Cinematic Era: 1906 Vintage

A drunken man gets into a fight with everyone he meets.

King Haakon travels to Trondhjem.

The shift of the crown was paralleled by a new epoch of cinema in Denmark. Peter Elfelt had been the dominant figure in early Danish film. After some rather insignificant films, Ole Olsen founded the success of Nordisk Films Kompagni upon this film and 'The Funeral of King Christian IX'.

A beautiful seductive fairy makes gentle winged creatures appear.

Immigrants and boats departing and arriving at Ellis Island.

Dranem performs "Five O'Clock Tea" for Alice Guy.

In 1906, the Arlberg Railway, which connects the Austrian cities of Innsbruck and Bludenz, is the only east-west mountain railway in Austria. This 340-second "ghost railroad ride" shows the view from the back of a train, though I'm not sure if it's heading east or west. This kind of film, in vogue at the time, is an intermediate form of short reality, which often showed a train engaging in a bend, and a feature documentary. Its editing is live, linear and temporal, and the cuts are very apparent. Indeed, the choices of where to place the cuts seem to have avoided the less populated stretches. There are plenty of buildings to see, even when the train is not at the station.

A panoramic view of Market Street San Francisco after the earthquake and fire of 1906

A magician performs a magic show involving women turning into bouquets of roses. Later the roses are festooned together in a fancy way to decorate the stage.

A child and her nurse are out walking. A band of desperate men and women knock the nurse down and abduct the child. Soon a ransom note is sent to the parents. They hire a detective to pay the kidnappers off and rescue their child, although it turns out to involve a desperate chase.

Two Indian women wash a baby with a jug of water, while a man with a turban sits behind them.

An old general is married to a young woman. She meets a young man and makes plans for a rendezvous. The general receives an anonymous letter about his wife which causes him to find the couple and seek vengeance.

A magician charms a caterpillar and turns it into a butterfly woman. This film is a blatant remake of Georges Méliès's "La Chrysalide et le Papillon d'or" (1901).

At the racetrack.

Innovative early 'trick' film showing the popular 'flying the foam' stunt performed on - or rather off - Brighton's West Pier.

Film showing the results of an earthquake in San Francisco on 18th April 1906 which caused great destruction.

A slave dealer exhibits his wares to a wealthy guy in a turban.... and by that I mean he is showing off women by stripping their clothes from them.

There are a lot of circular pans in this very long (for 1906) travelogue showing the waterfroot of Lucerne, followed by a long moving shot (taken from a boat, since the image rocks) to oe of the resorts on the lake. It's a portrait of a very prosperous bit of city and countryside.

Her husband goes away on a business trip. Her lover appears. However, before they can begin their affair, there is a knock on the door. He hides in a dirt chest. When the maid is gone, he comes out. There is a knock on the door. He hides in a filthy closet. When the gossip is gone, he comes out. There is a knock on the door....

A view of King Street in Hawaii.

Panorama, Nob Hill and Ruins of Millionaire Residences after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

A crazy, rude musician gets some supernatural comeuppance.

Captain Clearfield, a wealthy landlord, assaults Kathleen with the help of an accomplice, but Terence O'More arrives in time to break up the attack. Clearfield then tries to get his way by intimidating Kathleen and her father, but again help arrives in time. Clearfield and his accomplice then come up with their most violent plan yet.

The legend of Aladdin and his magic lamp: Aladdin finds a magic lamp which brings him wealth, luxury, and marriage to a princess. But his rival, an evil magician, steals the lamp for himself. Aladdin must regain the lamp or lose everything.

French silent film by Georges Méliès, considered lost.

A championship fight that took place in the Nevada goldfields between boxers Joe Gans and Battling Nelson.

Modern Americans think that the movies learned to talk in 1927 when Al Jolson opened his mouth in THE JAZZ SINGER, but sound pictures had a much longer history. Edison envisaged combining the phonograph with motion pictures even before they had been perfected and there is a test sequence from 1895. By the time this 'phonoscene' had been made, Alice Guy had been directing a series of them and there was a series in production in Germany, too. Yet true synchronization remained a problem, what with records wearing out and film breaking until the perfection of sound on film itself.

A new skyscraper is being built in New York City, and numerous workmen are busy at hazardous jobs high above the ground. When one of the workers, Dago Pete, deliberately starts a fight, he is immediately fired. But the discharged worker soon comes up with a plan to commit a robbery and get even. His scheme could affect the lives of several others.

The setting is a postoffice. A well-to-do lady has brought her maid to lick the stamps. A man, the maid's love interest, is taken by the sight and, as soon as he can, attempts to kiss her. Unfortunately the lovers forgot about the sticky residue…

A man is obsessed with playing billards.

Although the title proclaims this to be Athens 1896, the first Olympic Games of the modern era, this film is almost certainly of the so-called Intercalated Games of 1906 - the event captured is the standing high jump, which did not feature in the 1896 Games. The interim competition was held at a time when Athens and the International Olympic Committee were at odds over the decision to hold the Games in different cities of the world.

In the image of Salomé, the excluded other - nature, sexuality, the feminine - returns as an attraction and a threat. In a mixture of striptease and opera, Adorée Villany in front of the camera crosses the boundaries of both genres.

One of the first Russian animated films, created by choreographer Alexander Shiryaev in the second half of the 1900s.

Some men stalk a lady on her way to the beach.

Jeux olympiques d’Athènes depicts events at the 1906 Athens Olympics (or Intercalated Games), the first of the Games known to be filmed.

Spanish short documentary about King Alfonso XII's visit to La Albufera (Valencia).

Madame Durand goes for a walk and is oblivious to practically everything. She ends up making a nuisance of herself again and again. It's so bad that she eventually even walks into an open sewer and falls down inside. She can't find her way out and wanders until she's overcome with fatigue. When she awakens, she has rats crawling on her! Eventually, despite herself, she is rescued and returns home....and you can only assume she learned absolutely nothing!

Leaving for town, a peasant comes upon a witch who puts him under her spell. Neither the jeers of his companions or the supplications of his young wife prevent him from following the witch. The villagers, pitying the wife, pursue the witch and throw her into the water. When the witch dies, the spell is broken and the husband returns to his forgiving wife. (PAT Oct 1906)

A Poacher on the loose.

This film is made up of five panoramas, four wide and one close-up, of the ruins of downtown San Francisco shortly after the 1906 disaster, plus a panorama and scene in a nearby refugee camp. Original intertitles precede each change of scene, but the locations provided are incorrect for three of the five views. The state of the ruins and camp suggest a date in late April, 1906. The absence of streetcar tracks in the "Grand Avenue" panorama dates that segment to before May 1, 1906.

Lost short film

A family scene: father, mother, daughter and a baby in the crub. A doctor is visiting. The family is upset. In the next scene, everyone wears black, the crib is empty. Outside, a distraught woman wanders about and leaves her infant under a cabbage.

Early Biograph short on the results of marrying for financial gain.

A payroll clerk is framed by a man competing with him for the attentions of a mill girl.

A clown creates a giant version of his face, and then retrieves two miniature versions of himself from his luggage.

Vertical panorama City Hall and surroundings after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

On her wedding night a bride undresses. The bridegroom is horrified when his new wife takes out her false teeth and removes her wig.

A story of a desperate wife who worries about her husband, a career wrestler.

In the beginning of the film, a streetcar passes in front of the camera position. The camera starts to move, indicating that it was on a streetcar since it is in the same position as the car in the first scene. All the film was photographed from the streetcar.

A story of fisherman's life in the north and how they get trapped at sea.

King Haakon and Queen Maud in Trondhjem.

Dance from the opera from 1762 by Christoph Willibad Gluck (1714-1787), choreography by Hans Beck 1896. Performed by Valborg Borchsenius (née Guldbrandsen), Ellen Price, Elisabeth Beck (1865-1946) and Anna Marie Agerholm (1875-1929).

A train traveling through the Rockies is held up and boarded by two thugs. They rob the wealthy occupants at gunpoint and then make their getaway by handcar. From there, they hijack a horsecart on a road running parallel to the tracks. Will justice prevail in the end?

Police officers pursue a speeding automobile that almost hit a small child. This short is an outtake from Life of an American Policeman (1905). Once that film had been edited to fit a standard 1,000 foot reel, this sequence was left over, so it was sold as a separate short.

1906 comedy film by Edwin S. Porter, based on a popular song of the same title.

A look at typical activities taking place in the Peek Frean factory: First, the workers get up steam, as supplies of milk and flour arrive. Sheets of dough are rolled, then cut, shaped, and readied for baking. The camera then continues to show further events throughout the work day.

A horse fetches help when tramps attack its master.

Destruction of San Francisco by earthquake and fire.

Julot goes out into society for the first time. He is in his sunday best, but looks ridiculous. After many mistakes and faux-pas he is chased out by the master of the house.