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Inventing Entertainment: the Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies |
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In a hurry? Save or print these Collection Connections as a single file. Go directly to the collection, Inventing Entertainment: the Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection. 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 |