Cinematic Era: 1899 Vintage

The clown and his automobile enters with great puffs of smoke

A man films people passing through a gate.

A sleeping apartment of a friend who retires for the night. The rays of the moon are shining upon the bed through the window. He is suddenly awakened by a bug of gigantic proportions crawling over him. This he attacks and destroys, but before again retiring he notices three more climbing up the wall. He lights the candle and applies the flame to each, causing them to explode with fine smoke effect. After this slaughter he retires in contentment and soon sleeps the sleep of the just. A very funny subject.

A long line of nurses pushing carts with their babies enter from the far right, cross a garden in front of the large nursery home, and leave by the close left to the camera. A few toddlers also follow in the same orderly line, along their nurses.

A Bersaglieri battalion runs by, raising a cloud of dust in the process.

A film from Méliès has him playing a magician who does a few tricks including making a woman disappear.

Sovereigns and their suite passing in front of the monument to Victor Emmanuel II in Sassari.

Signalling from a British trench during the Boer war.

The scene opens with a salesman displaying corsets to the buyer of a country store. He calls in a female model and tries a corset on her. While the buyer is looking at the figure, the salesman removes the head and arms and finally shows that instead of legs, she has a wire frame. This is one of the most effective trick pictures in our list.

Vietnamese children collect coins that are thrown them by two aristocratic ladies.

Wilhelm II. visits a market place in Beirut, Lebanon.

“Mr. and Mrs. Hayseed have heard of this wonderful Professor, and come to his office. They waken him from a trance, give him a fee and he hypnotizes them. The stunts they do while under his influence would make the Sphinx laugh for joy. Hayseed stands on his head, balances himself on a chair and takes off his clothes. Mrs. Hayseed also begins to disrobe, but she goes behind a screen. Her bare arm appears over the top, and she drops her clothes on the floor. It is a hair raising moment to guess what she's going to do next. The mystical appearances and lightning changes are managed with wonderful cleverness.” (Edison film catalog)

A train heads for a tunnel. In one car, a restless man smokes, and a woman is reading on the seat opposite him. In the darkness of the tunnel, he rises, crosses over to her seat and the two share a willing embrace and kiss. The train steams out of the tunnel toward us and past us. A Bamforth Films remake of George Albert Smith's The Kiss in the Tunnel (I) (1899).

During an interval in the proceedings of the court martial, the journalists enter into an animated discussion, resulting in a dispute between Arthur Meyer of the 'Gaulois', and Mme. Severine of the 'Fronde', resulting in a fight between Dreyfusards and Anti-Dreyfusards, in which canes and chairs are brought down upon the heads of many. The room is finally cleared by the gendarmes.

A cab is hailed in front of a palatial mansion by a gentleman who wishes a score of people driven to another part of the city. A clown jumps out and a satisfactory agreement is made between the clown and the gentleman, and a score or so of persons are hustled in one at a time until the clown succeeds in piling in the whole lot except Bridget, who is carrying a child. The persistent clown, in order to assist the nurse, who tips the scale at 400 pounds, takes the child from her. After caressing it he tosses it on top of the cab. He then picks up a board and uses it with good effect on the extremities of the fat woman, until she is forced into the cab, which drives away with its load of humanity.

A group of supervised orphan girls walking through the streets of Amsterdam. Shot on 68mm Mutoscope-Biograph.

A bearded man hangs up a wreath and, like any good magician, waves his hands inside of it and under it to show us it's only a wreath…

A clergyman is startled by a group of automatons.

“Showing a group of soldiers and Red Cross nurses being amused by a number of small children who are riding upon the backs of trick bears. A remarkably fine picture, with U.S. Infantry camp in the background.” (Edison film catalog)

Short film about an express steamer

Early wrestling footage.

Men leaving for a fox hunt.

Méliès appears as a court jester (a “triboulet” in French). He pulls 18th century noblemen out of a trunk and arranges them on a pyramid-shaped stage. Next, he transforms the gentlemen into fancy ladies.

Shot of rocks being swept by the sea.

This Edison short features famed cyclist Neidert performing a series of impressive bicycle stunts on stage, including riding backwards, balancing on one pedal, and rearing the bike onto its back wheel. The film was listed in Edison’s catalog as No. 2, indicating it followed an earlier trick cycling short (now believed lost), and is unrelated to the later British production The Trick Cyclist (1901). Although Thomas Edison has sometimes been mistakenly named as director, he was never credited as director on any films; this short was directed by James H. White.

A reenactment of a scene inside Devil's Island prison.

[DUPLICATE of the other 'Panoramic View of Frere Camp']

Women bathing in a german bath.

Filmed while the Christian IX, King of Denmark, and his family was taking their picture.

"Down goes the Spanish flag, and up floats the Stars and Stripes. Down falls the symbol of tyranny and oppression that has ruled in the new world for four hundred years, and up goes the Banner of Freedom. In the distance are the turrets and battlements of Morro, the last foothold of Spain in America."

This picture is very novel and interesting. It gives the complete trip from the station at the New York City end of the bridge to the station at the Brooklyn end, as seen from the front end of a third rail car running at high speed. The entire trip consumes three minutes of time, during which abundant opportunity is given to observe all the structural wonders of the bridge, and far distant river panorama below.

A military parade through Berlin.

"Showing the gallant Admiral standing directly in front of the camera, life size, his head bare, graciously bidding his guests adieu. This was exhibited at the Eden Musee and Koster and Bial's, New York, to 18,000 people the next day after the picture was taken."

Shows the efficiency of modern life-saving methods and apparatus now in use by the fire departments. Shows the front of a building burning and two ladders raised against it. Through a thick cloud of smoke and sparks membes of the fire companies are ascending. Entering the windows they pass unfortunate occupants to their comrades, who in turn take them safely to the ground.—Edison Catalog

Filmed from the Brooklyn tower of the bridge, this is a panorama starting at Manhattan's Battery and then panning northward along the East River shoreline. Reportedly filmed somewhere between 1897 - 1899, though not copyrighted until 1903.

The Jewish ex-officer Alfred Dreyfus's degradation. He stands in a military quadrant and the Adjutant proceeds to tear off his medals; Dreyfus is compelled to pass in front of the troops in disgrace. Star Film catalog #216, this is part of Melies's Dreyfus Affair film series and is the second installment. It is one of two installments that has either been destroyed or never restored, and is thus not currently available to the public.

"An interesting picture of the great inter-collegiate eight-oared boat race of 1899. The picture is taken from the judge's boat, and shows the start and first part of the race."

Women getting onto a rickshaw.

Showing Central Park in the background.

"Grandpa sits nodding in his armchair in the kitchen, where a sout, jolly washerwoman is washing clothes. While the woman leaves the tub to talk to a book agent, a small boy enters, and ties grandpa's chair to a towel which is hanging over the tub. The washerwoman begins vigorously wringing the clothes. The towel is drawn into the wringer, and as grandpa is sitting with his feet on the stove and the chair tilted back, a collision is brought about by the towel pulling grandpa and the tub together. This is a crowning success as a comic picture."—Edison Catalog

"Showing the entire trip from Brooklyn to New York. The immense towers stand out clear and distinct against the sky. The best picture of the Brooklyn Bridge yet secured."

An early short film from the Lumière brothers.

Shielded by a thick bit of timber at a turn of the road stands a company of mounted men, awaiting the order to advance...

The second Kremo family acrobat film for the Lumiere. Involves one gag in which the adult is simultaeously flipping two children with his legs.

Close shot of 4.7" naval gun pointing to the left with group of British naval ratings standing around it. The gun fires and the men run up to reload, the begin to pull the gun forward.

Film produced by William K. Dickson’s British Mutoscope and Biograph Company.

Prinsengracht is one of the main canals of Amsterdam. While on board of a ship, we'll get to see the city buildings, its bridges, and every day scenes: from people walking down the streets to carriages, other ships and so on. It's just a regular non fiction movie -hundreds alike were made showing beautiful (sometimes not so) exotic places-. But this one was particularly special to me, must have been its saddened atmosphere. Filmed by Emile Lauste (according to the information I've compiled), this man was sent over to the Netherlands by the Biograph Company to film some movies in this country (Lumière agents worked in a very similar way).

A procession of automobiles.

A very amusing picture, showing a crowd of children and old folks disporting on a sand hill in one of the big public parks of Berlin. This picture is one of the "hits" of the Biograph.

"This scene shows a crowd of newsboys running to meet the 'World' newspaper delivery wagon, and falling back to the point of distribution. There is a mad scramble for papers, and fight between two of the gamins."

From a single camera position, two young women are photographed lighting a cigarette. After several puffs, one of the young ladies becomes faint, and the other one tries to revive her fallen friend.

Reenactment of action in the Spanish-American War.

A young woman in traditional Japanese attire fixes her hair and kimono while her servants assist her.

A two-wheeled convoy of Victorian gentlewomen in a charming early film enigma.

A magician produces a living portrait of himself.

Beginning of a race.

The famous Parisian chanteuse in the rag-time cakewalk 'Hello, Ma Baby,' with which she made such a sensation at the New York Theatre.