Dickson Experimental Sound Film

Dickson Experimental Sound Film 1894

6.30

William K.L. Dickson plays the violin while two men dance. This is the oldest surviving sound film where sound is recorded on the phonograph.

1894

The Great Train Robbery

The Great Train Robbery 1903

7.00

After the train station clerk is assaulted and left bound and gagged, then the departing train and its passengers robbed, a posse goes in hot pursuit of the fleeing bandits.

1903

Frankenstein

Frankenstein 1910

6.00

Frankenstein, a young medical student, trying to create the perfect human being, instead creates a misshapen monster. Made ill by what he has done, Frankenstein is comforted by his fiancée; but on his wedding night he is visited by the monster.

1910

The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots

The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots 1895

6.20

A short film depicting the execution of Mary, Queen of the Scots. Mary is brought to the execution block and made to kneel down with her neck over it. The executioner lifts his axe ready to bring it down. After that frame Mary has been replaced by a dummy. The axe comes down and severs the head of the dummy from the body. The executioner picks up the head and shows it around for everyone else to see. One of the first camera tricks to be used in a movie.

1895

Annabelle Serpentine Dance

Annabelle Serpentine Dance 1895

5.90

In a long, diaphanous skirt, held out by her hands with arms extended, Broadway dancer Annabelle Moore performs. Her dance emphasizes the movement of the flowing cloth. She moves to her right and left across an unadorned stage. Many of the prints were distributed in hand-tinted color.

1895

Carmencita

Carmencita 1894

5.30

The first woman to appear in front of an Edison motion picture camera and possibly the first woman to appear in a motion picture within the United States. In the film, Carmencita is recorded going through a routine she had been performing at Koster & Bial's in New York since February 1890.

1894

Life of an American Fireman

Life of an American Fireman 1903

6.10

Porter's sequential continuity editing links several shots to form a narrative of firemen responding to a house fire. They leave the station with their horse drawn pumper, arrive on the scene, and effect the safe rescue of a woman from the burning house. But wait, she tells them of her child yet asleep in the burning bedroom...

1903

Blacksmithing Scene

Blacksmithing Scene 1893

5.56

Three men hammer on an anvil and pass a bottle of beer around. Notable for being the first film in which a scene is being acted out.

1893

The Kiss

The Kiss 1896

5.20

They get ready to kiss, begin to kiss, and kiss in a way that brings down the house every time.

1896

Newark Athlete

Newark Athlete 1891

4.40

Experimental film fragment made with the Edison-Dickson-Heise experimental horizontal-feed kinetograph camera and viewer, using 3/4-inch wide film.

1891

Electrocuting an Elephant

Electrocuting an Elephant 1903

2.70

This is a film taken of the execution of Topsy, an elephant employed to help build Luna Park on Coney Island.

1903

Monkeyshines, No. 1

Monkeyshines, No. 1 1890

4.90

Experimental film made to test the original cylinder format of the Kinetoscope and believed to be the first film shot in the United States. It shows a blurry figure in white standing in one place making large gestures and is only a few seconds long.

1890

Dream of a Rarebit Fiend

Dream of a Rarebit Fiend 1906

6.40

A live-action film adaptation of the comic strip Dream of the Rarebit Fiend by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. This silent short film follows the established theme: the “Rarebit Fiend” gorges himself on rarebit and thus suffers spectacular hallucinatory dreams.

1906

How Jones Lost His Roll

How Jones Lost His Roll 1905

5.00

Jones is on his way home, carrying a roll of money, when he meets a neighbor who is a notorious miser. The neighbor unexpectedly invites Jones to dinner, and serves him a large meal with plenty of wine. After dinner, the neighbor suggests a way of passing the time - and soon his real intentions become clear.

1905

Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze

Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze 1894

4.90

A man (Thomas Edison's assistant) takes a pinch of snuff and sneezes. This is one of the earliest Thomas Edison films and was the second motion picture to be copyrighted in the United States.

1894

The Enchanted Drawing

The Enchanted Drawing 1900

6.50

A cartoonist defies reality when he draws objects that become three-dimensional after he lifts them off his sketch pad.

1900

The Night Before Christmas

The Night Before Christmas 1905

6.30

On Christmas Eve, Santa feeds his reindeer and loads his sleigh, before going on his journey to deliver toys to the children of the world.

1905

Treloar and Miss Marshall, Prize Winners at the Physical Culture Show in Madison Square Garden

Treloar and Miss Marshall, Prize Winners at the Physical Culture Show in Madison Square Garden 1904

6.00

Opens with a woman posing on a pedestal, dressed in a white body leotard with a sash tied at her hips. Marshall continues with various feminine poses, reminiscent of classic Greek statuary, to accentuate her figure. Film cuts to Treloar posed on the bare stage without a pedestal. He wears brief leopard-skin trunks or short tunic, wrist bands, and Roman-looking laced sandals. His poses accentuate the muscular development of his upper body, particularly that of his arms, and include movements that make the muscles jump. Treloar finishes with a slight nod to the camera.

1904

Annabelle Butterfly Dance

Annabelle Butterfly Dance 1894

5.40

Annabelle (Whitford) Moore performs one of her popular dances. For this performance, her costume has a pair of wings attached to her back, to suggest a butterfly. As she dances, she uses her long, flowing skirts to create visual patterns.

1894