Shooting the Chutes
Not too much going on here! Very short!!
James White
Filmography
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The Life of an American Fireman
The fire rescue was a popular subject across many forms of popular culture (songs, painting, journalistic essays, photography), but particularly in the early cinema. As early as 1896, traveling showman Lyman H. Howe had assembled five short films to tell the story of a fire...Watch Movie
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Uncle Tom's Cabin
In May of 1903, Edison's chief American rival, Biograph, assembled a series of scenes featuring famed actor Joseph Jefferson as Rip Van Winkle that they had originally filmed and released in 1896, offering them for sale to exhibitors as a special release. The Edison Company...Watch Movie
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A Storm at Sea
James White and an unidentified cameraman left New York on the Kaiserin Maria Theresia, to attend the 1900 Paris Exposition. When they encountered a storm, they took this film, which includes a "cut-in" to a closer view of the ocean. It was promoted as "The most wonderful storm picture ever...Watch Movie
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Capture of Boer Battery by the British
The Edison Manufacturing Company had already staged war scenes of the Spanish-American War and the Filipino Insurgency. By the outbreak of the Boer War, shooting battle re-enactments had become routine. In this one, the Gordon Highlanders prove victorious as they charge a Boer...Watch Movie
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New Black Diamond Express
An actuality from an era when audiences were particularly enamored with trains, NEW BLACK DIAMOND EXPRESS shows some Lehigh Valley Rail Way workers driving spikes on a working track. The foreman flags them off the track with a handkerchief as the train approaches and moves out...Watch Movie
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Watermelon Contest
Four young black men engage in a contest eating huge slices of watermelon, spitting out seeds and chatting amiably as they go. To be certain, it underlines a cultural stereotype but this early short doesn't employ blackface actors nor make anyone do bug-eyed, fraidy-cat shtick...Watch Movie
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A Wringing Good Joke
A short "bad boy" comedy, based on the 68mm Biograph film A (W)RINGING GOOD JOKE. The Edison Company's remake made the gag available to 35mm exhibitors. A small boy ties a string from the tub handle to grandpa's chair. When the washerwoman turns the ringer on the washtub, the...Watch Movie
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Shooting Captured Insurgents
This staged scene of Spanish soldiers executing Cuban prisoners was designed to underscore Spanish brutality and support American intervention in the war. According to one catalog description, "The Spanish officer, resplendent in gold lace and buttons, raises his sword. One...Watch Movie
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Mr. Edison at Work in His Chemical Laboratory
Thomas Edison displays his talents as a performer, showman and wizard of self-promotion. According to the original catalog description, the inventor is "in working dress, engaged in an interesting chemical experiment in his great laboratory." And to the extent that the Black...Watch Movie
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Return of the Lifeboat
One of a series of films taken in San Francisco featuring the Pacific Coast Life Saving Service. This picture may be the earliest surviving example of filmmakers reframing a shot during actual filming as they seek to keep the lifeboat in frame as it comes through the breakers...Watch Movie
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A Morning Bath
A remake of rival Biograph's popular A HARD WASH, this film's "joke" plays with racist clichés as well as theatrical conventions where blacks, whether impersonated by white actors or played by African Americans, performed using burnt cork as "masks." No matter how vigorous the bath, the baby's...Watch Movie
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American Falls from Above, American Side
Niagara Falls was a frequently filmed subject. In May, it had been one of the first places to be visited by the Edison Manufacturing Company's new mobile camera but the films were not entirely satisfactory. With more experience and better technology, an Edison crew returned to...Watch Movie
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Black Diamond Express
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the on-rushing express train was a symbol of American power and technological achievement. The Biograph Company had filmed the Empire State Express in September 1896, the fastest train of the New York Central Railroad. The Edison...Watch Movie
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Going to the Fire
One of three films taken of the Newark Fire Department over the course of a single day. According to the Newark Daily Advertiser, "Photographer J. H. White, with two assistants, had the kinetograph stationed on a wagon a few feet above the City Hall. Beside the camera, 2,000...Watch Movie
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Inventor Edison Sketched by World Artist
When J. Stuart Blackton appeared before Thomas Edison's camera (either at a make-shift roof-top studio in New York City or at the Black Maria studio in New Jersey), he performed several lightning sketches in exchange for a donation from the Vitascope Company to the New York...Watch Movie
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Mounted Police Charge
One of several films taken of the mounted police performing in Central Park. In this scene, the policemen charge toward the Edison camera in emulation of the cavalry in a popular Lumière film CHARGE OF THE SEVENTH FRENCH CUIRASSIERS. They are, of course, in full dress uniform.Watch Movie
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The Burning Stable
In the fall of 1896, the Edison Company was busy making their own versions of other company's hits. Since Biograph films were shot on a different (68mm) format, their pictures could not be shown on regular 35mm projectors, providing Edison with an attractive commercial...Watch Movie
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The Lone Fisherman
THE LONE FISHERMAN was a role made popular by the actor James Moffit in the theatrical version of "Evangeline," one scene from which apparently served as the model for this film. The character, which appeared at various points throughout the production but does not exist in...Watch Movie
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The Morning Alarm
The Thomas Edison crew shot a group of films in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Many of these served initially as local views to draw people into the city's theater that was featuring a new, Edison-designed projector. This film of a fire run proved distinctive because of its snowy...Watch Movie
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Watermelon Eating Contest
Following the move to projection and fostered in part by the increasing diversity of subject matter, Edison and other American production companies put scenes of well-known racial stereotypes on the screen, black chicken thieves and watermelon eaters among them.Watch Movie
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Fire Rescue
Staging a fire rescue inside the Black Maria was no easy feat and this short may have used members of a local fire department. Films of fire departments in action were among the most popular subjects in the 1890s. The R that appears in the frame indicates that the picture was made under the...Watch Movie
Genres
- Action/Adventure / Disaster
- Adaptation / Cinematic
- Adaptation / Literary
- Adaptation / Literary / Poetry
- Comedy / Slapstick
- Documentary / Art / Performing Arts / Dance
- Documentary / Biography
- Documentary / History
- Documentary / Propaganda
- Documentary / Science / Geology
- Documentary / Transportation
- Documentary / Transportation / Train
- Documentary / Travelogue / Seafaring
- Documentary / War
- Drama / Ethnicity / African-American
- Drama / Melodrama
- Drama / Realism / Docudrama
- Drama / Realism / Pseudodocumentary
- Drama / Romantic Drama
- International / Americas / North American / American
- Short / Actuality
- Short / Documentary
- Short / Narrative
- Short / Performance
- Silent / Silent Comedy
- Silent / Silent Documentary
- Silent / Silent Drama
- Silent / Silent War
- Suspense
- War
Recent Reviews
A Storm at Sea
My modern eye saw a green screen but it was actually the frightful sea. Quite amazing moments. I half expected a monster to rise from the waves!
Uncle Tom's Cabin
"Old"
Shooting the Chutes
too short to rate but interesting.
Return of the Lifeboat
Amazing historical document.