Testing a Rotary

Testing a Rotary 1904

4.20

A small group of men turn on what appears to be a generator. As the rotary spins, the men make adjustments to the machine and check its operations.

1904

Barnum's Trunk

Barnum's Trunk 1904

5.30

A magician and some assistants put up a series of posters of music hall acts in a frame. Then the magician brings each poster to life.

1904

Welding the Big Ring

Welding the Big Ring 1904

5.10

A group of men weld one area of a large ring in a fire. They lift the ring, which is hanging horizontally on chains, out of the fire. Four men hammer the hot area on the ring into shape while the remaining men hold the ring. They put the ring into the fire again, take it out, and take it over to a machine which continuously hammers down on that area of the ring. The men then take it away from the machine and hammer it themselves into shape. The ring is presumably a piece of a generator.

1904

Port of Šibenik

Port of Šibenik 1904

1

A documentary recording of the Šibenik port from 1904, by Frank S. Mottershaw. For a long time considered to be the oldest extant Croatian film and recording of Croatia, possibly even all Yugoslavian countries, dated to 1903 and ascribed to Stanisław Noworyta. In the meantime, these theories have been rejected, and this film is known to be a part of a larger film, "Krunisanje kralja Petra I Karađorđevića i putovanje kroz Srbiju, Novi Pazar, Crnu Goru i Dalmaciju" ("The coronation of king Peter I of Serbia and a ride trough Serbia, Novi-Bazar, Montenegro and Dalmatia"), by F.S. Mottershaw and Arnold Muir Willson.

1904

The Untamable Whiskers

The Untamable Whiskers 1904

6.17

The background of this picture represents a scene along the beautiful river Seine in Paris. A gentleman enters, and taking a blackboard from the side of the picture, he draws on it a sketch of a novelist. Then, standing in the centre, he causes the living features of his sketch to appear in the place of his own, which is utterly devoid of whiskers. The change is made so mysteriously that the eye cannot notice it until one sees quite another person in the place of the first. Again another sketch is shown on the board, this one being that of a miser; then an English cockney; a comic character; a French policeman, and last of all, the grinning visage of Mephistopheles. It is almost impossible to give this film a more definite description; suffice it to say that it is something entirely new in motion pictures and is sure to please. (Méliès Catalog)

1904

Steam Hammer

Steam Hammer 1904

4.80

From what appears to be a furnace, a large, glowing block is lifted with the help of a crane over to a table by a group of men. A hammer comes from above and pounds down on the block repeatedly as the men turn the block several times so that it will acquire a certain shape.

1904

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus 1904

5.30

An abridged story of the triumphs and trials of Christopher Columbus, told in eight scenes.

1904

Buy Your Own Cherries

Buy Your Own Cherries 1904

4.60

A barmaid plies a swell with smiles and with cherries from a box that's just been delivered. When she refuses a cherry to a roughly-dressed tradesman who runs a tab at the bar, he pays off his debt in a huff, using all his week's pay. He then storms penniless and without provisions into his ill-furnished house where his wife and two children, ill-clad and ill-fed, cower. Is there any hope for him and for his family? If he does realize how low he's sunk, what help is there to lift him up? Will the family ever know the taste of cherries?

1904

The Mistletoe Bough

The Mistletoe Bough 1904

5.50

During a game of hide and seek, a new bride hides in a chest and remains undiscovered until a strange visitation thirty years later.

1904

A Day in the Hayfields

A Day in the Hayfields 1904

5.30

Documentary on the process of hay-making, from the cutting of the grass to the stacking of the hay.

1904

Burglary at Night

Burglary at Night 1904

5.50

A man hides his valuables under his mattress before going to sleep, blissfully unaware of the two burglars on his roof.

1904

Troubles of a Manager of a Burlesque Show

Troubles of a Manager of a Burlesque Show 1904

3.90

Facing a stationary camera, sitting at a desk, a man works busily. Posters of burlesque queens are on the wall behind him. A single woman, followed later by later two others, comes into the office seeking a job. The manager hands each a box with a costume in it and points to dressing rooms. Each of the women has a different reaction when she discovers the nature of her costume, and the busy manager has a distinct response to each of the women as well.

1904

Coil Winding Section E

Coil Winding Section E 1904

4.30

Rows of women are shown at tables with winding machines. They wind using material from spools behind them, apparently putting the finished products on the table in front of them. Various supervisory staff, male and female, walk through the aisles, checking the work of the women.

1904

Marcel Proust at Elaine Greffulhe's Wedding

Marcel Proust at Elaine Greffulhe's Wedding 1904

1

The only known film footage of Marcel Proust (identified by Canadian professor Jean-Pierre Sirois-Trahan around 100 years after the shooting of the film) shows the French writer at a wedding as he descends a staircase unaccompanied, speedily walking past the slower couples to his right. Armand de Gramont and Elaine Greffulhe married on 14 November 1904.

1904

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

Girls Winding Armatures

Girls Winding Armatures 1904

3.60

Numerous women sit in rows at machines where they appear to be winding some type of wire and tooling it onto machines. Two young men push spools of this wire down the aisle. Supervisors, male and female, walk down the aisle and observe the women's work, stopping for a while at one woman's station.

1904

Bad Remedy

Bad Remedy 1904

1

A comedic short about taking unpleasant medicine.

1904