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
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.
DOCUMENT NO . 5 | ||
Orange, N.J., March 7, 1898. | ||
Wm. Paley, Esq., | ||
c/o Eden Musee | ||
23rd St., New York | ||
Dear Sir:- | ||
With further reference to the subject of the arrangement to be made with you, the conclusions reached between us are as follows: It is our idea that you will continue to take original negatives of animated pictures for us, such an arrangement to cover a period of one year from February 21, 1898, the necessary negative stock to be furnished by us, punched ready for use, without charge, in our regular standard lengths, which for the first strip is about 50 feet, and longer strips multiples thereof, up to about 150 feet, we to allow you an upset price for such negatives of Fifteen Dollars ($15.00) net on all accepted by us. All positives made from such accepted negatives are to be sold by us in the open market at regular rates, we undertaking to list the subjects in our regular catalogues from time to time as they are issued, and to have them listed whenever and wherever possible in any catalogues gotten out by our various agents or representatives. Where a special subject is to be taken, requiring an additional amount of money over and above the $15.00 above referred to, to cover actual traveling or other similar expenses, in addition to furnishing the negative stock we would of course be perfectly willing to confer with you and agree upon an amount to be paid in addition for any such expenses. | ||
In consideration of your giving us a portion of your time and services in the furnishing of satisfactory negatives as above outlined, we agree to> |
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pay you a royalty of Thirty Cents (30 cents) on each positive strip sold by us, either directly or indirectly, from each 50 (about) feet negative, the longer strips to be paid for on the same basis at a proportionately higher rate, such royalties to be paid monthly, we submitting a sworn statement as to the number of films sold from the negatives furnished by yourself. It is of course mutually understood between us that this arrangement is not exclusive in any way, we reserving the right to make similar arrangements with other parties should it be deemed by us wise to do so. It is also understood that the royalty so paid you does not apply in any way to negatives taken by ourselves or by others for our account, and it is further understood that the royalty is not to be paid on the so-called "Passion Play" pictures which we are now making under arrangement with Messers. Richard G. Hollaman and Albert G. Eaves, or to the subjects taken from the "Second Act of Martha." |
This arrangement can be terminated by either party upon ninety days' written notice. In event of the arrangement being terminated by either party at any time, it is understood that the negatives in our possession shall so continue, and as long as there is any demand for positive strips from such negatives by you, we shall continue to pay you the royalty, just the same as if the contract was in full force and effect. |
I believe the above covers the understanding in full between us. If you have any further suggestions to offer, please let me know at once; otherwise let us have your approval in writing. |
Yours very truly, |
(Signed) W. E. Gilmore |
General Manager |
SOURCE : NjWOE. |