سال 1900 - 6

In a charming dining room a very attractive young lady is seen seated at the table, evidently waiting for the caller who is to share a quiet little dinner for two. A moment later a dude of the regular chappy type enters and seats himself at the table. As soon as the meal commences the inevitable wicked small boy sneaks in unobserved, and producing a piece of rope ties one end securely to the dude's coat tails and fastens the other to the table-cloth.

A woman climbs out of bed and lifts her nightdress to search for a flea. Reconstructed from a late 1800s flip book

A short skit in which vaudeville duo Foottit and Chocolat reenact the Wilhelm Tell routine.

People resting and walking on the beach.

“A marvelously clear picture taken from the top of the elevator of the Eiffel Tower during going up and coming down of the car. This wonderful tower is 1,000 feet in height, and the picture produces a most sensational effect. As the camera leaves the ground and rises to the top of the tower, the enormous white city opens out to the view of the astonished spectator. Arriving at the top of the tower, a bird's eye view of the Exposition looking toward the Trocadero, and also toward the Palace of Electricity, is made, and the camera begins its descent. The entire trip is shown on a 200-foot film. 30.00. We furnish the ascent in 125 foot film.” (Edison film catalog)

A magician presents a circular piece of paper from which he removes the flags of the allies. Then from each flag he produces a soldier from the respective country, and finally he produces a Chinaman. But hardly have the allies seen the latter than they pounce on him and try to cut him into pieces. The funniest part of our story is that the Chinaman escapes in a balloon, with an expression of childish innocence on his face as the allies try to cut him up.

Scenes on an ostrich farm, filmed in Natal during the Boer War.

White’s camera offers several 360-degree pans of views of the fairground, then amazes by tilting up and down the Eiffel Tower, and concludes with a stunning tracking shot to the highest point above Paris. Exhibitors freely grouped films into nascent narratives such as those displayed here. - Bruce Posner

Walter Gibbons was one of Britain's most forward-thinking film entrepreneurs, and deeply entranced by the music hall. In 1900 he launched his 'phono bio tableaux', which synchronised songs recorded by famous music stars on disc with a film of the performance. Sadly, all but one of the films are lost, making this last survivor a unique record of a major Victorian music hall star in sound and vision, as well as the oldest British 'sound film', nearly thirty years before the 'talkies' arrived. Lil Hawthorne, who performs this song, was a well-known American singer, often adopting a male persona, although she was not strictly a male impersonator.

Madame Ondine performs a serpentine dance surrounded by big cats.

A series of short motion-studies of athletes for the 1900 Olympics in Paris.

The scene opens on a theatrical stage. The magician enters from the wings, and making a bow to the audience, removes his coat and hat and they disappear mysteriously in the air. He then takes a white handkerchief from his pocket, holds it over his knees, and his long trousers disappear, and behold! he is clad in knickerbockers. He next makes a pass with a magic wand and a table suddenly appears before the audience, on which is a large pile of tissue paper. The magician takes up the paper and shakes it a few times and three live geese fly out upon the floor. This is a highly pleasing and mystifying subject.

A prince gets the help of a fairy to aid in his conflict with a wizard.

Stairs from the Pont de l'Alma.

People riding on a moving platform / walkway.

An elderly gentleman in a silk hat sits on a stool in front of a store on the main street of town. He has a telescope that focuses on the ankle of a young woman who is a short distance away. Her husband catches the gent looking. What will the two men do now?

Photographed February-March, 1898 in Canton, China

A woman in ballet slippers wearing a large white hat and a long white dress - with ruffles, puffy sleeves and petticoats - dances across water with roiling waves behind her. She holds the edges of the skirt with her hands, lifting and twirling, sometimes exposing her bloomers and a dark garter on one leg. Her style combines ballet with the exuberant kicks and twirls of a burlesque dance hall. With churning waves behind her, the water seems to wash beneath her feet. The film of the dancer, "M'lle. Cathrina Bartho" (1899), is superimposed on that of the water, "Upper Rapids, from Bridge" (1896).