film, The Mob Outside the Temple of Music . . . documents the crowd's attempt to reach the assassin moments after the shooting. President McKinley died eight days later due to complications from his gunshot wounds. He was the third U.S. president to be assassinated since the Civil War.
In October 1901, Leon Czolgosz was convicted of the McKinley's assassination, sentenced to death, and executed. Execution of Czolgosz features an image of the execution site, Auburn Prison, on the morning of the event, as well as a reenactment of the assassin's death in the electric chair based on details from an eyewitness account.
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The film and audio recordings collected in Inventing Entertainment provide opportunities to chronicle the evolution of the motion picture industry and its influence on popular entertainment. Footage of vaudeville performers provides a catalyst to assess the demise of theatrical film during the early-twentieth century. Films of the Western genre can prompt a discussion on how certain styles transcend the media after entering the nation's cultural vocabulary. Additional films can be analyzed to discuss the merits of public executions and to research historic firsts in technology and popular entertainment. Chronological Thinking SkillsAn August 1910 article on Thomas Edison, "Who's Who in the Film Game," describes the motion picture camera as "the absolute foundation of an amusement business that encircles the world, giving employment to thousands and numbering its daily devotees by hundreds and hundreds of thousands." The Special Presentations, "The Timeline for Inventing Entertainment," and "The Life of Thomas Edison" provide an opportunity to chronicle the early history of the motion picture industry and the relationship between technology and the development of narrative forms.
The motion picture industry of the early twentieth century provided an opportunity to create these new types of narratives but many studios based projects on the proven success of their competitors. The Special Presentation, "The History of Edison Motion Pictures," explains that competition often resulted in different studios remaking the same film. For example, How a French Nobleman Got a Wife . . . (1904) was a remake of the Biograph Studios film, Personal (1904), but Edison's picture became the most successful film of the year.
Historical Comprehension: Vaudeville and Motion PicturesVaudeville was a popular stage entertainment in the United States during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Actors, singers, athletes, comedians, magicians, dancers, and other performers entertained middle-class audiences in theaters across the country. This collection features footage of vaudeville entertainers such as modern-day Hercules, Eugene Sandow, dancers such as the Leander Sisters and Carmencita , Venezuelan rope and slack wire walker Juan Caicedo, and the acrobatic comic duo, Robetta and Doretto. A search on the term, vaudeville, results in audio recordings of comic songs such as Gasoline Gus and His Jitney Bus and a variety of vaudeville films.
A year later, footage of President William McKinley's funeral circulated the theaters in a similar series. (Additional themes are listed in the Special Presentation, "Overview of Edison Motion Pictures by Genre.") While vaudeville temporarily flourished by incorporating motion pictures in their programs, the film industry eventually took center stage as many vaudeville entertainers leapt to the silver screen and theaters were converted to accommodate movies. Additional films and other vaudeville materials are available in the American Memory collection, American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment 1870-1920.
Historical Analysis and Interpretation: The American WestDuring the nineteenth century, popular entertainment such as dime novels and stage plays established the Western genre while blurring the line between fact and fiction. For example, William Cody was a soldier, hunter, and Indian scout whose exploits were celebrated and exaggerated in Ned Buntline's Buffalo Bill dime novels. In 1872, Cody first portrayed Buffalo Bill on stage. He successfully adopted the public persona for future performances and later wrote his own dime novels and an autobiography about frontier life. He also established "Buffalo Bill's Wild West" in 1883.
The traditions of the Western genre continued in early films such as The Great Train Robbery (1903), which Edison's motion picture catalog describes as the "faithful duplication of the genuine 'Hold Ups' made famous by various outlaw bands in the far West." In one of the most famous scenes from the movie, an outlaw fires his gun directly at the camera. Edison's catalog explains that the image can be used at the projectionist's discretion at either the beginning or the end of the film for dramatic effect.
Historical Issue-Analysis and Decision-Making: Historical Reenactments of ExecutionsThis collection contains battle scenes from the Boer War of South Africa, the Spanish-American War, and the United States campaign in the Philippines. These historical reenactments provided an opportunity to capitalize on an audience's interest in news events without jeopardizing the safety of a cameraman and his equipment. While films such as Capture of Boer Battery by British, Cuban Ambush, and Capture of Trenches at Candaba feature smoke effects and the occasional wounded soldier, none of the participants appear to die. A search on the term, execution, however, produces three historical reenactments in which death is the main attraction.
Historical Research CapabilitiesThe essays in this collection describing the history of the Edison Cylinder Phonograph and Edison Motion Pictures provide an opportunity to further investigate the origins of both inventions. The collection also affords the opportunity to examine early experimental films such as the Dickson Greeting (1891), the Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894) that combined a kinetoscope and phonograph, and the Panorama of Esplanade by Night (1901), which is alleged to be the first film taken at night by incandescent light in the United States. In addition to technological firsts, some films in this collection provide scenes of other historic firsts in the United States, including the first annual Automobile Parade (1899) in downtown Manhattan, President McKinley taking the Oath to become the first U.S. president of the twentieth century, and Coney Island's establishment as the first amusement park.
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The materials available in Inventing Entertainment provide an opportunity to develop non-fiction and creative writing skills. Magazine articles and biographies can be assessed for a discussion of a writer's goals and technique and then used as an example in composing original articles based on the resources in this collection. Comic sketches from audio recordings of vaudeville performers can serve as the basis for creative writing projects. Other audio and video recordings in the collection can provide a catalyst for projects involving critical assessments of music and film, the development of newscasts, and the study of parody.
Biography and Magazine Writing
Creative Writing: NewscastsA search on the term, actuality, produces documentary footage of events such as Cuban Volunteers Embarking for the Spanish-American War and a Life Rescue at Long Branch, in which a drowning person is pulled to shore. Also available is a documentation of the Paris Exposition's technological innovations as featured on the Panorama from the Moving Boardwalk.
Comic DialoguesA search on the term, humor, yields audio recordings of comedy sketches in a variety of situations. For example, The Band Festival at Plum Center (1918) features citizens around a bandstand, while A Police Court Scene (1919) presents a judge assigning comic ruling such as giving a felon twelve months for stealing a calendar. The Shop Girl (1925), depicts the travails of a department store clerk fielding questions from customers.
Customer: Where can I get a silver tea pot?
Editorial SongwritingSongwriters often comment on contemporary issues within their society by adopting a fictional persona who has a vested interest in the debate surrounding the issue. For example, the 1916 nativist song Don't Bite the Hand That Feeds You imagines a dream sequence in which Uncle Sam is distraught about immigrants living in the United States who "come to him friendless and starving when from tyrant's oppression they fled / but now they just abuse and revile him." Uncle Sam finally responds in anger at these ungrateful citizens with the chorus:
If you don't like your Uncle Sammy then go back to your land o'er the sea A search on the term, prohibition, produces two songs critical of the temperance movement. In the comedy sketch preceding the musical number in Dinnie Donohue, on Prohibition (1921), the Irish character criticizes the ban on alcohol with lines such as, "When we were young they gave us a bottle to keep us quiet and now when we need a bottle, they take it away from us." Meanwhile, Save a Little Dram for Me (1922) presents a comic song about men drinking in church when the preacher demands his share with comments such as, "Why drinkin' gin ain't against my teachin'" and "I've shared your joy and I've shared your sin / and believe me, brothers, I'm gonna share your gin."
Parody and Satire
Comedic Genre: Mischievous ChildrenIn 1902, cartoonist Richard Outcault brought Buster Brown and his dog Tige to readers of newspaper comics pages. This trouble-making duo moved to the medium of film in 1904 with the "Buster Brown Series", in which Tige's athletic ability allows him to overcome almost any obstacle that the two face during their misadventures. (A few months after the films, the Brown Shoe Company purchased the rights to the characters for its children's shoes and dispatched midgets wearing Buster Brown costumes across the country to peddle their wares.)
Music and Film CriticismWhen Thomas Edison was describing popular music in the May 1917 Edison Diamond Points article, "New Aspects on the Art of Music," he explained: "People like or dislike what they are told to. There is very little fresh and original thought upon the subject." Sample some of the recordings available in the "Alphabetical List of Edison Disc Titles."
Professional critics are one group of people who seek to influence popular tastes in the arts. Select a song, comedy sketch, or fictional film (available with a search on the term, drama) and write a critique of the work while keeping in mind the technological limitations of the era.
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Last updated 09/26/2002 |