More Treasures from American Film Archives, 1894-1931
Overview | Contents | Contributors | Brochure (PDF) | Clips
PROGRAM 1
- Dickson Experimental Sound Film (ca. 1894, 15 sec.), first surviving sound film.
- Annie Oakley, Buffalo Dance, Bucking Broncho (1894, 1 min.), Buffalo Bill’s Wild West performers.
- The Suburbanite (1904, 9 min.), “sitcom” of New Yorkers in the suburbs.
- The Country Doctor (1909, 14 min.), D.W. Griffith’s tragic masterpiece.
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910, 13 min.), earliest surviving film of the Baum novel.
- Admiral Cigarette, Flash Cleaner, Buy An Electric Refrigerator, The Stenographer’s Friend (1897–1926, 10 min.), product ads for theater audiences.
- The Invaders (1912, 41 min.), Thomas Ince Western featuring Lakota Sioux actors.
- The Hazards of Helen (1915, 14 min.), episode 26 from this women’s action series.
- Gretchen the Greenhorn (1916, 58 min.), immigrants, led by Dorothy Gish, thwart counterfeiters.
- The Breath of a Nation (1919, 5 min.), Gregory LaCava cartoon on the first day of prohibition.
- De-Light: Making an Electric Light Bulb (1920, 12 min.)
- Skyscraper Symphony (1929, 9 min.), Robert Florey’s avant-garde portrait of Manhattan.
- Greeting by George Bernard Shaw (1928, 5 min.), first talkie of the playwright.
PROGRAM 2
- What Happened on Twenty-Third Street, At the Foot of the Flatiron, New York City “Ghetto” Fish Market (1901–1903, 5 min.), Manhattan actualities.
- From Leadville to Aspen (1906, 8 min.), train hold-up film made for railroad-car theaters.
- The “Teddy” Bears (1907, 13 min.), political satire, fairy tale, and puppet animation.
- Children Who Labor (1912, 13 min.), crusading melodrama co-produced by the National Child Labor Committee and the Edison company.
- The Flute of Krishna (1926, 12 min.), first film of a Martha Graham dance and two other experimental color shorts.
- Surviving reel of Lotus Blossom (1921, 12 min.), earliest known film from a Chinese American company.
- Gus Visser and His Singing Duck (ca. 1925, 90 sec.), vaudeville sound film made by Theodore Case.
- Clash of the Wolves (1925, 74 min.), action feature starring the original Rin-Tin-Tin.
- International Newsreel (1926, 13 min.)
- Now You’re Talking (1927, 9 min.), instructional cartoon on how to use a telephone.
- There It Is (1928, 19 min), surreal Charley Bowers comedy with animated objects.
- A Bronx Morning (1931, 11 min.), avant-garde documentary by Jay Leyda.
PROGRAM 3
- Rip Van Winkle (1896, 4 min.), stage star Joseph Jefferson in eight mutoscopes.
- Mr. Edison at Work in his Chemical Laboratory (1897, 30 sec.)
- Life of an American Fireman (1903, 6 min.), documentary drama by Edwin S. Porter.
- Westinghouse Works (1904, 6 min.), on location in America’s largest factory.
- Falling Leaves (1912, 12 min.), family melodrama directed by Alice Guy Blaché.
- Hollywood Promotional Films (1918–1926, 14 min.), teaser for Hands Up, Movie Lovers’ Contest, and a newsreel story on the filming of Greed in Death Valley.
- De Forest Phonofilms (1923–1924, 11 min.), A Few Moments with Eddie Cantor and President Coolidge at the White House in the first talking political spot.
- Inklings (1925, 6 min.), witty visual puns by Dave Fleischer.
- Lady Windermere’s Fan (1925, 89 min.), Ernst Lubitsch’s masterpiece from the Wilde play.
- Cockeyed (ca. 1925, 3 min.), trick photographic views of Manhattan.
- Prologue from The Passaic Textile Strike (1926, 18 min.), docudrama by striking workers to tell their story.
- Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926, 4 min.), follow-the-bouncing-ball sing along with Ko-Ko the Clown.
- Zora Neale Hurston’s Fieldwork Footage (1928, 5 min.), scenes of the rural South filmed by the famed novelist.
- Trailers for Six Lost Films (10 min.)