1. William J. Gilroy, deposition, 18 September 1902, legal files, NjWOE.

2. Ramsaye, Million and One Nights , p. 421; Jacobs, Rise of the American Film , pp. 45-47; Vardac, Stage to Screen , pp. 184-85; Macgowan, Behind the Screen , p. 120; Everson, American Silent Film , p. 40; Sklar, Movie-Made America , p. 27.

3. Background for an understanding of the Progressive movement is provided by Gabriel Kolko, The Triumph of Conservatism: A Re-interpretation of American History (New York: Free Press of Glencoe, 1963), and Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform from Bryan to F.D.R . (New York: Knopf, 1955).

4. Clipper , 3 December 1904, p. 968.

5. NYDM , 12 September 1903, p. 16.

6. New York World , 1 September 1903, p. 4. Two years later Hilliard went on to play the male lead in David Belasco's hit play The Girl of the Golden West .

7. "Robert Hilliard and Vaudeville—Keith's," Philadelphia Record , 29 September 1903, p. 3.

8. Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis (New York: Macmillan, 1907), and David Graham Phillips, "Algrich, the Head of It All," Cosmopolitan Magazine , April 1906, excerpted in Richard Hofstadter, ed., The Progressive Movement, 1900-1915 (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1963), pp. 79-83 and 108-12.

9. Robert Hunter, Poverty (New York: Macmillan, 1904) excerpted in Hofstadter, ed., Progressive Movement, 1900-1915 , pp. 55-56.

10. Kleine Optical Company, Complete Catalogue , November 1903, p. 221.

11. Everson, American Silent Film , p. 40.

12. Once again two lines of action that occurred simultaneously are shown in successive "acts." Ramsaye, however, offers a modernized description of the subject in which "the two stories ran through the film neck and neck" ( Million and One Nights , p. 421).

13. New York World , 2 June 1896, p. 1.

14. This film narrative exactly parallels an earlier account of "White Cap" activity in a turn-of-the-century newspaper. In the newspaper account, the tar clogged up the man's pores and he eventually died.

15. Clipper , 7 October 1905, p. 847.

16. Pittsburgh Post , 27 August 1905, p. 9.

17. "Among the Dramatists," NYDM , 29 July 1905, p. 4; and "Gossip," 19 August 1905, p. 4.

18. Albert Bushnell Hart and Herbert Ronald Ferleger, eds., Theodore Roosevelt Encyclopedia (New York: Roosevelt Memorial Association, 1941), pp. 45 and 587.

19. Kenneth Macgowan and William Melnitz, The Living Stage (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1955), p. 393.

20. Harlowe R. Hoyt, Town Hall Tonight (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1955), p. 40. The following analysis relies on Steele MacKaye, Hazel Kirke (1880; New York: Samuel French, 1912).

21. Edison Film, Life of an American Policeman , December 1905.

22. "Burglar Kills Police and Wounds Second," New York World , 21 March 1904, p. 3.

23. A roundsman was responsible for making sure the policemen were on the job, a position eliminated in today's world of two-way radios and patrol cars.

24. See Nochlin, Realism , pp. 150-99.

25. Connellsville Courier, 26 June 1885.

26. "Experiences of Boys as Tramps," New York Tribune , 1 May 1904, illustrated supplement, p. 5.

27. E. W. Hornung, Raffles (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1901), and The Amateur Cracksman (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1902).

28. Edison Film, The Watermelon Patch , October 1905.

29. It is difficult to agree with claims that the first ten years of American cinema offered a kind of primitive, nonracist innocence. Thomas Cripps sees this "fall" from grace occurring with the introduction of editorial techniques ( Slow Fade to Black: The Negro in American Film, 1900-1942 [London: Oxford University Press, 1977], pp. 8-19). A1-

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though editing, as already shown, existed from the beginning of the post-novelty period, the racist underpinnings were frequently intertextual.

30. See ''The Chicken Thief,'' Biograph Bulletin no. 39, 27 December 1904, reproduced in Niver, Biograph Bulletins , pp. 140-43.

31. Edison Film, The Watermelon Patch , October 1905.

32. MPW , 8 June 1907, pp. 216-17.

33. This film was copyrighted by Biograph on 9 June 1904.

34. Edwin Porter to the Edison Company, 6 July 1905, in Stolen by Gypsies copyright envelope, NjWOE.

35. New York Sun , 15 August 1905, cited in Clipper , 2 September 1905, p. 716.

36. These animations were shot in reverse motion and upside down, beginning with the final title and proceeding to chaos. The results were then used tail first to give the desired effect.

37. Clipper , 27 May 1905, p. 368.

38. Edwin Porter, affidavit, 3 December 1904, American Mutoscope &, Biograph Co. v. Edison Manufacturing Co ., no. 10-221.

39. Edison Films , July 1906, pp. 36-37.

40. "The Whole Damm Family Staged," NYDM , 8 July 1905, pp. 12-14.

41. Edison Films , July 1906, p. 40.

42. Niver, Biograph Bulletins , p. 231; American Mutoscope & Biograph Company, programme, [1905], CLCM.

43. Clipper , 1 July 1905, p. 488.

44. "On a Good Old Trolley Ride," © 26 March 1904, written by Jos. C. Farrell, music by Pat Rooney.

45. Edison Films , July 1906, p. 36.

46. Ibid., p. 66.

47. Olympia Park was north of Connellsville between Irwin and Greensburg, Pennsylvania. The Connellsville Courier acknowledged the filmmaker as the creator of The Great Train Robbery and reminded everyone that Edward was "better known as 'Betty' Porter" when a child ( Connellsville Courier , 22 August 1905, p. 8). I am again indebted to Tony Keefer for this information.

48. Edison Films , July 1906, p. 66.

49. Boarding School Girls , copyright envelope, NjWOE.

50. Clipper , 23 September 1905, p. 793.

51. Billboard , 7 December 1907, p. 16.

52. "Dockstader's Minstrels," Birmingham [Alabama] Age , 14 March 1906, p. 8.

53. Clipper , 22 April 1905, p. 235.

54. Clipper , 30 December 1905, p. 1163.

55. George H. Keyes to Edison Manufacturing Company, 14 July 1905, legal files, NjWOE. These figures reveal characteristic costs and arrangements when actuality films were made for private clients.

56. Frank Dyer to John W. Kelly, 30 August 1905, NjWOE.

57. Edison Films , July 1906, p. 91.

58. Clipper , 22 July 1905, p. 564.

59. Edison Films , July 1906, p. 98.

60. Ibid., p. 40.