5
Producer and Exhibitor as Co-Creators: 1897-1900

The Eden Musee, a New York amusement center that regularly showed films, was licensed by Thomas Edison under his motion picture patents in February 1898. Just as important for our purposes, the Musee provided Edwin Porter with his principal form of employment—that of motion picture operator— during this same period. Projecting the Musee's films, Porter was involved in the creation of elaborate, high-quality programming that gave the Musee its excellent reputation. In the process, he and the Musee staff performed a crucial creative function that was as important as that of the production companies. They selected and acquired short films and frequently edited these subjects into programs with complex narrative structures. They were also responsible for the sound accompaniment: a lecture, music, sound effects, and even voices from behind the screen. These programs were very different from those that Porter and the Connellsville group had presented in the summer of 1896. The exhibitor was no longer presenting a novelty but had reintegrated motion pictures into the well-established practices of screen entertainment. By focusing on the production activities of the Edison Manufacturing Company and the exhibitions at the Eden Musee, new insight can be brought to the little-understood motion picture practices of the late 1890s.

The Peripatetic James White and Edison Film Production

Shortly after the 1896-97 theatrical year had ended and just as cinema's novelty period had come to a close, the Edison Company inaugurated a practice of great consequence for anyone interested in this era of history. When copy-

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Suburban Handicap, 1897. The event shown in four different shots. As with many 
films from this period, this one only survives in a poor-quality, grainy paper print.

righting films, Edison began to submit complete paper prints to the U.S. Copyright Office. This would remain company policy for the next eight years. Nitrate films would decompose or be destroyed, but these invaluable records survived.^[1] Moreover, they have remained virtually untouched and certainly unaltered for more than fifty years, while the handful of surviving nitrate prints were frequently subjected to commercial exigencies, including modernization and other forms of textual modification. Once these paper strips were rephotographed back onto film in the late 1950s and 1960s, they provided a unique resource, which even now has not been fully appreciated.

The earliest paper prints include Buffalo Police on Parade , taken June 10, 1897, and Free-For-All Race at Charter Oak Park , taken near Hartford, Connecticut, on July 5th. They not only document the kinetograph team's summer travels to Chicago and various points in the eastern United States, but enable us to understand the Edison Company's limited, but important, editorial role. Suburban Handicap, 1897 , taken June 22d, was a four-shot, 150-foot film of the

prestigious horse race at Sheepshead Bay, Long Island. In chronological order, it offered glimpses of the pre-race parade, the start, finish, and weighing out. The individual scenes may have been too short to sell on their own, and it was assumed that a purchaser would want as complete an account of the event as possible. In any case, White and Heise kinetographed and constructed a simple narrative. The shots lack camera movement (there was no attempt to follow the action), but are serviceable, if distant, views of the events. In the third shot, two heads are in the left foreground, lending depth perspective and the sense of being a participant. Whether or not intentional, such framings began to provide the basis for a news/actuality aesthetic. Other films taken that summer were not so ambitious. Philadelphia Express, Jersey Central Railway consisted of two takes. In the first, a train comes under an overpass and past the camera. The kinetograph was then halted and not restarted until another train approached the overpass. Edited together, these "takes" appear to be a single shot, with one train quickly following another. Time was elided, much as it was in the nineteenth-century theater when a character's off-stage (and therefore usually incidental) activities were radically condensed (the actor exited and then immediately reappeared).

The Edison Company employed a single production unit through the summer of 1897. As we have seen, this unit was collaborative in nature, as William Heise routinely acted as camera operator between 1892 and mid 1897, first with W. K. L. Dickson and then with James H. White. This phase of the Edison Company's history concluded shortly after the Monmouth County Horse Show in Long Branch, New Jersey, during mid August. This was probably the last joint White-Heise venture for many months, as the photographers took six copyrighted films of the event. These one-shot films (Judging Tandems, Exhibition of Prize Winners , etc.) reaffirmed the customary practice of selling individual scenes to exhibitors for use in more complex sequences. Edison's kinetograph and prestige served as a pass to this stylish, mid-August event.^[2] The cameramen's attendance, however, is explained less by the horse show's newsworthiness than by the continued opportunities it provided the filmmakers for interweaving work and leisure.

By the following spring, the Kinetograph Department had at least three discrete film production units operating under Edison auspices. Immediately after the Monmouth County Horse Show, White embarked on a tour that ultimately lasted ten months and sent him halfway around the world. The 25-year-old Kinetograph Department head was joined by photographer Fred W. Blechynden. Since William Heise could not be spared for this ambitious trip, Blechynden assumed the veteran's customary role in the collaborative pairing. Heise remained at the laboratory to supervise developing and printing of negatives as well as to take occasional films.

James White's tendency to combine work and play (with film production

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Philadelphia Express, Jersey Central. Two takes spliced together to form one shot.

often subordinated to manly adventure and enjoyment) was nowhere more apparent than on this trip, which ultimately produced over 130 copyrighted subjects. By August 22nd White and Blechynden were in the San Francisco Bay area, where they took a group of films at the famous glass-enclosed Sutro Baths. Some were simple quotidian shots of the baths. In Cupid and Psyche , however, the Leander Sisters were performing on the stage for a large group of male spectators, casually dressed in bathing suits. The camera was behind the two

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Cupid and Psyche. The female performers dance for the male
 customers and the male cameramen.

women, who danced for the spectators and then turned and pranced for the lens and the all-male camera crew.

The Edison Manufacturing Company probably purchased the motion picture camera equipment used on this world tour (or used equipment supplied by Blechynden).^[3] Unlike previous Edison cameras, this one did not operate on electricity—bringing Edison into line with common industry practice. Its new, if still crude, panning capabilities are evident in the seven-film "Pacific Coast Life Saving Service Series," taken near San Francisco. The pictures were "illustrative of the work being done by the Life Saving Corps of the United States Government, and show the methods in vogue at one of the most important stations on either side of our Continent."^[4] A very quick, jerky camera move reframes the boat for Launch of Surf Boat. Return of Lifeboat consists of three shots, all taken from the same spot: between each take, the camera framing shifts in an effort to follow the boat. In the final shot, however, as the boat comes through the breakers, the camera pans to keep it in frame. Lack of control over the action required this responsiveness from the camera crew, producing new elements of a nonfiction aesthetic. Other films were shot from a single camera position but involve two or more takes. In some cases, as with Boat Wagon and Beach Cart , these cuts are virtually invisible and eliminate dead spots in the

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Return of Lifeboat. In the final shot, as a wave takes the boat down the beach, the camera pans to keep it in frame.

action. In contrast, Launch of Life Boat utilizes a jump cut to show two important moments of a process, but without attempting to disguise or soften the transition. Although these films of practices and demonstrations were not fictional (i.e., seeking to create the illusion of an actual rescue), they were often advertised as such.

James White continued his reliance on subsidies from transportation companies. On September 2d, the photographers took three films of the S.S. Coptic leaving its dock. This ship was owned by the Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company, which later provided the pair with passage to and from the Far East. The following day White and Blechynden began to tour the lines of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company; they filmed accommodations and sites that were part of the package tours then being offered by the railroads (Hotel Vendome, San Jose, Cal . and Surf at Monterey ).^[5]

While in San Francisco, White apparently met William Wright, whose animatographe was playing at the Chutes, a local amusement park. Wright, the leading West Coast motion picture man, possessed crude production capabilities. He had been in Seattle, Washington, just after news of the Alaskan Gold Rush broke.^[6] Between August 6th and 9th, he took films related to the Klondike excitement (S.S. "Williamette" Leaving for Klondike and First Avenue, Seattle, Washington ). White apparently either purchased these negatives or worked out a royalty arrangement and eventually sent them back to the laboratory. Wright may have subsequently taken other films on the West Coast for the Edison Company.

By early October, White and Blechynden were in Denver, Colorado, where they photographed events centered around the Festival of Mountain and Plain, celebrated during the first week in October. This included a parade on the 4th (Masked Procession and Cripple Creek Floats ) as well as an Indian encampment (Wand Dance, Pueblo Indians and Buck Dance, Ute Indians ).^[7] The intrepid

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Wand Dance, Pueblo Indians.

cameramen then apparently returned with the Utes to their reservation (Serving Rations to Indians ), after which they headed south to Mexico.

White and Blechynden spent mid October to mid December in Mexico. Once again, their subjects were made with the active support of the railways. As the Edison catalog remarked:

The open-sesame of a general manager's pass, issued to Mr. Edison's photographers, has enabled us to lay open before the public views taken in the heart of our great Sister Republic. The Mexican Central to-day is a great railroad system, managed by capable and courteous officials. It is due to their interest in our work and the liberal assistance proffered to our artists, that they obtained such excellent and characteristic pictures of Mexican life.^[8]

Several films were taken at the Hacienda de Soledad, in Sabinas, Mexico (Cattle Leaving the Corral ). Scenes of Mexico City included Las Vigas Canal, Mexico City and Sunday Morning in Mexico . Perhaps the most notable films of the entire trip were taken of a bullfight in Durango. The three-shot Bull Fight, No. 1 has a close view/far shot/close view structure. The middle shot contains a slight camera move. It is also possible that the shots were taken at two different locations and then combined to create the appearance of a single incident. Bull Fight, No. 2 consists of two shots: in both the camera follows the action. Bull

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Bull Fight No. 1.

Fight, No. 3 shows three scenes from a single camera position, including the bull's collapse. Although the production company made a significant editorial intervention, the three brief films remained separate elements for the exhibitor's construction of a larger program.

White and Blechynden returned to the United States shortly before Christmas 1897. Once again they traveled under the auspices of the Southern Pacific Railroad, arriving in San Diego on December 20th (Street Scene, San Diego ). Vast expanses of orange groves were filmed from the front of a train moving in Riverside (California Orange Groves, Panoramic View ). Checking into a Los Angeles hotel on New Year's Eve, they shot South Spring Street, Los Angeles , the first film to be taken in the country's future motion picture capital. Along the way, a diverse group of railway scenes were added to their collection. Again these scenes of everyday occurrences and annual events were well suited to an evening-length travel lecture combining slides and film.

The itinerant cameramen were reensconced in San Francisco by January 22d when they visited the Union Iron Works and took Launch of the Japanese Man-of-War "Chitose " and several related scenes. Two days later, they filmed

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S.S. "Coptic" Running Against the Storm.

a parade celebrating the 50th anniversary of the discovery of gold in California (Native Daughters ). At this point White made a momentous decision. Having toured for six months, the photographers nonetheless left for the Far East aboard the S.S. Coptic on February 3d—less than two weeks before the sinking of the U.S. Battleship Maine . Again the Occidental and Oriental S.S. Company subsidized their way. Buffeted by a typhoon that damaged the ship and prolonged their passage by several days, they filmed S.S. "Coptic" Running Against the Storm .^[9] The camera was strapped to the deck as a mountainous sea burst over the bow, precariously extending a procedure begun when a Lumière operator put a camera on a gondola moving through Venice.

White and Blechynden arrived in Yokohama, Japan, on February 24th. Over the next eight weeks, they traveled to Shanghai, Hong Kong, Canton, Macao, Nagasaki, and finally back to Yokohama. Twenty-five films made during this circuit were eventually copyrighted, including Street Scene in Hong Kong, Canton River Scene, Shanghai Street Scene No. 1 , and Theatre Road, Yokohama .

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Japanese Sampans and Theatre Road, Yokohama.

White also tried to establish an Edison agency in the Far East and later claimed to be looking for materials that his employer could use in experiments.^[10] Returning home on the S.S. Doric (Game of Shovel Board on Board S.S. "Doric" ), White and Blechynden arrived in Hawaii on May 9th. Films taken the next morning included Honolulu Street Scene and Kanakas Diving for Money .^[11]

On May 16th, four weeks after the United States declared war on Spain, White and Blechynden again reached San Francisco. War films, not travel scenes, were in demand, and the fruits of this trip never received the attention White must have originally expected. Responding to these new circumstances, the collaborators tooks a few scenes of American troops departing for the Philippines (California Volunteers Marching to Embark ) and finally headed home. As was often the case with Westerners visiting Asia, White had become seriously ill.^[12]

During White's ten-month absence, William Heise produced approximately twenty-five copyrighted subjects, all taken either at the Black Maria or in the Orange-Newark environs. In some instances at least, he worked closely with John Ott. On two occasions, the photographer took films in close cooperation with local civic organizations. At the request of the Ambulance Fund, Heise shot five negatives in downtown Orange on October 8, 1897.^[13] Two were of the vehicle racing from its stable. Three others showed a man hit by a trolley and then picked up and rushed off by the ambulance. A local theater employee played the victim. Ambulance Call and Ambulance at the Accident , the best depictions of each scene, were copyrighted and sold separately, but commonly promoted and shown together (for example, at benefits for the Ambulance Fund).^[14] Other films were made with the help of Gatling Gun Company A, a popular group of citizen soldiers whose armory served as their social club. On Thanksgiving morning, the crews gathered and performed their evolutions for the camera.^[15] These included Gatling Gun Crew in Action and Mount & Dis-

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Ambulance Call and Ambulance at the Accident.

mount, Gatling Gun . Shown at a benefit for the Company's Athletic Fund, they were also copyrighted and sold.^[16]

Heise took winter scenes of sleighing, sledding, snowballing, and ice hockey during early February 1898. Other miscellaneous scenes included an April snowstorm in Llewellyn Park (Edison's residential neighborhood) and a May game of minor league baseball between Reading and Newark. That spring the Black Maria was used for several comedies. The Burglar was based on a well-known scene in Evans and Hoey's farce A Parlor Match : A burglar struggles to open a safe, but his task is interrupted when the office boy enters the room and reveals that the safe is used as a coal bin. The Telephone spoofed a new and increasingly common communication technology:

Posted on the wall is the startling sign, DON'T TRAVEL. USE TELEPHONE. YOU CAN GET ANYTHING YOU WANT . Man comes in, rings up, takes telephone, talks, then waits a moment; opens little door at the bottom of receiver, and takes out—a glass of beer! Blows off the foam, takes a deep draught, and telephones for a cigar. Waits for a moment; gets impatient and calls again, when out comes a blast of flour, plastering his face and clothes so that he looks like a miller.^[17]

Both one-shot scenes were awkwardly handled, suggesting why Heise never assumed a more prominent role in film production.

The most successful comedy made during White's absence was undoubtedly What Demoralized the Barbershop , which Heise shot in the Black Maria with the help of John Ott.^[18] The set for this reworking of Barbershop Scene was more elaborate, but the key shift was in the introduction of a new element—women. This all-male milieu is located in a cellar, with a set of steep stairs leading to the sidewalk. Here two women, presumably prostitutes, stop in the doorway and raise their skirts to reveal white-stockinged legs. Neither the customers nor the camera glimpse their upper torsos and faces. The men, who can see but not be

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What Demoralized the Barbershop. The all-male world of the barbershop
 is disrupted as two prostitutes try to drum up some business.

seen (except by the film spectators!), lose their composure and scramble to get a better view. The camera, likewise, is low enough to provide an upward look. The film thus inscribes male voyeurism within its simple gag narrative. It also suggests the superiority of cinematic voyeurism: film spectators can look from the unhumiliating comfort of their seats. In the darkened theater, they can see but not be seen. If the film provides a laugh at the male customers' expense, it also offers the spectator the titillation of their view.

Heise's output discloses basic problems with subject matter that paralleled White's. His response to the inflamed patriotism sparked by the Maine sinking was limited to American Flag and Old Glory and the Cuban Flag . The first example of flag-waving remade an earlier subject, while the second offered a modest variation appropriate for the current circumstances. Two versions were taken of each, the ones against a black background apparently intended for hand coloring. None, however, depicted events relevant to the Cuban crisis.

Edison On the Legal Offensive

Although Thomas Edison copyrighted and marketed over 130 films during 1897, his enterprise was competing against several other motion picture manufacturers. Among the most prominent were the American Mutoscope Company (i.e., Biograph) and the International Film Company in New York; Edward Amet in Waukegan, Illinois; and Sigmund Lubin in Philadelphia. As a result, the volume of Edison's film-related sales changed little. For the year ending March 1, 1898, film sales were down 11 percent to $75,250, while film profits remained virtually unchanged at $24,439. The marketing of Edison's projecting kinetoscope had gone fairly well, but projector sales of $27,802 only yielded profits of $4,826. If Edison hoped to regain his dominance of the motion picture industry, patent litigation seemed to offer the most promising route.

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Edison filmmakers at ease on the set for What Demoralized the Barbershop
. William Heise in barber chair; possibly John Ott behind him.

As Gordon Hendricks has shown, Edison had difficulty acquiring patents for his motion picture camera, since his innovations had been anticipated in almost every respect by previous inventors. On February 21, 1893, Edison was finally issued patent no. 491,993 on application no. 403,535 for his method of steadily advancing the film. The process of revising application no. 403,534 took even longer owing to excessive claims and the delaying tactics of Edison's lawyers.^[19] (Since patents were only good for thirteen years, delaying their date of issue was often an effective strategy for extending the patentee's control over an industry.) Finally on August 31, 1897, Edison was granted his motion picture camera patent, no. 589,168.

In December 1897 Edison lawyers launched a legal offensive against a number of producers and exhibitors. Edmund Kuhn's and Charles Webster's International Film Company was the first target.^[20] Rather than fight the case in court, International closed its doors. Maguire & Baucus, one of Edison's principal selling agents, but one that also sold Lumière and International Film Company subjects, was sued at the same time. They did not contest the suit either. While F. Z. Maguire continued working with the Edison organization and sold its films during much of 1898, the partners gradually moved their activities to England.^[21] Lubin was sued on January 10th and Biograph on May 13th: both contested these suits and remained in business.^[22] Over the year, Edison sued a

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The Eden Musee.

number of other "infringers." Some of these acknowledged the inventor's patents and became licensees. With licensing arrangements characterizing Edison's commercial practices during the late 1890s, we now turn to look closely at Edison's first motion picture licensee—the Eden Musee.

The Eden Musee

The Eden Musee, an imposing stone structure on the south side of Twenty-third Street west of Madison Square, was located in a fashionable New York entertainment and shopping district. When a group of Frenchmen opened the Musee on March 28, 1884, the amusement center featured waxworks, often of a topical character, and musical concerts, along with an occasional specialty— lantern shows, marionettes, and so forth.^[23] The Musee's catalog described its purpose:

The founders of the EVEN MUSEE had a higher object in view than that alone of establishing a profitable commercial enterprise. It was their intention to open a Temple of Art without rival in this country, affording to all an opportunity for instruction, amusement and recreation, without risk of coming into contact with anything or any-

body that was vulgar or offensive. For children and young people, particularly, the Eden Musee will prove a constant source of enjoyment and instruction. A child will learn more from a plastic representation of events and persons than a book can teach. Illustrated newspapers, giving pictorial views of incidents and scenes of today, have already a great advantage over the ordinary journals which give us only the dead letterpress; and from the cold, colorless engravings of an illustrated newspaper to the life-like plastic groups of the Eden Musee is an immense step towards a realistic representation of nature and life.^[24]

Through ticket price and programming, the Musee appealed to a middle-class audience whose sense of cultural propriety included a strong dose of moralism.

By the mid 1890s the changing world of New York amusements had left the Musee in a tenuous situation. To compete with the rising tide of vaudeville, it often featured dancers, singers, and other performers. Yet these worked against the image outlined in its catalog and were not apparently successful. Musee president Richard G. Hollaman solved the crisis by making moving pictures an important third element in the house's programming. On December 18, 1896, the Lumière cinématographe began to show films in the Winter Garden, which could accommodate 2,000 people.^[25] According to the Mail and Express , one of New York City's smaller afternoon newspapers:

The Cinematographe is having a successful run at the Eden Musee. This is due mainly to the new views that have been taken especially for the Musee. One of the latest and most interesting is that of Li Hung Chang's march into Fifth Avenue from Washington Square. Li Hung Chang can be readily recognized, as can many of the officials who accompanied him. Along each side of the avenue there is a great crowd of people waving their handkerchiefs and applauding. The thirty-five or more other views are equally lifelike and interesting. The views are all well chosen and occasionally a peculiar effect is produced by reversing the view. When this is done everything is entirely opposite from the first effect. The views are shown each hour during the afternoon and evening.^[26]

There was a close affinity between the Eden Musee's waxworks and its moving pictures, both of which strove toward "a realistic representation of nature and life."

Although Hollaman chose to use the French cinématographe rather than the vitascope or projectoscope, he nonetheless added a wax figure of Thomas Edison to his collection in February 1897. Edison, who was sketched in his studio and donated a suit of clothes to cover his likeness, was shown "seated at a table on which are the drawing of the phonograph and one of the completed instruments. Edison is holding the tubes to his ears, listening to the first complete message ever inscribed on a phonograph cylinder."^[27]

The Lumière cinématographe lasted only two months at the Eden Musee. On February 22d, a week after the Lumière service opened at Proctor's Pleasure

Palace, Hollaman introduced the cinématographe Joly as a "permanent feature" at his house. The new exhibition service was owned and operated by German emigré Eberhard Schneider. Musee publicity announced that the new machine "reproduced long scenes without noise and flickering of light on the screen. Many of the scenes take from three to five minutes, and each detail is strikingly exact."^[28] A lecture and music accompanied the opening night performance, with views primarily from France.^[29] In mid April the Musee shifted its emphasis to American views and renamed Joly's apparatus the "American Cinematograph."^[30] By May, groups of American and foreign films were being shown on alternating hours.^[31] Two or more films in a program often contained related subject matter, which was frequently noted as the principal or headline attraction.

Although New York had a population that was nearing three and a half million in 1897, the Eden Musee was the only amusement center in the city that committed itself to motion pictures on a full-time basis. Vaudeville managers thought of moving pictures as a popular turn that had to be replaced more or less frequently to keep the bill fresh and lively. Even B. F. Keith, whose organization evidenced the greatest enthusiasm for films, did not keep motion pictures on his Union Square theater bill all the time. After the Lumière cinématographe's five-month stay ended in late November 1896, manager J. Austin Fynes allowed seven weeks to go by before bringing in Biograph for a fifty-week run. Then the theater was once again without motion pictures. At the other extreme, Pastor's Theater had seven different motion picture engagements between mid January 1897 and early February 1898. These kept motion pictures on his bill for twelve of the sixty-five weeks. Other vaudeville theaters, including the Proctor theaters and Huber's 14th Street Museum, showed films periodically as well.^[32] This gave the Eden Musee a unique role in New York City and, because New York was the center of motion picture activity, in the United States as a whole.

When a problem arose at the Eden Musee in mid 1897, Richard Hollaman increased his commitment to moving pictures when other managers might have backed away. On June 14th, Schneider's cinematograph started a fire that sent 1,500 patrons stampeding to the exits. The Musee's publicist minimized the narrowly avoided catastrophe, which came just over a month after the infamous Charity Bazaar fire in Paris, also started by a cinématographe Joly. Schneider lost his contract, and Hollaman brought back the Lumière cinématographe.^[33] At the same time, Hollaman hired Frank Cannock to build a projecting apparatus for the Musee's use. This machine was installed at the Musee in August. "For months a skilled inventor has been working upon models and a new cinematograph will be placed on exhibition today," reported the New York Times . "It is a wonderful machine and the vibration is reduced to a minimum."^[34] The Mail and Express added, "The new machine is superior to any that has been shown

before. It projects with the least flicker and looking at the picture does not weary the eyes."^[35] Cannock worked with William Beadnell, who handled publicity for the Eden Musee, and with Edwin Porter, who joined the project in the summer of 1897 while he was projecting films in New York City.^[36]

Hollaman's move may have inaugurated the American Cinematograph Company, an exhibition service based at Room 205, 5 Beekman Street, New York City. Although the nature of its relationship with the Musee remains somewhat hazy, the service must have been at least partially owned and controlled by the amusement enterprise.^[37] As the Musee prospered, so too did this exhibition service.

Porter Operates and Builds Projectors

Having returned from his Caribbean tour after the theatrical season ended, Edwin S. Porter projected advertising films in Herald Square during the summer of 1897.^[38] Although his name was not mentioned, the exhibition was reported in a trade journal for the motion picture and phonograph industries, the Phonoscope :

A very interesting and novel advertising exhibition is now being given on the roof of the building at 1321 Broadway, facing Herald Square.

Animated films are shown illustrating advertisements. The pictures were all by the International Film Co., 44 Broad Street, and are attracting the attention nightly of thousands of people. As an instance of the enterprise and hustle of the International Film Co., the Democratic Mayor was nominated on Thursday night and on Friday his picture was on the screen at 34th Street.^[39]

Since this job for the International Film Company was performed at night, Porter helped with the construction of the Musee's cinematograph during the day.

After spending the summer months in New York, Porter and his former partner Harry J. Daniels joined with Professor V. W. Wormwood's Dog and Monkey Circus and toured Quebec and Nova Scotia in September and October (see document no. 4). Porter showed Lumière films of Queen Victoria's 1897 jubilee on a projectograph acquired from the International Film Company.^[40] Showing a number of films that dealt with a single subject, Porter had to sequence these scenes into an order that gave a clear account of the ceremonies and maintained the audience's maximum interest. Harry Daniels undoubtedly provided a running commentary with the films. With people coming to see images of a significant event that had occurred on the other side of the Atlantic, the simple novelty of projected motion pictures was clearly in the past.^[41] Porter and Daniels also helped to amuse patrons with pictures unrelated to the royal jubilee and illustrated songs. Although it was called "an unqualified success"

and played to large audiences, the troupe was short-lived.^[42] By mid November Wormwood was on the vaudeville circuit and Porter was without a job.^[43]

The Eden Musee Moves Into Production—The Passion Play

During the fall, the popular Eden Musee was turning away potential patrons for the first time in several years. On Sunday, October 3d, five thousand people were admitted and filled every seat in the Winter Garden.^[44] With tickets 50¢ for adults and 25¢ for children, the box-office must have approached or exceeded $2,000 for one day. This was attributed to the fact that the Musee had begun to move into film production. "The popularity of the Cinematograph at the Eden Musee is as great as ever," reported the Mail and Express . "The fact that four times as many views are shown there as elsewhere is another reason for its popularity. In addition the Musee pictures are taken especially for the Musee and reproduced on the most perfect machine made, which was also perfected by the Musee."^[45] To take its subjects, the Musee hired William Paley, a former x-ray exhibitor who had moved into the motion picture field after suffering the

adverse effects of radiation.^[46] As the Musee's commitment to film expanded, other new employees were also needed.

Porter, who returned to New York after his Canadian tour, used his connection with Beadnell to get a job at the Musee as a motion picture operator.^[47] It seems likely that he toiled on projector improvements reported early in 1898. In February refinements made the pictures "as perfect as possible." A month later further exertion reduced vibration and sharpened the image.^[48] The image quality provided by different projectors varied widely during the 1890s, and specific improvements could substantially contribute to an exhibitor's success. Porter's mechanical flair was an important asset, giving him access to companies and situations unavailable to the average operator.

Hiring Porter roughly coincided with the Eden Musee's production of The Passion Play of Oberammergau . Late in 1897, after attending the opening film exhibition of The Horitz Passion Play in Philadelphia,^[49] Musee president Richard Hollaman resolved to produce a filmed reenactment of the famous Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany. He enlisted the aid of Albert G. Eaves, who had the costumes and script from Salmi Morse's thwarted theatrical production of the Passion Play. Henry C. Vincent, a stage director at Niblo's Garden Theater, was employed to select the actors, paint the scenery, and supervise the production on the rooftop of Grand Central Palace.^[50] According to Terry Ramsaye, "One of the major difficulties encountered arose from the fact that the director, the aged and authoritative Vincent, believed that he was making a series of lantern slides for stereopticon presentation. All efforts to explain to him that the camera recorded motion continuously failed entirely. It was Vincent's practice to put the company into rehearsal and when a striking moment arrived to dash out before the camera and scream 'Hold it!'"^[51] Filming took six weeks. Using subterfuge, the Musee's cameraman William Paley and the actors finally shot twenty-three scenes, totaling approximately 2,000 feet. These were projected at approximately thirty frames per second, giving roughly nineteen minutes of screen time.^[52]

The films, which were recently found and preserved by the George Eastman House, were taken with a distant, static camera. Frontal compositions, while often effective, seem to derive from a stage performance. The bare sets and narrative simplicity at least evoke the reputed folk culture of the Oberammergau peasants. Although the Eden Musee implied that the films showed that famed Passion Play , critics quickly dismissed the ruse, since it had last been performed in 1890, well before Edison's kinetograph had been invented. "Nor do these pictures even approach a close imitation of the Oberammergau play," remarked one knowledgeable reviewer. "Of the twenty-three scenes shown yesterday seven do not occur at all in the play of Oberammergau, which begins with the entry of Christ into Jerusalem."^[53] Similarities to the Morse Passion Play , never successfully produced in New York, were noted.^[54]

The Musee's films were only one element in an extensive, complex program. According to the Phonoscope , the addition of lantern slides in keeping with the subject produced an entertainment of approximately two hours.^[55] These images were accompanied by a lecturer who stood next to the screen and by an unseen organist and vocalists. The results were shown publicly for the first time on January 28, 1898, though its official premiere came three days later.^[56] Reactions and reviews were more positive than anticipated.^[57] The New York World , for instance, praised the production:

PASSION PLAY AT EDEN MUSEE

SACRED DRAMA SHOWN BY MEANS OF THE CINEMATOGRAPH

A series of Passion Play pictures is now being presented at the Eden Musee by the cinematograph. The scenes have been reproduced from sketches at the time of the last presentation of the biblical drama given at Oberammergau. The motion pictures were secured from a representation given in this country by actors garbed in the costume drawn from these designs and drilled in the various tableaux. Twenty-three scenes are shown, beginning with the shepherds watching their flocks and ending with the ascension. The best of them were the flight into Egypt, the raising of Lazarus, the crucifixion and the descent from the cross. The exhibition made a decidedly favorable impression and will doubtless be the means of attracting many visitors to this popular place of amusement.^[58]

The Passion Play was shown twice a day—at 3 in the afternoon and 9 in the evening—for the following three months and periodically thereafter. Over 30,000 people saw it during the first three weeks, with ministers and church people making up the bulk of the audience.^[59] The program thus attracted the types of culturally conservative, middle-class patrons that the Musee had always publicly courted.

The Musee's Passion Play was an extension and revitalization of a lantern show that was familiar to most Americans. The typical illustrated lecture on the Oberammergau Passion had, since John Stoddard's first lectures in 1880, shown the events surrounding the play as well as the play itself.^[60] The simple life of the Oberammergau woodcarvers who assumed roles in the production, the arrival and accommodation of the tourists, and views outside the theater, all provided a context for the presentation of the play. The Musee's Passion Play continued this tradition. While the play was shown using motion photography, heightening the intensity and realism of the theatrical experience, it was embedded in a static world of stock travel slides. Later, after the 1900 performance of the play, four scenes filmed in the village were sold with the Passion Play films: Trains Loaded with Tourists Arriving at Oberammergau, Opening of the Great Amphitheatre Doors for Intermission, Street Scene in Oberammergau , and Anton Lange's House .^[61] These films were undoubtedly meant to supplement or replace some of

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The Passion Play of Oberammergau. Two scenes "reenacted" on an open-air stage in New York City. 
The train scene was taken in Oberammergau at the time of the 1900 performance.

the slides used in earlier programs. In 1898 the different materials—slides and film—emphasized the different pro-filmic elements: films/theatrical reenactment versus slides/nontheatrical actualities.

The combining of slides and films was a common exhibition practice during this period. The Musee's Passion Play well illustrates the reasons for these choices.

1. Visual pleasure. The technology for projecting moving pictures was still sufficiently primitive to strain the eyes. A combination of "flicker" and "shakiness" quickly reduced the viewer's satisfaction. In Animated Photography , Cecil Hepworth felt, "the best plan is to show one or two slides between each animated photograph. The still photograph is a great relief to the eyes and a thorough rest after the more or less tiring living photographs."^[62]

2. Cinematic effect . The contrast between static and moving photo-

graphs could be dramatically effective and "relieve the monotony of a simple stereopticon entertainment with the interesting features of a moving picture."^[63] At the same time, the larger photographic slides had more detail and allowed for skillful tinting.

3. Diversity of images and supply . The exhibitor had many more photographic slides to choose from in comparison to films. Many types of images were only available as still photographs or even as drawings mechanically transferred to glass.

4. Cost . Films were extremely expensive and few exhibitors could afford a program consisting exclusively of moving pictures. By combining slides and films, C. Francis Jenkins suggested, an exhibitor could "occupy an entire evening and at the same time present the attractiveness of a moving picture entertainment, but at much less expense."^[64]

The little that has been written about cinema during the late 1890s often focuses on the distinction between a few longer, important films, of which The Passion Play is a prime example, and the many short films that are generally considered less significant.^[65] This analysis creates a false distinction. The Passion Play was not a single film but a program composed of as many as twenty-three discrete scenes, each of which was its own "film," and an unknown quantity of slides. Such confusion equates the films that were produced with what was shown—an equation arising in part because the Musee was both the producer and the best-known exhibitor of these films.

The functions of film production and exhibition were independent: programs were by no means fixed but could be altered in their length, order, narration, or format. On February 18th, for instance, the Musee added a choir of boys chanting anthems to its program. By late March the accompanying lecture by Professor Powell had been extended and the choir boys were singing new anthems.^[66] Moreover, the success of The Passion Play led the Musee to send out at least two touring companies in early March to give exhibitions in other theaters. These had different lecturers, performers, and formats to facilitate moving from town to town.^[67]

When Hollaman's Passion Play films were later offered for sale by the Edison Company, they could be purchased individually or as a group.^[68] Sigmund Lubin and William Selig subsequently produced rival film versions of the Passion Play that were also sold on a scene-by-scene basis. Selig actually suggested five different programs using either 25, 20, 15, 12, or 9 films.^[69] Exhibitors who could not afford the entire series made a selection based on their resources and preferences. They could purchase additional films at a later date and/or combine films from different companies. The exhibitor was dealing with two different units: (1) the short individual film that paralleled the slide as a primary unit subject to editorial manipulation, and (2) the program constructed out of these

slides and films, which was never standardized. There was no "definitive" version, and in this sense never a finished, complete work that achieved permanent closure.

The Passion Play was a major cinematic event and one that quickly turned the Eden Musee into an Edison licensee. With the program appearing shortly after Edison's legal offensive had begun, the inventor brought suit against Richard Hollaman and the entertainment center for patent infringement on February 7th.^[70] An accommodation was reached two weeks later, not only with the Musee, which turned its Passion Play negatives over to the Edison Manufacturing Company, but with William Paley. On March 7th, Paley received a contractual letter from William Gilmore outlining arrangements under which he was to take films (see document no. 5). With James White still in the Far East, the Edison Company placed this experienced cameraman under contract. His first assignment was to make films relating to the Spanish-American War.

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The Spanish-American War

The sinking of the Maine and the Spanish-American War were a boon to the American film industry, as cinema regained a wide audience. Prior to these events, New York exhibitors were suffering through yet another period of underutilization. Even Keith's had let the Biograph service go after a year-long run. Once again, the Eden Musee was the only amusement center advertising a film exhibition in local papers.^[71] When Biograph opened at Proctor's Pleasure Palace on February 14th, this situation would not have changed significantly— except that the Maine was blown up in Havana Harbor the following day.

Within a week after the explosion, Pleasure Palace audiences were seeing "the ill-fated Battleship Maine" — actually a film of her sister ship—on the screen. The Musee, which had previously highlighted developments in Cuba, may have hired Biograph to show similar films when the Musee's cinemato-

graph was not showing The Passion Play .^[72] By mid March, the "wonderful Biograph" was arousing patriotic enthusiasm with scenes related to the Maine , views of the Spanish ship Vizcaya , which had recently visited New York harbor, and "counterfeit presentments" of Consul General Fitzhugh Lee, who headed the inquiry into the "Maine" explosion, and of Charles Sigsbee, the ship's captain. Such inflammatory subjects were deemed "highly instructive."^[73]

As President McKinley wavered between war and reconciliation with Spain, the "new" or "yellow" journalism of William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer's New York World worked hand in hand with the music halls and theaters to incite Americans' warlike spirit. During the early part of the day, many New Yorkers read detailed descriptions of the latest Spanish atrocities and perused Journal editorials that declared, "A war would show first of all, what sort of stuff this country is made of, and what kind of men it has produced in the last thirty years."^[74] Later in the day, these people might attend the theater, where patriotic songs encouraged group demonstrations. Biograph's exhibitions often provoked loud applause or hisses (depending on the subject). A film of the American flag at the conclusion of each program guaranteed long, hysterical cheers. The press gave such outbursts extensive coverage, and the World claimed that they indicated "the temper of the people in the present crisis."^[75] Audience enthusiasm encouraged the Biograph Company to send cameramen to Havana, where they photographed noteworthy scenes. At the end of March, these films were being shown at the Pleasure Palace. These "Life-Motion Views" presented "the Wreck of the Maine, Divers Ascending and Descending, Consul General Lee at His Residence, The Reconcentrados, etc."^[76] A week later, the Eden Musee was showing the same Biograph views. "The workings of the divers are plainly seen," reported the Mail and Express . "These views aroused much enthusiasm, and when a fluttering United States flag was shown nearly everyone present, including women, cheered."^[77]

Neither the Edison Company nor the Eden Musee could afford to tolerate the Biograph Company's monopoly of war films. Biograph was Edison's major commercial rival, while the Musee had few war subjects for its cinematograph and was forced to spend substantial sums on the Biograph service, which nonetheless first exhibited its films elsewhere. These organizations and Edison's selling agent F. Z Maguire accordingly made arrangements with Hearst's New York Journal and dispatched William Paley to Florida and Cuba.^[78] Hearst not only made his news yachts available to the Edison cameraman for transportation and as a platform for taking films, he paid for Paley's trip.^[79] His was "the journalism that acts."^[80]

Paley, still recovering from an illness, left his sickbed in mid March and headed for Key West, Florida.^[81] There he worked closely with Karl C. Decker, a Hearst journalist, taking one-shot films related to the crisis. On the 27th he filmed Burial of the "Maine" Victims . For War Correspondents , the two staged

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Burial of the "Maine" Victims.

a good-natured foot race among reporters, who were supposedly taking "war copy" to the telegraph office. Decker followed up the rear in a carriage, coming in last. (The Journal , failing to see the humor in this arrangement, described the scene by asserting that Decker beat his rivals.) Another film depicted Decker on the decks of the Journal's despatch yacht Buccaneer . Paley and Decker also used the despatch yacht's decks for filming views of Admiral Sampson's fleet in the Dry Tortugas, southwest of Key West (U.S. Battleship "Iowa ").^[82] Although the cameraman and journalist made three attempts to film in the vicinity of Havana Harbor, only two scenes were successfully taken: Wreck of the Battleship "Maine " and Morro Castle, Havana Harbor .^[83] In fact, with the sole exception of Burial of the "Maine" Victims (150 feet), all the films were only 50 feet in length—ideally suited for the active editorial intervention of the exhibitor (see document no. 6).

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Wreck of the Battleship "Maine."

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Less than a week after Paley's return, his pictures had been copyrighted by Thomas Edison and prints were being sold to impatient film exhibitors. The demand was so great that Paley, who had returned to New York on April 15th, returned to Florida on April 21st in anticipation of a declaration of war, which came four days later. Maguire advanced $500 to Paley against the cameraman's future royalties and may have provided him with film stock, but he told Gilmore: "As Mr. Paley is practically spending his own money, you can readily understand that this is a very good arrangement for us. The trip will practically cost us nothing."^[84]

On his second trip, Paley went to Tampa, Florida, and photographed scenes of military preparations (10th U.S. Infantry Disembarking from Cars ) and everyday scenes of military life (9th Infantry Boys' Morning Wash ). Several views of Cuban refugees were also taken (Cuban Refugees Waiting for Rations ). Camp scenes became more and more common as Paley waited for the invasion of Cuba to commence (Blanket Tossing a New Recruit and 9th and 13th U.S. Infantry at Battalion Drill ). On June 8th, the patient cameraman took Roosevelt's Rough Riders Embarking for Santiago and other scenes of troops boarding transports. The soldiers baked for a week under Tampa's ferocious sun; it was not until June 22d that they landed at Baiquiri, Cuba (commonly spelt "Daiquiri"). Paley along with other correspondents probably accompanied the convoy on the Olivette. U.S. Troops Landing at Daiquiri, Cuba and Mules Swimming Ashore at Daiquiri, Cuba perhaps taken from this ship, were said to be of the first American soldiers to reach Cuban soil.^[85]

Once Paley reached Cuban soil, transporting the portly cameraman and his equipment proved a nightmarish task, particularly with the shortage of horses. Aided by an army teamster, he finally reached general headquarters and photographed Major General Shafter , showing the obese commander astride his horse. Paley took only a few additional subjects (Troops Making a Military Road in Front of Santiago; Packing Ammunition on Mules, Cuba ) before disaster struck. The wagon carrying his baggage broke down, exposing photogra-

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71st N.Y. Volunteers Embarking for Santiago.

pher and apparatus to a night-long rainstorm. The camera stopped working, Paley came down with a fever, and his Cuban expedition was ended. With the assistance of Charles E. Hands of the London Daily Mail , he reached a resupply point and went home dangerously ill.^[86]

By April 18th, Paley's films were being shown at the Eden Musee, which acted as a center for war news and patriotic demonstrations:

The Cuban wax works attracted much attention there last evening and the new figure of General Lee was continually surrounded by his admirers. The orchestra gave a concert of patriotic selections, including the battle hymns of civilized countries. The cinematograph exhibited new pictures taken in and about Havana Harbor by the Musee's artist and also pictures of American battleships at anchor and in movements, cavalry dashes, sham battles and National Guards on the march. Frequently the patriotism of the audience would rise to such an extent that there would be cheering.^[87]

Enjoying its own supply of war films (via Paley), the Musee ended its Passion Play performances on May 4th, after two hundred exhibitions. Henceforth, all its energies were concentrated on sustaining the bellicose mood of New Yorkers. On May 7th, a week after Commodore George Dewey's victory in Manila Bay,

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Advertisement for Edison "War Films."

his wax figure was on display in the Musee foyer. Meanwhile, Porter and his immediate boss, Eugene Elmore, showed "scenes from Havana, of the American warships, the sunken Maine, the Maine crew, burial of the Maine sailors and other views taken in and about Havana harbor and Key West. In addition are views of sham battles, infantry maneuvers and target practice."^[88] Exhibitions devoted exclusively to the war were given hourly. Some focused on a particular aspect of the struggle, while others were more eclectic. New views were shown on a weekly basis into the summer. Many "were taken by the Musee's own artist, and are different from those shown at other places."^[89]

The Cuban crisis and Spanish-American war brought moving pictures into an unprecedented number of metropolitan theaters.^[90] One week after war was declared, the Eden Musee was one of at least seven Manhattan theaters showing war films—one more than at the novelty highpoint a year and a half earlier.^[91] Porter and his associates at the American Cinematograph Company operated one of several exhibition services that took advantage of the resulting demand for film programs. In a later interview, Porter stated that he and William Beadnell supplied several vaudeville houses with film turns. "We had machines in the Eden Musee, in the Proctor houses and also some of Percy Williams."^[92] Spring programs at Proctor's 23rd Street Theater were consistent with the supply of films available down the street at the Eden Musee, but the American cinematograph was replaced by Blackton and Smith's burgeoning American

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Developing motion picture film in 1898-99.

Vitagraph Company toward the end of June. Blackton and Smith had developed a secret reframing device that improved their exhibitions. They had also established their own production capabilities. Since the American Cinematograph Company had to give preferential treatment to the Musee, the switch was a logical one.

Porter and Elmore were partially responsible for the addition of American Vitagraph to the Edison stable of licensees.^[93] Perhaps they visited Blackton and Smith's offices to gather evidence of illegality that would enable them to regain their old outlet at Proctor's. Or perhaps they hoped to purchase some of Blackton and Smith's original productions to enhance their collection. Instead, they and other potential purchasers found dupes of Paley's war films. Thomas Edison soon sued Vitagraph for copyright and patent infringement, with Elmore and Porter providing depositions to support the case. Caught red-handed, Blackton and Smith reached an agreement with William Gilmore whereby they would not contest Edison's suit, but would work under a licensing arrangement similar to that made with the Eden Musee and William Paley.

Programs at the Musee were being constantly updated and changed, a challenging task for Porter and Elmore, who had to experiment with novel combinations of subjects. In June moving pictures were exhibited while a soloist sang national airs.^[94] Later in the month, with the largest collection of war films in the city, the Musee began to show them all on Sundays at 3 and 9, giving "an

opportunity to thousands to see these remarkable pictures at a slight cost."^[95] The Musee's motion picture operators arranged the films as a chronology of the war: "The Maine sailors on parade are shown and then the Maine sailing into Havana harbor. Following is the burial of the Maine sailors, General Lee at Havana, other scenes in and about Havana, the various camps, soldiers at drill, battleships at anchor and in action, troops leaving Tampa for Santiago and other equally vivid scenes up to the storming of Santiago."^[96] Audience response to the films was so enthusiastic that many of the pictures had to be shown a second time.^[97]

The Eden Musee generally used its screen as a kind of patriotic news service. In August the entertainment center was showing one new war view each day. With over one hundred films in its collection, the motion picture operators showed twelve views each hour during the week, changing subjects each hour so visitors could stay as long as they liked and see different views.^[98] By the end of August, their collection had swelled to nearly two hundred.^[99] As soldiers returned from war in September, the Musee enjoyed a special kind of status:

The Eden Musee is becoming a headquarters for the soldiers in this city. Since they returned scarcely a day passes that at least 500 do not visit the Musee. The majority of the Rough Riders have been there. They praise the war groups and take the greatest interest in the war pictures. The pictures taken in and about Santiago are cheered, and often have to be shown again. The other visitors take almost as much interest in the soldiers as in the attractions at the Musee. Little groups frequently surround the soldiers and question them about the war, and there is not an attendant in the house who has not a choice collection of souvenirs given him by the soldiers. On Wednesday Gen. Wheeler dropped into the Musee. He was recognized almost instantly and received cheers and greetings from the soldiers and visitors. One of the Musee's artists made sketches, and a figure of the popular hero will soon be on exhibition.^[100]

The Eden Musee was thus dedicated to heroicizing the United States' imperial adventures and those who implemented its policy—not least of whom was Col. Theodore Roosevelt, soon to be elected governor of New York.

By November, Porter and Elmore had responded to the fading popularity of war views by taking a more documentary-like approach to their subject matter.^[101] As the Musee announced,

Since the beginning of the war with Spain cinematograph war views have been shown at the Eden Musee. The Musee's own artist took the pictures, and as fast as they were developed, they were shown. A genuine novelty in these pictures has now been arranged. It is the nature of a panorama of the whole war. The moving picture scenes begin with the arrival of soldiers at Tampa and include various important movements that followed, up to the surrender of Santiago. Over twenty views are shown. Among them are the Red Cross upon the field, Colonel Astor setting out to meet General Toral, artillery practice, Rough Riders landing, battle of San Juan, troopships in a storm, the surrender of General Toral, the raising of the Stars and Stripes over Santiago

and many other important scenes. All the pictures are accompanied by ingenious effects, including martial music, firing of guns and wind and rain.^[102]

The Musee staff moved toward an increasingly elaborate, narrative account of the war. While it is impossible to ascertain Porter's precise contribution to the construction of program-length narratives such as Panorama of the War , as the Musee's chief motion picture operator he must have been intimately involved in the editorial process. Although this creation of complex film programs with extended narrative sequences was then common,^[103] the Musee's unique position encouraged experimentation with film structures. The institution not only had a diverse selection of films, but regular customers who had to be entertained with new film combinations within this repertoire. The continual restructuring of programs was facilitated by the mechanics of exhibition. Films were not spliced together on a single reel, but threaded individually onto the projector (otherwise it would have been impossible to show the same subject twice in response to audience demand). While detailed programmes of these exhibitions do not survive—if they ever existed—documentation for similar programs is suggestive. Although the Musee may have had two moving picture machines, allowing one film to be juxtaposed against another, slides were a popular, though typically unmentioned, part of these programs. Vitagraph and Eberhard Schneider showed slides taken by New York Herald photographers as well as films.^[104] Producers and distributors, including Sigmund Lubin and the Stereopticon & Film Exchange, urged exhibitors to purchase films and slides of the war and to combine them into an evening-length program with lecture.^[105] A lecture may well have continued to be part of the Musee's programs as well.

Panorama of the War is comparable in many respects to more recent documentaries using silent stock footage-though the modes of production and exhibition are radically different. At the Musee, post-production was located in the projection booth and achieved on the screen rather than in the editing room and on the projection print. With showmen responsible for post-production, creative contributions were made by both cameramen and exhibitors. Paley's films from the war zone turned the motion picture photographer into a vaudeville hero, but the editorial arrangement of scenes and the live sound accompaniment were created in places like the Musee. Drawing from the same material, exhibitors produced their own distinctive programs—priding themselves on the quality and originality of their individual exhibitions. Not only did each have creative responsibility, they often claimed authorship of their programs— assertions that had much validity.

Both The Passion Play and Panorama of the War demonstrate that cinema in the late 1890s had the capacity to convey information and to affect its audiences both emotionally and intellectually in ways that were far more sophisticated than acknowledged in existing film histories. These histories, based on naive readings of a few catalogs and vaudeville programs, have virtually ignored

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Ringling Brothers Circus showed war films, organizing them into a longer narrative called "The Story of Cuba."

the crucial role of the exhibitor. Rather than being isolated units within a miscellaneous collection of subjects, these short films were often elements of a larger, integrated program. While these programs were generally dependent on a lecture, this does not mean they lacked effective and comparatively elaborate visual structures.

During the late 1890s, there was a dialectical tension between unified programs built around a single event, theme, or narrative and the variety format, with its emphasis on novelty and diversity. The Eden Musee favored the former. The New York exhibitor Eberhard Schneider was at the other extreme, often emphasizing variety to the point of separating films that had a thematic relationship. In one program, for instance, Schneider placed Snowballing between Spanish Attack on an American Camp and Charge of American Cavalry ; then Storm at Sea between Execution of a Spy, Turco-Grecian War and Defense of a House, Turco-Grecian War .^[106] American Vitagraph, in contrast, fluctuated between these two extremes and often offered its audiences a middle ground. One point seems evident. Porter received a very particular kind of training at the Eden Musee, training that sensitized him to the possibilities inherent in the significant juxtaposition of related images. The use of editorial procedures was arguably most advanced at the Eden Musee, and it should not surprise us that one of its graduates was to continue to make strides in this area when he moved into production with the Edison Company at the beginning of 1901.

Porter and the Eden Musee After the War

Once the Spanish-American War ended in early August 1898, the number of Manhattan theaters showing moving pictures steadily declined. During the last week of August, films were still advertised for five theaters, in October for only

four. By early November Proctor's Pleasure Palace had dropped its exhibition service, "much to the relief of the regular patrons."^[107] Only Keith's and the Eden Musee were still boasting moving pictures in mid December. The Musee remained the sole Manhattan venue offering 35mm motion pictures as a permanent part of its programming. With audiences tired of war films, the Eden Musee began to show different kinds of subject matter, including views of foreign lands.^[108] Elmore and Porter continued to feature Panorama of the War , but alternated it with a program of comic scenes early in December, a series of Christmas views during the holidays, and "illusions and reproductions of fairy tales" in mid January.^[109] Even when not seeing war films, the Musee's patrons enjoyed thematically structured programs, which made its exhibitions distinctive.

New material relating to the American occupation of Cuba provided occasionally popular attractions. "For several days an artist of the Musee has been in Havana gathering interesting scenes," announced the Musee at the beginning of the new year. "He will remain there for several weeks and when the U.S. takes formal control on January 1st, he will make pictures of the stirring scenes, including the novelty of the flag over Morro Castle. The Govt. has given the artist permission to use forward positions."^[110] Two surviving films, General Lee's Procession, Havana and Troops at Evacuation of Havana , show American troops marching through the streets of the former colonial capital.

The Opera of Martha , which Paley had shot almost a year earlier, was also presented for the first time in January. The Castle Square Opera Company, which had performed the opera at New York's American Theater early in 1898, probably provided the actors and even the sets.^[111] With The Passion Play of Oberammergau and then the war films drawing large crowds, the Musee had delayed its exhibition. Publicity announced that "The entire second act of 'Martha' will be reproduced by the moving picture machine. As the pictures are shown the music is sung from behind the screen."^[112] The picture "consisted of five scenes about 1,300 feet in length: 1. Duet outside the Inn, 2. Quartette in- side the Inn, 3. Spinning Wheel Chorus, 4. Martha singing 'Last Rose of Summer,' and 5. Goodnight Quartette. The film shows a quartette of well-known opera singers acting and singing their parts in this ever popular opera."^[113]The Opera of Martha , like The Passion Play , was an extended effort at filmed theater. The exhibitor's sound accompaniment, however, was not presented in front of the screen by a lecturer explaining the images, but from behind the canvas to heighten the illusion of reality by synchronizing voice to the image. Today it can be considered an early form of dubbing. In July 1899 Richard Hollaman sold this film, along with The Passion Play , to Thomas Edison for $1,000.^[114]

During the winter and spring of 1899, the Musee revived old programs and showed news films of noteworthy events. Travel scenes, humorous vignettes, and historical subjects were exhibited in programs grouped by genre, with two

different groupings exhibited alternately during a week. By the spring, "mysterious" films were receiving extensive press attention. These trick films, particularly Georges Méliês' "Houdin films,"^[115] were the perfect antidote for a year of war topicals. Many gave "an illusionary or supernatural effect," while others were declared to be "exceedingly humorous."^[116] Méliês' creations remained popular at the Eden Musee throughout the year, culminating in Cinderella , which was shown over the Christmas holidays.

While working at the Eden Musee, Porter continued to manufacture motion picture equipment. During the summer of 1899, he built "the cameras, the printing machines and projecting machines for the Palmer-McGovern Fight."^[117] These were made for the American Sportagraph Company, which carefully emulated the Veriscope organization. The Veriscope Company had filmed the Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight in March 1897 using a special-sized film that required its own cameras, printers, and projectors.^[118] This gave the Veriscope Company absolute control over its exhibitions and generated large profits from its numerous road shows. The American Sportagraph Company hoped for the same good fortune, and Porter's equipment was well suited to the challenge. The sportagraph had a special large-size film that yielded a superior image. It could run on either direct or alternating current, weighed only thirty pounds, and could be set up in less than an hour.^[119] Porter's experience as a traveling exhibitor and his knowledge of various projecting machines enabled him to produce a sophisticated instrument that avoided many of its predecessors' shortcomings.

The sportagraph's main attraction was the fight between "Pedlar" Palmer, the bantamweight champion of England, and Terry McGovern, the bantam-weight champion of America. They were to meet on September 11, 1899, at the Westchester Athletic Club in Lake Tuckahoe, New York—a convenient fifteen miles by railroad from midtown Manhattan. The fight was expected to be "one of the greatest boxing matches ever engaged in."^[120] With the fight as its headline attraction, the American Sportagraph Company also planned to show "photographic reproductions of noted horse, Bicycle, foot and yacht races, sculling matches, wrestling contests and other outdoor exercises and amusements with the stars of the sporting world as contestants."^[121] Between the various moving pictures, high-class vaudeville acts were to be given "to make one of the strongest two and a half hour shows on the road."^[122]

When the weather on September 11th was overcast, making it impossible to take pictures, the organizers postponed the fight. "Now, we have contracted to show the pictures in all parts of the world, and you can realize what a loss it would mean to go on without them," promoter Gray explained. "I am sure the public will rightly see how I stand in the matter."^[123] The dispirited, but surprisingly understanding, crowd left, only to return the following day, when the cameras and eight thousand people watched Terry McGovern, "the pride of

South Brooklyn," defeat his opponent in two minutes and thirty seconds, less than a round. The fight was a major disappointment to boxing aficionados. Lacking its headline attraction, the American Sportagraph Company fell into oblivion. The Palmer-McGovern pictures, with their odd-sized film gauge, received no commercial distribution whatsoever. Philadelphia filmmaker Sigmund Lubin usurped the limited market for this subject by marketing a "reproduction of the fight showing the introduction, full fight and knockdown" in less than 400 feet.^[124] If, as seems likely, Porter and the American Cinematograph Company were financially involved in this venture, they suffered a serious setback.

Porter had little time to ponder the sportagraph's failure, since the Eden Musee was preparing for Admiral Dewey's triumphal arrival in New York City on September 27th:

The Eden Musee will add much to the Dewey celebration. For months its artists and sculptors have been at work arranging pleasing surprises. The interior of the Musee has been changed in many respects, and new war groups and war scenes in wax will cause the Musee to look like the interior of an arsenal. The Cinematograph will give hourly exhibitions of moving pictures taken in Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines. The whole front of the Musee Building will be arranged in the form of a mammoth battleship. From the top of the front will arise a mast similar to that of a warship. Nearly forty feet above the building will be a turret, in which will be two sailors with rapid-firing guns. At the sides of the top will be other sailors, apparently on deck. On each side of the front will be a mammoth gold eagle. In the center will be a still larger eagle which will measure thirty feet from tip to tip. Over 10,000 yards of flags and bunting will assist in carrying out the form of the battleship. Each entrance to the Musee will be arranged as the gangway of a battleship. Over each door will be the name of the warship represented.^[125]

This coordinated programming, built around a particular event, was characteristic of the Musee, distinguishing it from the more common vaudeville format of entertainment, with its emphasis on variety.

James White, having long ago returned from his Far Eastern voyage, organized the Edison licensees so they could effectively cover the celebration. Altogether the Edison Company put eight camera crews in the field.^[126] White reserved for himself the honor of filming Dewey on board his ship. The resulting pictures, Admiral Dewey Receiving the Washington and New York Committees and Admiral Dewey Taking Leave of Washington Committee on the U.S. Cruiser "Olympia " (taken on September 28th), were shown the following day and given special attention:

As a compliment to Thomas A. Edison, Admiral Dewey gave permission for taking Cinematograph pictures of the visit to the Olympia of the Reception Committee and Gov. Roosevelt. The picture is shown at each of the performances at the Eden Musee to crowded audiences, and has elicited storms of applause. Admiral Dewey is seen pacing the deck awaiting the committee and the Governor. The clearness of the picture

brings the spectator side by side, as it were, with the hero of the day. His every movement is as clearly defined as is his greeting of the committee and the Governor as they step on the deck of the Olympia from the ladder swung by the side of the vessel.^[127]

"Interesting views of the land and naval parades" were added later in the week.^[128] The Musee, like the Edison Company, recognized that flag-waving and a sympathetic treatment of America's imperial adventures reaped rewards at the box-office.

The end of the Dewey celebration merged with the beginning of the America's Cup races, as the Columbia easily retained the cup in a three-race sweep. This testament to American know-how received daily front-page coverage by the newspapers. Correspondingly, films of these races were thrown on the Musee's screen shortly after the sailing duels were over. "Instead of the whole race being shown at once, it is shown in a series of four pictures of several minutes length each," reported the Mail and Express .^[129] Some historians have suggested that Porter took these films of the America's Cup as well as other subjects while he worked at the Eden Musee.^[130] Yet Porter, who frequently acknowledged his activities as a moving picture operator and camera builder, never mentions working as a moving picture photographer at this time. It is possible, even probable, that he participated in filming such major news events as the Dewey celebration, but if Porter worked as a cameraman, it must have been sporadically and of little importance. Attributions of film authorship to Porter during 1898-1900 are, for this reason, highly suspect. Two other possibilities seem more likely. Paley, in his continuing association with the amusement center, may have taken the pictures, or the Musee may have made special arrangements to acquire copies of the subjects being taken by American Vitagraph.

In the second half of 1899, motion picture exhibition underwent a significant change that had serious implications for both the Eden Musee and the Edison Manufacturing Company: 35mm moving pictures became a permanent feature at many Manhattan vaudeville houses. Biograph had remained on the bill at Keith's since the Spanish-American War, but that situation was unique. Then in mid June, Vitagraph began to show films at Tony Pastor's, where it would remain for the next nine years. The exhibition service presented its own exclusive films of the boxer James Jeffries in training and the Dewey celebration. "The American Vitagraph has been excelling in enterprise during the past week," reported the New York Clipper . "Several views were taken of the Olympia and projected here the evening of the same day, and the Dewey land parade was seen on Saturday evening, five hours after the views were taken."^[131] This practice continued with the America's Cup races.

Proctor's theaters did not have films on their bills. For the Dewey celebration, they showed lantern slides of the events. For the America's Cup races, the positions of the boats were reported to Proctor's theaters by wireless and charted

on immense maps between acts. Such maps were useless in the evenings, when most patrons attended the theater, since the viewers already knew the outcome. Responding to commercial pressures from both the biograph at Keith's and the vitagraph at Pastor's, F. F. Proctor hired Edison licensee William Paley to provide his theaters with an exhibition service. Possessing several theaters, the vaudeville entrepreneur offered Paley inducements that the Eden Musee could not match. On October 9th Paley premiered his kalatechnoscope at Proctor's 23rd Street Theater, a few doors away from his old employer. Two weeks later he was exhibiting at Proctor's Pleasure Palace on Fifty-eighth Street. There the cameraman set up an office and production facility, enabling him to process film and get it on the screen with maximum speed. The Burning of the "Nutmeg State, " taken on October 14th, was shown on the very day of the disaster. Within a month the kalatechnoscope was also at Proctor's theater in Albany, New York, and in Philadelphia. In the trades, Proctor manager J. Austin Fynes announced that Paley's film service was booked for an indefinite run, and it remained at Proctor's houses into the nickelodeon era.^[132]

The most prominent vaudeville managers had recognized that film companies needed steady commercial outlets if they were to retain the necessary staff and resources to cover important news events. By late 1899 New York papers were advertising film showings in seven or more theaters, at least six of which presented vaudeville.^[133] These changes had an enormous impact on the Eden Musee, which was deprived of its role as the only permanent exhibition venue for 35mm film in New York. Furthermore, the Musee no longer possessed its own production capabilities. Meanwhile, the leading vaudeville exhibition services—Biograph, Vitagraph, and Paley's kalatechnoscope—were establishing reputations by exhibiting their own exclusive films in a timely fashion.

Not long after these developments, Porter left his position at the Eden Musee to become a traveling motion picture exhibitor. In a later deposition Porter observed: "In the summer of 1900 I went on the road with a show of my own."^[134] This may well have been motivated by the realization that the Musee's role was no longer as central as when Porter had arrived. In any case, traveling with a black tent, playing carnivals and fairs, culminated Porter's career as an exhibitor.^[135] With a selection of films and some slides, he tested his abilities as a showman against many different kinds of audiences. As he had done for the previous four years, Porter saw what people enjoyed and learned to get the most out of his modest resources. Yet now at the age of thirty, his apprenticeship in this area was about to end.

The Edison Manufacturing Company and Its Licensees

The Edison Company's sales and profits for films and projecting kinetoscopes were generally lower from 1898 through 1900 than they had been in the

previous two years. Film sales were reduced by almost half, from $75,250 in 1897-98 to $41,207 in 1898-99, $38,991 in 1899-1900, and $49,756 in 1900-1901. Sales of projecting kinetoscopes also fell.^[136] This reflected competition from several sources. Biograph contested Edison's suit for patent infringement and dominated film exhibition in first-class vaudeville houses. In the fall of 1898 it had projectors in twenty theaters across the United States.^[137] In addition, its mutoscopes were quickly replacing kinetoscopes, being a more efficient peep-hole individual viewing device for moving pictures. Edison also failed to close down Sigmund Lubin, whose films were sold for less than Edison's on a per-foot basis. Moreover, Lubin shot his films at fewer frames per second. Purchasers, therefore, could show a Lubin film of equivalent length for a longer period of time. Such competition forced the Edison Company to reduce its sale price from 30¢ per foot in January 1897 to 24¢ per foot in May 1898 and 15¢ per foot by July 1898.^[138] Meanwhile the quantity of footage sold remained constant or increased only slightly, resulting in a rapid falloff of gross income.

Much Edison-related film business was conducted by licensees, who captured a large share of the revenues. From 1898 to 1900, Edison was heavily dependent on these companies for new film subjects. Approximately half of the Edison-copyrighted films from this period were made by American Vitagraph and William Paley. The first Vitagraph films to be copyrighted by Thomas Edison and sold by his company were of the naval parade of August 20, 1898 (The Fleet Steaming up the North River ). These nine films were taken from a yacht and provided some of the best pictures of the flotilla. Thereafter, Blackton and Smith supplied Edison with many comedies, for example The Burglar on the Roof (made by late September but not copyrighted by Edison until December 12, 1898) and Willie's First Smoke , as well as trick films such as Vanishing Lady and Congress of Nations . They also took news films of Admiral Dewey's visit to New York (Presentation of Loving Cup at City Hall, New York ) and Washington (Presentation of Nation's Sword to Admiral Dewey ), the America's Cup, the Galveston flood (Bird's Eye View of Dock Front, Galveston ), and lesser events.

Fewer Paley films entered Edison catalogs (which does not necessarily mean that the cameraman made fewer films than Vitagraph). Automobile Parade , which he shot on Saturday, November 4, 1899, was copyrighted by Edison on February 6, 1900. Dick Crocker Leaving Tammany Hall , taken on November 18th, was copyrighted on February 9, 1900. A comedy, An Exchange of Good Stories , taken of Chauncey Depew and Marshall Wilder in early November may have entered the Edison catalog as Two Old Pals , but was never copyrighted. The Burning of the "Nutmeg State " and a news film of Sir Thomas Lipton's departure from New York on November 1st were neither copyrighted nor promoted by Edison's Kinetograph Department.^[139]

While the Edison Manufacturing Company gained possession of its licensees' negatives and offered them for sale, it had little control over the selection of subject matter, the manner in which these subjects were turned into films, and even the time at which a film might be available for marketing. Vitagraph and Paley made films for use in their vaudeville theaters. Many of these were timely subjects that soon lost their commercial value. Yet these licensees generally retained original subjects for several months—as exclusives for their own exhibitions—before turning them over to Edison for copyright and sale. The Edison Company's relations with these affiliated enterprises was decentralized and informal.

The licensing arrangement perhaps benefited the licensees more than the licensor. Under the constant encouragement of William T. Rock, the third Vitagraph partner, Thomas Edison sued such unlicensed exhibitors as Eberhard Schneider and seriously disrupted their business.^[140] While Edison generated some publicity that may have encouraged showmen to buy his company's products, Vitagraph acquired many of the victims' exhibition venues. Ironically, very little money from these exhibitions ever reached Edison coffers. Vitagraph took many of its own films and acquired other subjects directly from European producers. Its purchases from Edison were small and apparently did not even cover the royalties that Edison owed Vitagraph for the sale of prints from its negatives.

Edison tried to shift the commercial balance in his favor when he licensed the Klondike Exposition Company, organized by Thomas Crahan of Montana. In a contract dated March 14, 1899, Thomas Edison was to receive 20 percent of the net receipts derived from the company's exhibitions.^[141] The contract also reveals the extent to which Biograph's activities were judged superior, as Edison made a commitment to a large-format motion picture system. For this venture, the "Wizard" agreed to construct two kinetographs, which took pictures 2" high and 3" wide, at the cost of $1,000. With these machines in hand, Crahan left for Alaska on June 8th.^[142] He was accompanied by an Edison-designated photographic specialist, Robert Kates Bonine (1862-1923), a well-known stereo-view and lantern-slide photographer, originally from Altoona, Pennsylvania. Bonine, who established his reputation taking photographs of the Johnstown flood in 1889 and the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, had done some work for Edison in 1898.^[143] Bonine also carried a still camera for lantern slides and a regular 35mm motion picture camera.^[144]

The two men traveled through Alaska to Dawson City in the Yukon and then into the gold fields. Surviving films from the expedition include White Horse Rapids; Washing Gold on 20 Above Hunker, Klondike ; and Packers on the Trail (all submitted for copyright in April 1900 or May 1901). Upon their return in late October, Crahan and Edison discovered that the large-format films had poor registration. "When we project them on the screen the whole picture moves up a foot, then down six inches then up and so on," Edison explained to John

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Charles Kayser at work.

Ott before asking him to make "a corrector for correcting negatives so that although the negative prints vary on the film the positives are equidistant."^[145] Edison's staff tried to make such a device, but Eberhard Schneider later suggested that they were unsuccessful: "Kayser, one of Edison's inventors, made an intermittent printer, the size of a steam roller such as is used today by the New York Paving Company. The thing would not work at all, and I had to do some printing on certain films for Jim White, Edison's laboratory expert and manager in 1900."^[146] By mid January the Klondike Exposition Company had expended $7,385, run out of cash, and still needed projectors and films. Edison was forced to negotiate a new arrangement, under which he supplied the necessary equipment and films. This enabled Crahan to put together three illustrated lectures entitled Artistic Glimpses of the Wonder World .^[147] By June 1900 any hope Crahan had of recouping his investment and going to the Paris Exposition had ended. The Klondike Exposition Company therefore sold its equipment and film to Edison for $2,500 in cash and $2,500 in Edison goods (phonograph records, etc.).^[148] The venture was a financial failure—not only for Crahan but also for the Edison Company, which posted its smallest film profits of any year in the era of projection.

James White and the Kinetograph Department

Given the often problematic, if large-scale, activities of the Edison licensees, production under James White continued to be of importance. One difficulty in discussing the Kinetograph Department and its accomplishments, however, is determining what White produced and what was produced by the licensees. This is complicated by irregular copyright practices, little production information, and lack of a regular Edison-affiliated exhibition outlet through much of 1899. By early August 1898 the Edison Company had adopted a practice espoused by Sigmund Lubin and was staging reenactments of military actions for the camera. This may have begun with Shooting Captured Insurgents and Cuban Ambush (both © August 5, 1898), which featured Spanish atrocities and cowardice. Both were somewhat perfunctory and used the same location and camera setup. Although White may have been too ill to participate in these efforts, he had recovered by early October. Perhaps for this reason, William Heise withdrew from filmmaking that month (he left Edison's employ only to return a year later in a nonfilm role).^[149] White was responsible for Battle of San Juan Hill and Charge of the Rough Riders at El Caney , made in late 1898 or early 1899. These were not copyrighted, however, and do not survive. White was soon focusing on America's counterinsurgency in the Philippines, staging and filming such pictures as Advance of Kansas Volunteers at Caloocan (© June 5, 1899) and Capture of Trenches at Candabar (© June 10, 1899). These avoided the expense of sending a cameraman to the Far East and allowed White to show the heroic actions of American soldiers—something unlikely to be filmed in the midst of a guerrilla war. These one-shot scenes, often shot through underbrush or from a camera position low to the ground, used more credible staging and smoke effects to heighten the scene's realism. The practice of using National Guard units to play the American soldiers likewise added credibility. These films, too, could be sequenced into a series.

The Edison policy of filming reenactments continued in 1900 with the Boer War. By now the scale and level of spectacle had increased-along with the accompanying risks. On April 11th, White was taking a series of these films, including Boers Bringing in British Prisoners and Charge of Boer Cavalry . While filming Capture of Boer Battery , the cannon fired prematurely and wounded the Kinetograph Department manager (see document no. 7). A few days later, White returned to complete the series with Mason Mitchell, an actor who had fought with Roosevelt's Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War, organizing the battle scenes. The participants, said to number two hundred, were primarily members of a local militia. They received $2 each for the day's work (after briefly striking for a 75¢ raise), a $400 investment by the Edison Company.^[150]

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Filipinos Retreat from Trenches (© June 5, 1899).

(Text box continued on next page)

White improvised another group of one-shot, acted films over the course of 1899 and 1900, the "Adventures of Jones Series." The first were shot in Llewellyn Park shortly after a February snowstorm. Jones' Return from the Club and Jones and His Pal in Trouble show the inebriated protagonist (possibly played by White)^[151] wrestling with a policeman. In one, Jones is the victor, in the other the cop is. Exhibitors had a choice of alternative endings in which either the law or pleasure would prove triumphant. Subsequent films were shot in the Black Maria. In Jones Makes a Discovery , Jones's pal consoles the drunkard's wife with intimate affection—only to be discovered by Jones and tossed out the window. Later subjects include Why Mrs. Jones Got a Divorce (© January 17, 1900), in which Mrs. Jones finds irrefutable evidence that the cook has been embracing her husband (telltale handprints on his jacket). Frustrated by his continued denials, she covers him with a panful of flour and discharges the help. Clearly, all is not as it should be in a proper Victorian household, as pleasure and desire exceed their proper boundaries.

By the latter part of 1899 James White and the Kinetograph Department were offering exhibitors multishot subjects in a few unusual circumstances. Boston Horseless Fire Department (© September 15, 1899) showed "the entire horseless fire department of Boston accompanied by the old style apparatus which is drawn by horses running at terrific pace down Batterymarch Street." The Edison catalog then noted: "Another view on the same film shows a portion of the Boston fire department making a quick hitch in the engine house and the running out with the horses on a gallop."^[152] These linked scenes suggest a thematic relationship: the horseless carriage is on its way to the rescue while the horsedrawn engines are still coming out of the firehouse. This contrast, which is only implicit in the film and would have had to be drawn out by the exhibitor's lecture, apparently justified selling the two scenes as part of the same film.

Shoot the Chutes Series (© September 23, 1899) was called "positively the most wonderful series of pictures ever secured by an animated picture camera." It looks at the same subject from three different vantage points:

The first scene is taken from the pond of the chutes, and shows a number of boats laden with gay Coney Island pleasure-seekers coming down into the water in rapid succession. The next scene is taken from the top of the incline, showing the boats being loaded, starting away, running down the chutes and dashing into the water. The next

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Shoot the Chutes Series.

and most wonderful picture was secured by placing the camera in the boat, making a panoramic view of the chutes while running down and dashing into the water. 275 ft.^[153]

The camera explores and penetrates the space of this "attraction"; moreover, it was the spatial relations between shots—the ability to introduce multiple perspectives—that provided the necessary justification for the selling of these scenes as one film. As with the proposed combination of The Black Diamond Express and Receding View, Black Diamond Express , the spatial world portrayed is complex, while the temporality remains imprecise or underdeveloped. (Was this supposed to represent the same action repeatedly from three different perspectives or simply similar actions?) Other multishot actuality films were unfortunately not copyrighted. This includes Foot-ball Game , which was taken in Orange on November 30, 1899, and "shows many exciting plays, kickoffs, touchdowns, rushes, etc."^[154]

The Edison Company's appropriation of editorial responsibility is also evident in two fiction films: The Astor Tramp (© October 27, 1899) and Love and

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The Astor Tramp. The tramp climbs into a millionaire's bed and then reads about his escapade in the newspapers.

War (© November 28, 1899). White, a singer who made several records for Edison's National Phonograph Company, used his position as head of Edison's Kinetograph Department to produce these "Picture Songs," which were then billed as part of Edison's ongoing efforts to synchronize sound and image. "We have at last succeeded in perfectly synchronizing music and moving pictures," declared Edison catalogs. "The following scenes are very carefully chosen to fit the words and songs which have been especially composed for these pictures."^[155] Similar efforts to adapt motion pictures to the song-slide format had already been tried at the Eden Musee and elsewhere. In White's case, the production company provided the narration/song as well as an editorial construction.

The Astor Tramp was a "side splitting subject, showing the mistaken tramp's arrival at the Wm. Waldorf Astor mansion and being discovered comfortably asleep in bed, by the lady of the house."^[156] In the second scene, which the Edison catalog does not mention, the tramp is back on the street: he grabs a paper from a newsboy and reads about his recent escapades, gesturing to the audience as he struts around the stage-like set. In fact the film was based on an incident that had received widespread newspaper attention five years earlier.^[157] Adopted by popular culture, the episode spawned a skit at Tony Pastor's entitled "The Pastor Tramp." Despite this notoriety, the Edison catalog urged exhibitors to use some kind of verbal clarification to motivate the character's actions and the relationship between the shots: "The music and words accompanying are explanatory and can be either sung or spoken."^[158]

The catalog description for the 200-foot, six-scene Love and War also reveals a narrative coherence not apparent from simply watching the film. It was "an illustrated song telling the story of a hero who leaves for the war as a private,

is promoted to the rank of captain for bravery in service, meets the girl of his choice, who is a Red Cross nurse on the field, and finally returns home triumphantly as an officer to the father and mother to whom he bade good bye as a private."^[159] Here again, the title and story line were familiar ones.^[160] Only four scenes were copyrighted under this title, but two other films, including the concurrently made Fun in Camp , were apparently added to Love and War to fill out its advertised length. For both "song films" the careful fit between words and picture required the production company to exercise a high degree of creative control. However, both films lacked the spatial and even temporal complexity of the multishot actualities.

These precocious, though still tentative moves toward multishot films coincided with important developments in motion picture practice. First, the technology of projection was improving. The Edison Company had incorporated Albert Smith's reframing device into its projecting kinetoscope.^[161] This enabled the projectionist to reframe the image when it jumped out of registration without having to stop the projector and manually reposition the film. In the past, this problem had been reduced by showing short lengths of films interwoven with slides. Projection quality was also improving, encouraging longer subjects. Secondly, it coincided with the move toward permanent exhibition outlets in vaudeville and the emergence of more established exhibition companies. Commercial stability encouraged longer subjects, in part because larger units were more efficient to work with. Production efficiency was matched by representational innovation. Subjects shown from multiple viewpoints, picture songs, and narrative sequences were often operating within narrowly defined genres. The 1899 Shoot the Chutes Series treated the same subject as the 1896 Shoot the Chutes (and its many imitations)-but in a new way. Boston Horseless Fire Department was likewise an elaboration of the overused fire run.

During the spring of 1900, White and the Kinetograph Department made a bona fide attempt to produce synchronized sound motion pictures. This was for New York City's Board of Education under the supervision of Associate Superintendent Alfred Theodore Schauffler. The resulting program lasted an hour and included the following scenes:

1. A ride through the Ghetto.

2. School assembly, foreign children.

3. Dismissal to the class rooms.

4. Kindergarten games.

5. Recess games, boys.

6. Recess games, girls.

7. A workshop in full operation.

8. Classroom gymnastics.

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A Storm at Sea. The cameraman changed lenses or positions to give a "cut-in."

9. Grace hoop gymnastics drill.

10. Rapid dismissal to the street.

11. Ballgames. Foot ball, etc.

12. Assembly in an uptown school.

13. Rhythmic ball drill to music.

14. Cooking class in operation.

15. Marching salute to the flag.

16. Indian club swinging, High School Girls.

Accompanying these films were phonograph recordings of the children performing recitations and songs, as well as of the music to which they executed their exercises.^[162] According to a member of the Schauffler family, these films were made on the roof of a New York high school so that the scenes could be filmed in sunlight. The superintendent's greetings, the pledge of allegiance, the national anthem, and piano music were recorded first, with people speaking and performing directly into the big horn attached to a phonograph. Then the cylinders were played back and the students and teachers executed their activities to the recordings, mouthing their parts when appropriate.^[163] White then traveled to the Paris Exposition, where he was present at the rehearsals for the display that opened at the Social Economy Palace on June 29, 1900.^[164]

A Storm at Sea , taken by White in mid June on his way to the Paris Exposition, shows a storm from the bridge of the Kaiserina Maria Theresa in two shots—an establishing view and a close view notable for its visual heightening of the storm's violent effect. A cut-in like this one or a cut-out like the one in Razing a Factory Chimney ,^[165] which was made in England at about the same

time, continued earlier screen practices with their well-developed spatial relationships. It would be a mistake, however, to consider this cut-in as an attempt at a match cut: temporality was a difficult and persistent problem in early cinema. Its underdeveloped nature can be explained in large part by the severe limitations on temporal specificity in traditional lantern shows. Significantly, from their first appearance such two-shot constructions were listed and sold as a single scene. Cut-ins and cut-outs were the type of editorial strategies over which producers had easy and relatively uncontested control.

While in Europe, White (along with an as yet unidentified colleague) filmed Paris and the 1900 Exposition, using a riotous array of camera movements. Panoramic View of the Champs Elysees was taken from the front of a moving vehicle and Panorama of the Paris Exposition, from the Seine from a boat. For Panorama from the Moving Boardwalk , the camera was placed on a "Platform Mobile." Either on their way or shortly after arriving in Paris, the photographers acquired a more sophisticated panning mechanism, which allowed their camera to follow action more smoothly. This is evident in Champs de Mars , in which the camera plays cat and mouse with two women. Panning right to left, the camera follows them until they move behind an arch. It tries to pick them up again, but the women foil the operators' expectations. For Panorama of Eiffel Tower , the camera tilts vertically, moving up the tower and then back down—at which point the American showman Lyman Howe peers into the lens and smiles broadly. These subjects proved popular with a large number of exhibitors (including Howe, who appeared more discreetly in other scenes) and were usually combined into sequences that gave American audiences a rich impression of the event.^[166] When Panorama of the Moving Boardwalk , for example, was followed by Panorama from the Moving Boardwalk , one the reverse angle of the other, a clear spatial world was constructed, although the temporal relationship between shots was only proximate and nonspecific.

On his return to the United States, White quickly employed the mobile tripod head to shoot sweeping panoramas of well-known locations. His peripatetic lifestyle continued with Circular Panorama of Atlantic City, N.J., Circular Panorama of Mauch Chunk, Penna.; Circular Panorama of Niagara Falls ; and Panoramic View of the White House, Washington, D.C. These films revelled in the camera's newfound ability to present spectacle on an unprecedented scale. In the process, narrative concerns appear temporarily forgotten. Such pictures can be contrasted to earlier "panoramas" which involved the camera moving through space, usually on the front of a conveyance. These earlier efforts were easily incorporated into the narrative flow of a travel program and so proved popular. Even if included in longer programs, White's circular panoramas tended to interrupt any narrative progression. Although there were some exceptions, this technique was used most frequently to represent awe-inspiring

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Panorama of Eiffel Tower. The camera could now tilt smoothly up and down.

scenery or large-scale devastation (Panorama of Wreckage of Water Front, Galveston ). The new panning capacity, however, was perfect for following action and keeping subjects in frame when making news films.

The Edison Manufacturing Company Reaches its Commercial Nadir

Edison's film business was in dire straits by 1900. Despite White's production of a significant number of commercially attractive films, the Edison Company lacked strong photographic skills. Eberhard Schneider would later claim that White "knew nothing whatever as to the composition of developer and its effects. He made up hypo developer in quantity (fully mixed) for weeks ahead and many good negatives . . . were spoiled in this ink solution."^[167]

Biograph, moreover, was vigorously contesting the inventor's patent suit. Tensions between licensees and licensor were high. When the Edison Company failed to turn over the money it owed Vitagraph, the unhappy licensees threat-

ened to sue for an accounting. They had forgotten who held the trump cards, and William Gilmore obligingly reminded them by cancelling their contractual relationship in January 1900. A series of stormy exchanges followed, which threatened to send Blackton and Smith to jail. Although Gilmore eventually worked out a new arrangement with the Vitagraph group in October 1900, thereby acquiring a fresh influx of films for Edison catalogs, relations remained uneasy and depended on legal coercion. If Edison lost his court case against Biograph, his commercial "allies" would obviously become commercial enemies.

The Edison Manufacturing Company also faced uneasy relations with its selling agents. Although providing a large outlet for Edison goods, Frederick M. Prescott's New York office had begun to sell Lubin films. In June 1899 Edison brought suit against Prescott and forced another American entrepreneur out of the film business.^[168] Two individuals, who were to play important roles in the industry and effectively promote Edison products in the years ahead, appeared to sell Edison goods on the exclusive terms Edison demanded. The first of these was George Kleine, whose Kleine Optical Company in Chicago started to purchase Edison films in June 1899.^[169] The second was Percival Waters, who had worked with White at the Vitascope Company and was then a small, New York-based jobber of Edison films.

In November 1899 Waters formed a silent partnership with James White and John Schermerhorn, . Gilmore's brother-in-law and assistant general manager of the Edison Manufacturing Company since 1896. ^[170] Their partnership, called the Kinetograph Company, was to act as an exhibitor and selling agent of Edison films. Waters was to run the business, while White and Schermerhorn promised to arrange several thousand dollars worth of credit, to send customers to the Kinetograph Company whenever possible, and take "such picture subjects as would tend to increase their business to suit their special customers in the various theaters."^[171] Although Gilmore was almost certainly aware of the arrangement, it involved obvious conflicts of interest. As Waters' attorney later asked, did White and Schermerhorn act in the best interests of the Kinetograph Department or the Kinetograph Company when these interests diverged? Yet White and Schermerhorn were simply taking advantage of a commercial opportunity in a manner consistent with the business practices then prevalent at the Edison works.^[172]

The Kinetograph Company filled a need that had become apparent not only with the demise of Prescott's agency but because the Edison Company needed its own vaudeville exhibition outlet. One of the new company's first actions was to establish a permanent working relationship with Huber's 14th Street Museum. Edison had already sued George Huber earlier in the year for hiring Lubin and others to exhibit non-Edison films in his theater.^[173] With rival vaudeville theaters making motion pictures a permanent attraction, Huber's museum contracted for the Kinetograph Company's exhibition services in November

1899.^[174] Increasingly the Kinetograph Company acted as Edison's exhibition arm, acquiring the first copies of completed films and showing them in its programs. Unlike the licensees who took subjects for their own use, Waters arranged with White to provide their company with special films for its exhibitions. Along with Kleine and Peter Bacigalupi in San Francisco, the Kinetograph Company became an Edison selling agent with special discounts. Perhaps because of these compromised origins, Waters' Kinetograph Company developed a complementary relationship with Edison's Kinetograph Department that flourished long into the future, outlasting White's tenure as department manager and the constitution of the company as a silent partnership.

Edison, embattled on various fronts early in 1900, came close to selling his motion picture business. In March the Biograph and Edison companies were close to a "union of interests in the moving picture field."^[175] After further meetings, according to Terry Ramsaye, Biograph secured an option to buy Edison's motion picture interests for half a million dollars, paying $2,500 for the option on April 12th.^[176] Perhaps this helps to explain the decision to incorporate the Edison Manufacturing Company on May 5, 1900. The new corporation was activated three days later when Thomas Edison turned over "all rights, title and interest in and to the business heretofore conducted by me and known as the 'Edison Manufacturing Company' with the exception of the Projecting Kinetoscope, Kinetograph, Kinetoscope and Film business and everything pertaining thereto."^[177] Since the film interests were about to be sold, they were not assigned to the new corporation.

The financing of the Edison-Biograph deal, however, fell through—if it had not, the history of American cinema would undoubtedly be quite different. Although Edison retained his personal control over moving pictures and so continued to pursue patent infringement and to copyright films in his own name, the corporate and privately owned parts of the business were effectively merged. With Biograph's option unexercised, Edison and his associates reassessed their motion picture business and decided to increase their own commitment to the field rather than renew negotiations with Harry Marvin and other Biograph executives. William Gilmore began to shift the Edison Manufacturing Company's commercial strategies in light of the difficulties encountered during the previous few years. Edison had to depend less on his licensees. This meant investing in a new studio and hiring additional personnel. The employment of Edwin Porter was part of this renewed commitment.