1. Niver, Early Motion Pictures , provides an extensive catalog of these films.

2. "Summer Horse Show," Mail and Express , 12 August 1897, p. 3. It is possible that White left for the West Coast in June, altering the specifics of this account accordingly.

3. After the initial development of the kinetograph, camera technology was never an Edison strong point. Since the inventor was opposed in principle to the sale of camera technology, his mechanical experts never had the opportunity to develop such equipment.

4. Edison Films , March 1900, p. 20.

5. Promotional blurbs and advertisements for these tours appeared in endless news-

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papers from the period. See, for example, "Mexico and California," Orange Chronicle , 27 January 1900, p. 4. Many tourist packages involved the very hotels and stopping points that White filmed on his journey (for example, "Grand Mid-Winter Tour to California," Brooklyn Eagle , 29 January 1899, p. 21).

6. Although these films may have been taken by White and Blechynden, this seems unlikely. Wright's presence in Seattle was reported while White's was not. The Edison Company also advertised these films separately from the other films White took on the trip ( Edison Films , March 1900, pp. 14-22 and 38).

7. "The Indians," Denver Post , 4 October 1897, p. 3, and "Golden Cripple," Denver Post , 5 October 1897, p. 8; Denver Republican , 6 October 1897, clipping, NjWOE.

8. Edison Films , March 1900, p. 17.

9. "The 'Coptic' Arrives at Last," Japan Weekly Mad , 26 July 1898, p. 216.

10. Phonoscope , October 1898, p. 14; Gorham & Company (Hong Kong) to the Edison Laboratory, 17 May 1898, and clipping, NjWOE.

11. "Honolulu in Kinetoscope," Hawaii Gazette , 10 May 1898, p. 8, and 13 May 1898, p. 3. See also Hawaii Film Board, Souvenir Program (5 February 1977).

12. Phonoscope , October 1898, p. 14.

13. "Making Vitascopic Pictures of the Ambulance," Orange Chronicle , 9 October 1897, p. 7.

14. "First Ambulance Performance," Orange Chronicle , 19 February 1898, p. 8.

15. "Gattling Gun Company A," Orange Chronicle , 27 November 1897, p. 5.

16. "Gattling Gun Company A," Orange Chronicle , 11 December 1897, p. 5.

17. War Extra, Edison Films , 20 May 1898, pp. 10-11.

18. The date of filming has yet to be firmly established. It was not copyrighted until 16 December 1898, and yet the film includes a notice indicating it was copyrighted in 1897. Moreover, the film does not show up in Edison catalogs.

19. Hendricks, Edison Motion Picture Myth , pp. 130-37.

20. Thomas A. Edison v. Charles Webster and Edmund Kuhn , nos. 6795 and 6796, C.C.S.D.N.Y., filed 7 December 1897, NjBaFAR.

21. Thomas A. Edison v. Maguire and Baucus, Limited, Joseph D. Baucus et al ., nos. 6797 and 6798, C.C.S.D.N.Y., filed 7 December 1897, NjBaFAR. Maguire & Baucus concentrated their energies in England, where their Warwick Trading Company became a prominent firm.

22. Thomas A. Edison v. Siegmund Lubin , no. 50, October Sessions, 1897, C.C.E.D.P., filed 10 January 1898, PPFAR; Thomas A. Edison v. American Mutoscope Co. and Benjamin Keith , no. 6928, C.C.S.D.N.Y., filed 13 May 1898, NjBaFAR.

23. "A Moral Wax-Work Show," NYT , 1 January 1884, p. 3; "Scenes and Figures in Wax," NYT , 29 March 1884, p. 4.

24. Eden Musee American Company, Eden Musee Catalogue (New York: 1896), p. 2.

25. "Trouble in the Eden Musee," New York Herald , 11 April 1894, p. 9; "A Visit and a Chat with Mr. Rich. G. Hollaman, of the Eden Musee," MPW , 22 February 1908, p. 131; New York Tribune , 20 December 1896, p. 10, and 15 June 1897, p. 1. Ramsaye incorrectly suggests that the Lumière cinématographe opened at the Eden Musee and Keith's Union Square Theater at the same time—June 29, 1896 ( Million and One Nights , p. 263).

26. Mail and Express , 26 December 1896, p. 12.

27. "Edison at the Eden Musee," Mail and Express , 6 February 1897, p. 17.

28. "New Cinematographe at the Musee," Mail and Express , 20 February 1897, p. 17. See also Deslandes and Richard, Histoire comparée , 2:129-31 on the Cinématographe Joly in France. Eberhard Schneider, deposition, 11 February 1900, Thomas A. Edison v. Eberhard Schneider , nos. 7124 and 7125, C.C.S.D.N.Y., filed 21 December 1898, NjBaFAR.

29. Mail and Express , 23 February 1897, p. 7.

30. Mail and Express , 13 April 1897, p. 7. It is possible that the American cinematograph was a new machine, but it was not treated this way in the press. Schneider still owned the projector and provided the exhibition service, but did not own its newly designated "American Cinematograph" trade name.

31. Mail and Express , 1 May 1897, p. 14.

32. This information is based on a survey that appeared in Charles Musser, "Another Look at the 'Chaser Period,'" Studies in Visual Communication 10, no. 4 (Fall 1984): 24-44. Since that study was published more exhibitions in New York City theaters have been identified. These alter certain details but not the central argument.

33. New York Tribune , 15 June 1897, p. 1; Mail and Express , 15 June 1897, p. 7, and 26 June 1897, p. 10. Deslandes and Richard, Histoire comparée , 2:23. Presumably the cinématographe was then owned by an independent exhibitor.

34. NYT , 31 August 1897, p. 11C.

35. Mail and Express , 31 August 1897, p. 5.

36. "Edwin S. Porter," MPW , 7 December 1912, p. 961. Beadnell was able to promote not only the Eden Musee but himself in the Mail and Express , which at one point stated, "No man in the advertising world has been so well-known and so highly esteemed as Mr. Beadnell" (16 January 1899, p. 4). At the testimonial dinner given in Beadnell's honor and described in this article, James White sang a solo and joined in a duet. Porter may have been there.

37. An advertisement for this company appears in the Brooklyn Eagle , 29 January 1899, p. 21. Schneider, who did not control the name "American Cinematograph," went on to call his service the German-American Cinematograph Company.

38. Ramsaye, Million and One Nights , pp. 345-46.

39. Phonoscope , August-September 1897, p. 9.

40. Ramsaye, Million and One Nights , p. 346; Halifax [Nova Scotia] Morning Chronicle , 27 September 1897, p. 6.

41. Porter was one of several exhibitors showing these films in Canada ("Canada," NYDM , 18 September 1897, p. 8; 25 September 1897, p. 10; 2 October 1897, p. 9; 9 October 1897, p. 8; 30 October 1897, p. 9; and 6 November 1897, p. 11).

42. Halifax Morning Chronicle , 28 September 1897, p. 8.

43. Wormwood was performing at Harry Davis's Avenue Theater ( Pittsburgh Post , 14 November 1897, p. 16).

44. Mail and Express , 5 October 1897, p. 5.

45. Mail and Express , 16 October 1897, p. 14.

46. "Danger in X-rays," Phonoscope , January—February 1897, p. 15; Clipper , 3 April 1897, p. 84.

47. Edwin Porter, unused deposition, ca. 1907, legal files, NjWOE; Ramsaye, Million and One Nights , p. 348.

48. "Crowds at the Musee," Mail and Express , 5 February 1898, p. 5; and Mail and Express , 5 March 1898, p. 12.

49. See Zdenek Stabla, Queries concerning the Horice Passion Film (Prague: Film Institute, 1971) and Kemp Niver and Bebe Bergsten, Klaw & Erlanger Present Famous Plays in Pictures (Los Angeles: Locare Research Group, 1976) for information about The Horitz Passion Play , filmed in Horitz, Bohemia.

50. MPW , 22 February 1908, p. 132.

51. Ramsaye, Million and One Nights , p. 371, gives some members of the cast and a generally informative account of this program.

52. While the Mail and Express (19 February 1898, p. 15) gives the projection speed at twenty frames per second, a surviving print indicates that thirty frames per second would have been necessary if movements were to be natural.

53. "Scenes of Bible Subjects," New York Tribune , 29 January 1898, p. 9.

54. The Morse Passion Play was scheduled to open on December 7, 1880, but its producer, Henry E. Abbey, withdrew it at the last moment ("Mr. Abbey's Decision," NYT , 28 November 1880, p. 7).

55. Phonoscope , March 1898, 2:3, p. 7.

56. New York Tribune , 29 January 1898, p. 9.

57. Mail and Express , 5 February 1898, p. 15.

58. New York World , 1 February 1898, p. 9.

59. Mail and Express , 5 February 1898, p. 15, and 19 February 1898, p. 15.

60. "Ober-Ammergau's Passion Play," NYT , 12 December 1880, p. 5; New York Tribune , 12 December 1880, p. 2.

61. Edison Films , July 1901, p. 5.

62. Cecil M. Hepworth, Animated Photography — The ABC of Cinematography , 2nd rev. ed. (London: Amateur Photographer Library, [1900]).

63. C. Francis Jenkins, Animated Pictures (Washington, D.C.: by the author, 1898), pp. 89-90.

64. Ibid.

65. See Macgowan, Behind the Screen , pp. 87-92.

66. Mail and Express , 26 March 1898, p. 15.

67. "Correspondence," NYDM , 26 March 1898, p. 7, and 9 April 1898, pp. 4-6.

68. Edison Films , July 1901, p. 5. Although earlier Edison catalogs (e.g., Edison Films , May 1900, p. 2) advertise the films as only available in a set of twenty-two scenes (one having been dropped since the program's debut), exhibitors did not always show all scenes and almost certainly insisted on selective purchases. These practical realities are evident in the 1901 catalog.

69. Lubin advertisement, Clipper , 28 May 1898, p. 932, and Sigmund Lubin, The Passion Play (Philadelphia: ca. 1904); Selig Polyscope Company, Films of the Passion Play (Chicago: ca. 1903).

70. Thomas A. Edison v. Eden Musee American Company Ltd. and Richard G. Hollaman, individually and as President of said Company , nos. 6845 and 6846, C.C.S.D.N.Y., filed 7 February 1898, NjBaFAR.

71. New York Herald , 6 February 1898, p. 7C.

72. Only one Musee advertisement mentioned the biograph. David Levy, however, has argued that the Musee was able to acquire a sufficient quantity of 35mm films to satisfy

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spectators. He may be right, but descriptions such as those in the Mail and Express , 5 April 1898, p. 7, suggest that these films were taken by Biograph cameramen.

73. Clipper , 19 March 1898, p. 42.

74. New York Journal , 14 March 1898.

75. "Patriotism at Theaters Shows No Diminution," New York World , 8 March 1898, p. 4. See also, "Chicago Enthusiasts," New York World , 24 February 1898, p. 3.

76. New York World , 27 March 1898, p. 15.

77. Mail and Express , 5 April 1898, p. 7.

78. Clipper , 9 April 1898, p. 99.

79. F. Z. Maguire to William Gilmore, 20 April 1898, NjWOE.

80. "Yellow Journalism," Alfred Henry Lewis, New York Journal and Advertiser , 7 April 1898, p. 6.

81. Paley to Edison Manufacturing Company, 12 March 1898, NjWOE.

82. War Extra: Edison Films , 20 May 1898, pp. 5-7.

83. Advertisement, Clipper , 30 April 1898, p. 153.

84. F. Z. Maguire to William Gilmore, 20 April 1898, NjWOE.

85. Phonoscope , October 1898, p. 15.

86. "Bill Paley, the 'Kinetoscope Man,'" Phonoscope , August 1898, p. 7.

87. Marl and Express , 19 April 1898, p. 7.

88. Mail and Express , 7 May 1898, p. 14.

87. Marl and Express , 19 April 1898, p. 7.

88. Mail and Express , 7 May 1898, p. 14.

89. Marl and Express , 21 May 1898, p. 14. Paley apparently retained close ties to the Musee and took films for its exclusive use. The Library of Congress Paper Print Collection, therefore, may offer only a portion of his wartime output.

90. Traveling exhibitors generally did not respond to this opportunity as quickly as their urban counterparts. Most small-town residents did not have the opportunity to see Paley's films until the fall of 1898.

91. The two Proctor theaters, Keith's Union Square, Pastor's, the Central Opera House, Huber's 14th Street Museum, and the Eden Musee.

92. MPW , 7 December 1912, p. 961. Porter's interview is a little ambiguous on this point. He suggests not only that these were machines that he and Beadnell manufactured (presumably along with Frank Cannock) but that they had operators, and therefore a complete exhibition service in these houses. The Eden Musee offered its services as a film exhibitor to outside parties, suggesting that Hollaman may have had some kind of special arrangement with Porter and his associates.

93. For a full account of American Vitagraph Company's activities as an Edison li-censee see Charles Musser, "American Vitagraph, 1897-1901," Cinema Journal 23, no. 3 (Spring 1983): 4-46. A major revision of this article will soon be published in English.

94. "Eden Musee," Mail and Express , 11 June 1898, p. 14.

94. "Eden Musee," Mail and Express , 11 June 1898, p. 14.

95. "Eden Musee," Mail and Express , 25 June 1898, p. 14.

96. Mail and Express , 16 July 1898, p. 18.

97. Mail and Express , 9 July 1898, p. 16.

98. New York Tribune , 7 August 1898, p. 10B.

99. Mail and Express , 27 August 1898, p. 12.

100. Mail and Express , 17 September 1898, p. 14.

99. Mail and Express , 27 August 1898, p. 12.

100. Mail and Express , 17 September 1898, p. 14.

101. Mail and Express , 1 October 1898, p. 12, and 1 November 1898, p. 5.

102. Brooklyn Eagle , 20 November 1898, p. 18.

103. See Musser with Nelson, High-Class Moving Pictures , pp. 86-93.

104. For example, Proctor advertisements, New York World , 21 August 1898, p. 13.

105. Clipper , 4 June 1898, p. 238, and 18 June 1898, p. 270.

106. Proctor's Pleasure Palace, programme, week of 11 July 1898, Harvard Theatre Collection.

107. ''Last Week's Bill, Pleasure Palace,'' NYDM , 19 November 1898, p. 20.

108. New York Tribune , 4 December 1898, p. 8B; Mail and Express , 20 December 1898, p. 7.

109. New York Tribune , 8 January 1899, p. 12B.

110. New York Tribune , 1 January 1899, p. 10B.

111. New York Herald , 6 February 1898, p. 7C. Gilmore to Paley, 7 March 1898, mentions this film, indicating it had already been completed.

112. New York Tribune , 15 January 1899, p. 12B.

113. Edison Films , March 1900, p. 2.

114. Albert Eaves and Rich Hollaman, receipt, 19 July 1899, NjWOE.

115. These were named after the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, which was owned and operated by the Parisian magician turned filmmaker.

116. Mail and Express , 8 April 1899, p. 11. Erik Barnouw, The Magician and the Cinema (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981) deals extensively with those magicians who used cinema in the 1890s. Lucy Fischer, "The Lady Vanishes: Women, Magic and the Movies," in Fell, ed., Film Before Griffith , pp. 339-54.

117. Porter, unused deposition, circa 1907, NjWOE.

118. The veriscope's wide-screen format also matched the boxing ring.

119. Clipper , 9 September 1899, p. 571.

120. Clipper , 23 September 1899, p. 609.

121. Clipper , 9 September 1899, p. 571.

122. Ibid.

123. "Palmer-M'Govern Bout Off Until To-morrow," New York Evening Journal , 11 September 1899, p. 8.

124. Clipper , 23 September 1899, p. 620. As was the case throughout this period, Sigmund Lubin enjoyed modest, but certain, financial gains by taking motion pictures of fight reenactments.

125. Mail and Express , 23 September 1899, p. 17.

126. Edison Films , March 1900, p. 7. One might speculate on the makeup of these crews: James White, William Heise, Charles Webster (a recently hired Edison employee), Albert E. Smith, J. Stuart Blackton, and William Paley. Perhaps Alfred C. Abadie and William Jamison, who worked for the Edison Manufacturing Company. Porter is another obvious possibility, although he never made such a claim.

127. Mail and Express , 30 September 1899, p. 13.

128. Mail and Express , 3 October 1899, p. 7.

129. Mail and Express , 28 October 1899, p. 15.

130. Lewis Jacobs reports that Porter began working for Edison as a handyman, totally ignoring his role as an exhibitor in the 1890s; he also indicates that Porter had been working as a cameraman for Edison during much of this period ( Rise of the American Film , p. 36). These incorrect claims may have encouraged Kemp R. Niver to attribute several Edison films from the 1898-1900 period to Porter, including The Cavalier's

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Dream, Elopement on Horseback, The Astor Tramp , and Storm at Sea ( Motion Pictures from the Library of Congress Paper Print Collection 1894-1912 [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967], p. 361). As the evidence presented in this chapter suggests, Ramsaye offers a much more credible chronology of Porter's career.

131. Clipper , 7 October 1899, p. 652.

132. Clipper , 4 November 1899, p. 756.

133. New York World , 24 December 1899, p. 3E.

134. Porter, unused deposition, ca. 1907, NjWOE. An advertisement in the Clipper (11 August 1900, p. 535) from Frank Bowland in New York City, asked Edwin Porter to "communicate with me at once," suggesting that Porter was then on the road.

135. William H. Swanson, "The Inception of the 'Black Top,'" MPW , 15 July 1916, p. 369. Swanson's dating is off, but other parts of his description merit some credibility.

136. As of December 8, 1899, the Edison Company had sold 973 projecting kinetoscopes (James H. White, testimony, 9 February 1900, Edison v. American Mutoscope Co ., p. 165). See appendix A for additional figures.

137. NYDM , 22 October 1898, p. 22.

138. Maguire & Baucus, Edison Films , 20 January 1897; War Extra: Edison Films , 20 May 1898; Clipper , 23 July 1898, p. 348. See Lubin advertisements in the Clipper for this period as a source of competitive pressure.

139. New York World , 5 November 1899, p. 8E, 12 November 1899, p. 5E, and 19 November 1899, p. 6E; Clipper , 21 April 1900, p. 184.

140. Thomas A. Edison v. Eberhard Schneider , nos. 7124 and 7125, C.C.S.D.N.Y., filed 21 December 1898, NjBaFAR.

141. Thomas Edison and Thomas Crahan, contract, 14 March 1899, NjWOE.

142. "Making Pictures of the Klondike," Orange Chronicle , 28 October 1899, p. 6; New York Press , 30 October 1899, and Newark [N.J.] Call , 29 October 1899, clippings, NjWOE.

143. I am also grateful for information about Bonine's early life from Robert Darrah and Kenneth Nelson. See Kenneth Nelson, "A Compilation of Information About Robert Kates Bonine, 1862-1923, with an Examination of His Early Years in Photography and Film" (M.A. thesis, Rochester Institute of Technology, 1987).

144. Thomas Edison and Thomas Crahan, contract, 14 March 1899, NjWOE. Although the 35mm films were to be Edison's exclusive property, the failure of the large-format camera must have altered this agreement.

145. Thomas Edison to John Ott, n.d. [ca. November 1899], NjWOE.

146. Moving Picture News , 4 February 1911, p. 11. Schneider provided this information to denigrate Edison's patents and so it requires some interpretation.

147. The American Scenic Company, Artistic Glimpses of the Wonder World (Thomas Crahan, 1900), NjWOE.

148. Thomas Crahan, Klondike Exposition Company, and Thomas Edison, contract, 18 June 1900, NjWOE.

149. Phonoscope , October 1898, p. 14; William Heise, testimony, 9 December 1902, Armat Moving Picture Co. v. Edison Manufacturing Co .

150. "Fake Pictures," Phonoscope , July 1900, p. 9.

151. Niver, Early Motion Pictures , p. 170.

152. Edison Films , March 1900, p. 29.

153. Ibid., p. 44.

154. Ibid., p. 30.

155. Ibid., p. 3.

156. Ibid.

157. "How the Bowery Tramp Got into Society," New York World , 25 November 1894, p. 25.

158. Edison Films , July 1901, p. 13.

159 Edison Films , March 1900, p. 3.

160. Biograph made The American Soldier in Love and War in 1903. Although its plot is somewhat similar, it was not a simple remake.

161. The Edison Company gained access to Smith's device when American Vitagraph became a licensee in the summer of 1898.

162. "Our Foreign Correspondence," Phonoscope , July 1900, p. 9.

163. William Alfred Higginbotham to Herbert Serious, New York Public Library, 3 November 1982. Susan Kemplar kindly brought this to my attention.

164. "Our Foreign Correspondence," Phonoscope , July 1900, p. 9. This was one of several efforts to show motion pictures with recorded sound at the Paris Exposition. See Emmanuelle Toulet, "Le Cinéma a l'Exposition Universelie de 1900," Revue d'Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine 33 (April-June 1986): 179-209.

165. Warwick Trading Company, Bioscope and Warwick Films, Supplement (September 1900), p. 149. "The first section comprises a close-view of the base of the chimney showing the lighting of the fire for burning the props which support the column. Next is shown a view from a distance, showing the fierce burning of the props."

166. See Charles Musser with Carol Nelson, High Class Moving Pictures , pp. 105-9, for a programme that structured eight of these films into a sequence and an analysis of Howe's use of these films.

167. Moving Picture News , 4 February 1911, p. 11. White intended to buy a group of negatives taken by Schneider in Europe but ruined many of them using the bad hypo.

168. Thomas A. Edison v. Frederick M. Prescott , nos. 7275 and 7276, C.C.S.D.N.Y., filed 9 June 1899, NjBaFAR. Perhaps to fill this hole, James White engaged Charles Webster, his former partner, to sell projecting machines and films at Edison's New York office. Charles H. Webster, deposition, 9 February 1900, Edison v. American Muto-scope Co .

169. Kleine Optical Company, "Films and Merchandise Purchased from Edison Mfg Company from 1899 to 1904," n.d., Kleine Collection, DLC.

170. James H. White and John Schermerhorn v. Percival Waters , Supreme Court, New York County. The entire case focused on the nature of this partnership.

171. White, testimony, 4, 5, and 6 May 1910, White and Schermerhorn v. Waters , p. 99.

172. Conot, Streak of Luck , passim.

173. Thomas A. Edison v. George Huber , no. 7224, C.C.S.D.N.Y., filed 28 April 1899, NjBaFAR.

174. New York World , 19 November 1899, p. 5E.

175. Harry Marvin to Thomas Edison, 27 March 1900, NjWOE.

176. Ramsaye, Million and One Nights , p. 384.

177. Edison Manufacturing Company, journal, 1900-1911, p. 8, NjWOE. The Edison

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Manufacturing Company produced not only films and projectors but batteries, fan motors, the Phonoplex, gas engine spark coils, and x-ray apparatus.