Sena 1904

Automobile Race for the Vanderbilt Cup

A camera moving forward on an overhead crane gives a traveling view of men working on machinery. Carts carrying parts and pieces of machinery pass by on rails; cranes lift machinery; and men perform their various duties, including hammering objects. (Library of Congress)

A family moves out to the 'peaceful' suburbs where everything goes wrong, including the mother-in-law moving in.

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.

Billy Bitzer filmed 21 short actualities inside the Pittsburgh Westinghouse Works in April and May of 1904. Audiences of the day would have been treated to footage of factory panoramas, women winding armatures and turbines being assembled. These industrial films were produced for the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company.

The Clever Baker, shows a not so clever baker baking.

Only women are at a resort, until one man arrives. He woos a pretty young widow, and wins her.

A band of robbers are playing cards in the foreground of the picture. Suddenly one of the gang who has been on the lookout for the stage coach rides up in great haste. They quickly dodge behind a clump of trees and lay in wait. Soon the coach appears and is stopped by the bandits. The occupants are compelled to come down from their hiding places at the point of the gun and after being relieved of their valuables, are allowed to continue on their way. As soon as the stage drives off the robbers make for their ponies and take to the woods.

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.

Numerous women stand at several rows of tables where they appear to be wrapping tape around some devices, presumably coils. Male supervisors walk down the aisles, observing the women's work.

A mountaineer loads a shipment of moonshine whiskey onto his horse-cart, then goes to make a delivery. After he leaves, a revenue agent comes to the mountaineer's house to stake it out, and he soon observes some whiskey being traded for corn. The agent at once goes to alert other revenue officers, who arm themselves with rifles and then begin an immediate search for the moonshiner's still.

Despite his younger sister's remonstrances, a precocious schoolboy wants to smoke a cigarette he stole from his father. But he is soon punished for his audacity by a stomach cramp that intensifies until it culminates in terrible nausea and its inevitable consequence.

Numerous women stand in rows at winding machines, taking material from large spools behind them. A male supervisor walks down the aisle, checking the work of the women.

"Children in the Surf, Coney Island" is a very short documentary with Billy Bitzer behind the camera.

A closeup of the steam whistle blowing at the "Westinghouse works" complex of factories in Pennsylvania, probably at the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co.

The view from a moving train shows some of the Westinghouse interests and the surrounding areas.

A large bucket is lowered into a pit by male workers using machinery. Molten material from a furnace is poured into the bucket using a slide. The bucket, which has flames coming from inside, is lifted up from the pit by a crane.

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.

People doing the Cake Walk dance on the Beach at Coney Island.

A camera on an overhead crane travels down a large, long aisle where men are shown working on large machinery on either side. Carts carrying equipment are shown traveling on rails down the aisles. There are also men walking in the aisles. From Bitzer's Westinghouse Works series.