Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF
Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF
Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF
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La Library <strong>of</strong> Congress rend les films<br />
d’Edison accessibles sur Internet<br />
En 1888, Thomas A. Edison annonçait<br />
<strong>of</strong>ficiellement à l’Office Fédéral des Patentes,<br />
son intention d’inventer la caméra: “je fais<br />
des expérimentations avec un appareil qui<br />
fait pour les yeux ce que le phonographe fait<br />
pour l’oreille”.<br />
La M/B/RS de la Library <strong>of</strong> Congress<br />
possède d’importantes collections témoignant<br />
des inventions et des activités industrielles<br />
d’Edison. La Division conserve des films, des<br />
enregistrements sur cylindre et sur disque,<br />
des publications, des coupures de presse sur<br />
les sociétés de Thomas A. Edison.<br />
Une importante sélection de ces éléments,<br />
notamment 341 films et 81 enregistrements<br />
sonores, sont accessibles sur Internet, dans<br />
la section American Memory de la Library<br />
<strong>of</strong> Congress, sous le titre “Inventory<br />
Entertainment: the Motion Pictures and<br />
Sound Recordings <strong>of</strong> the Edison Companies<br />
at the Library <strong>of</strong> Congress”. Le site est le<br />
fruit des activités développées par la Library<br />
<strong>of</strong> Congress sous les auspices de la National<br />
Digital Library. Le présent article est<br />
consacré au volet cinématographique de la<br />
présentation sur le Web.<br />
Les premiers films expérimentaux (1894-<br />
1897) proviennent de la Collection Gordon<br />
Hendricks. Ils ont été digitalisés et sont<br />
visibles sur le site Web. Les films réalisés<br />
entre 1897 et 1905 sont documentés par la<br />
Paper Print Collection (les “paper prints”<br />
étant des tirages photographiques sur papier<br />
envoyés à la Library <strong>of</strong> Congress à des fins<br />
de protection de droits). Les productions plus<br />
récentes (1905-1926) sont disponibles sur le<br />
Web sous forme de films et proviennent de<br />
deux collections: la George Kleine Collection<br />
et la Edison Laboratory Collection.<br />
L’article conclut en affirmant que “Edison<br />
serait probablement heureux d’apprendre<br />
que les produits de ses sociétés sont toujours<br />
accessibles, dans certains cas, cent ans après<br />
avoir été réalisés, à travers le monde sur le<br />
World Wide Web”.<br />
Commercial Edison film production began in 1893. That year, a motion<br />
picture studio, later dubbed the Black Maria (slang for the studio’s<br />
resemblance to a police paddy wagon), was opened at Edison’s West<br />
Orange laboratory complex. Short films were produced there using<br />
vaudeville acts <strong>of</strong> the day. These included well-known performers such<br />
as strongman Eugene Sandow, Spanish dancer Carmencita, and acts from<br />
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, including Annie Oakley and Native<br />
American dancers.<br />
The films were viewed in Kinetoscope parlors where the Kinetoscopes<br />
were typically placed in a row. The patron would pay one sum to view<br />
the entire row <strong>of</strong> machines. The first Kinetoscope parlor was opened by<br />
the Holland Brothers on April 14, 1894, in New York.<br />
The Edison laboratory conducted experiments to synchronize sound to<br />
film, and, as a result, in 1895 the Kinetophone was introduced. To<br />
operate the new invention, a patron looked through the peephole viewer<br />
<strong>of</strong> a Kinetoscope while listening to a soundtrack piped through ear tubes<br />
attached to a phonograph in the cabinet. The device did not <strong>of</strong>fer exact<br />
synchronization and ultimately failed to find a market. The film known<br />
today as Dickson Experimental Sound <strong>Film</strong> in the Library’s collections is<br />
one <strong>of</strong> the few examples still existing <strong>of</strong> this early foray into sound.<br />
Edison was reluctant to develop a motion picture projector, feeling that<br />
more pr<strong>of</strong>it was to be made with the peephole viewers. Competition<br />
from other projection systems, however, persuaded Edison to market a<br />
projector developed by Thomas Armat and Charles Francis Jenkins. It<br />
was named the Vitascope and was presented to the world as an Edison<br />
invention in April 1896. The Vitascope, along with other projection<br />
systems, became a popular attraction in the variety and vaudeville<br />
theaters in major cities across the United States. Motion pictures in short<br />
time became starring attractions on the vaudeville bill. The Edison<br />
Company soon developed its own projector known as the Projectoscope,<br />
or Projecting Kinetoscope, in November 1896.<br />
Although many <strong>of</strong> the films made for the projection system continued to<br />
be <strong>of</strong> vaudeville-type acts, filmmaking now occasionally left the confines<br />
<strong>of</strong> the studio to encompass scenes <strong>of</strong> New York City. Herald Square is the<br />
first such Edison film. It was not long before the cameramen went<br />
further afield to locations such as Niagara Falls in their search for<br />
entertaining film subjects.<br />
The early films produced by the Edison Company were mostly actuality<br />
films—motion pictures taken <strong>of</strong> everyday life and events as they<br />
occurred. The company catalog contained scenes <strong>of</strong> vaudeville<br />
performers, notable persons, railway trains, scenic places, foreign views,<br />
fire and police workers, military exercises, naval scenes, expositions,<br />
parades, and sporting events. However, comic skits and films relying on<br />
trick effects to achieve “magical” results in the style <strong>of</strong> French filmmaker<br />
Georges Méliès were also popular.<br />
<strong>Film</strong>making activities at the Edison Company soon expanded to include<br />
scenes from around the world, such as the American West, Europe, and<br />
98 <strong>Journal</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Film</strong> <strong>Preservation</strong> / 58/59 / 1999