Thomas A. Edison

A satirical short produced to highlight the unreasonable extremes of local film censorship—a film so heavily censored that only the title cards remain!

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Ojo and Unc Nunkie are out of food, so they decide to journey to the Emerald City where they will never starve. Along the way, they meet Mewel, a waif and stray (mule) who leads them to Dr. Pipt, who has been stirring the powder of life for nine years. Ojo adds plenty of brains to Margolotte's Patchwork servant before she is brought to life with the powder. When Scraps does come to life, she accidentally knocks the liquid of petrifaction upon Unc Nunkie, Margolotte, and Danx (daughter Jesseva's boyfriend). So all go on separate journeys to find the ingredients to the antidote.

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A Kinetophone short featuring Andrew Carnegie speaking on “The Duty of the Wealthy Man,” recorded January 20, 1914, at Edison’s Bronx studio (production number 5113). The motion picture element is presumed lost; however, the synchronized sound cylinder survives.

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The Birth of the Telephone (1914) is a Kinetophone short produced by Edison, featuring Thomas A. Watson, assistant to Alexander Graham Bell, discussing his role in the development of the telephone. Recorded at Edison’s Bronx studio, the film is presumed lost, but the synchronized sound cylinder survives and is accessible.

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The Old Violin (1914) is a Kinetophone short produced by Edison, directed by Daniel Higham. The film features an elderly violinist reprimanding a young servant for playing ragtime music. Upon discovering the servant is an orphan with only an old violin left by his deceased mother, the violinist's perspective shifts. Recorded at Edison’s Bronx studio, the film is presumed lost, but the synchronized sound cylinder survives and is accessible.

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Nursery Favourites (1913) is an Edison Kinetophone short featuring performers miming to a pre-recorded nursery song, synchronized with a commercial phonograph record. It stands as an early example of Edison’s experiments with sound-film technology.

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A political boss antagonizes his constituents when he delivers an oratory while being fed talking points from his daughter who is reading from the wrong newspaper.

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An excerpt of the Shakespeare play presented in the Kinetophone sound system, in which the sound was provided by synchronized Edison cylinders.

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Civil War drama of a Confederate spy who is captured by Union soldiers.

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An Edison Kinetophone short presenting an on-stage minstrel company performing musical numbers and patter; made as part of Edison’s early synchronized sound demonstrations.

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A veteran of the Napoleanic Wars recounts his memories and grants his blessings upon the marriage of his granddaughter and a young soldier.

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The Edison Quartet perform songs as blacksmiths. This was one of 200 projects produced using the Edison Kinetophone system. The Kinetophone was a fairly complex mechanical means of creating talking pictures. Unlike previous systems, in which actors would be required to lip sync to preexisting recordings on camera, the Kinetophone was one of the earliest film technologies to record sound at the same time as the image.

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A comic sketch that features two players who think each one is deaf, causing them to shout. Part of the Edison Kinetophone Collection. The Kinetophone was a fairly complex mechanical means of creating talking pictures. Unlike previous systems, in which actors would be required to lip sync to preexisting recordings on camera, the Kinetophone was one of the earliest film technologies to record sound at the same time as the image.

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On February 17, 1913, after many years of R+D, Thomas Alva Edison introduced the Edison Kinetophone to an enthusiastic New York audience. The Kinetophone was a fairly complex mechanical means of creating talking pictures. Unlike previous systems, in which actors would be required to lip sync to preexisting recordings on camera, the Kinetophone was one of the earliest film technologies to record sound at the same time as the image. More than 200 of these Kinetophones were produced between 1913 and 1914, but only a handful of the films and their accompanying sound cylinders survive.

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A comedy of a young man’s humiliating initiation into a woman-hating men’s club, The Five Jolly Bachelors. With Eddie Boulden and the Edison Quartet.

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An Edison Kinetophone short featuring leading suffragists Harriet May Mills, Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, Mrs. Raymond Brown, Mrs. John Rogers, Jr., and Elizabeth Freeman delivering speeches in support of women’s right to vote. Produced as part of Edison’s early sound-film experiments, it captured real voices from the suffrage movement and was exhibited in vaudeville houses, where it sometimes met with controversy. (Note: This film is distinct from the 1912 Reliance production of the same name directed by Hal Reid, which was a silent dramatic narrative.)

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A short Edison Kinetophone film, part of Edison’s early experiments in synchronizing sound and image. Distributed by General Film Company. (Plot, cast, and running time are not fully documented in surviving sources.)

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A short Edison Kinetophone film, distributed by General Film Company, representative of Edison’s early sound-film experiments. Details on plot, cast, and runtime are not fully documented in surviving sources.

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A formerly lost Edison film from 1912.

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Metropolitan Opera stars, tenor Enrico Caruso and bass-baritone Pol Plancon, in a scene from the opera "Lucia di Lammermoor" filmed in Edison sound-on-disc process known as Cinephonograph.

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Frankenstein, a young medical student, trying to create the perfect human being, instead creates a misshapen monster. Made ill by what he has done, Frankenstein is comforted by his fiancée; but on his wedding night he is visited by the monster.

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The only known moving-image footage of the author, filmed at his home, Stormfield, in Redding, Connecticut. The silent short shows Twain walking about his estate, relaxing indoors with his daughters Clara and Jean. No known voice recording survives. Part of this footage has been associated with Edison’s The Prince and the Pauper (1909). Although Thomas Edison has sometimes been mistakenly named as director, he was never credited as director on any films; the actual director of this short is unknown.

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A short film in which the members of the Motion Pictures Patents Company (which had been founded only a year earlier) congratulate Thomas Edison himself on receiving a new patent.

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Klingsor seeks admission to the Holy Grail. Evil summons Kundry. Herzeloid appears with the child Parsifal. Crowning of Amfortas. Wounding of Amfortas. Carrying Amfortas to his bath. Kundry brings relief to Amfortas. Parsifal reproached for killing the Swan. Kundry succumbs to Evil. Knights entering the Holy Grail. Parsifal unmoved. Klingsor summons Kundry. Parsifal enters the Magic Garden. Kundry kisses Parsifal. Parsifal calls upon the Saviour. Parsifal repulses Kundry. Klingsor hurls the Sacred Spear. Destruction of the Magic Garden. Guernemanz restores Kundry. Parsifal appears with Sacred Spear. Kundry washes Parsifal's feet. Amfortas tears open his wound. Parsifal heals Amfortas. Parsifal becomes King of the Holy Grail.

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With a tree-lined river bank dominating the top and back of the frame, the Charles River flows toward a stationary camera. A flotilla of canoes passes by. Some have one occupant, some two, a few three or four. Some men wear ties, a few wear boaters. Only a handful of the canoes have more than one paddler. None go quickly. There are more than 40 canoes packed close together. Off camera, down left, they seem to make a circle and head back to enter the frame from the left.

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A location actuality filmed in Philadelphia (May 27–28, 1904) documenting the Inter-Collegiate Athletic Association’s championships: sprint and field events, crowds, and collegiate pageantry, presented with intertitle introductions.

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Footage of the 1903 football game between the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan, showing uniformed players in action along with views of the spectators in the stadium and surrounding stands. A rare early motion-picture record of American college football. Although Thomas Edison has sometimes been mistakenly named as director, he was never credited as director on any films; the actual director of this short is unknown.

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A group of Jewish men in Ottoman Jerusalem perform a dance.

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A beautiful panoramic view of lower New York from Barclay Street to Battery Park, showing a beautiful stereoscopic effect of the sky-scrapers in the business section of the city.

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Film depicting the killing of Topsy, an elephant employed to help build Luna Park on Coney Island.

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This short captures the thrill of winter sport in Canada, showing skiers racing downhill at high speed before leaping over a snow-built hurdle. Most of the jumpers tumble into a heap at the bottom, adding humor to the action. Although Thomas Edison has sometimes been mistakenly named as director, he was never credited as director on any films; the actual director of this short is unknown.

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Shows ice plows in operation, drawn by horses and guided by men on skates. The plows are first operated in one direction and then crosswise, cutting to within four inches of the bottom, after which men saw and cut the ice entirely off in about twelve foot squares, which are drawn along the canal by horses to a point where they are picked up by the ice carriers and run into the ice houses or loaded on cars.

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This film records the arrival of the Governor General of Canada, the Earl of Minto, accompanied by the Countess of Minto and their household, as they cross the river in ice canoes. Upon reaching the Quebec side, the canoes encounter a wide ledge of ice extending from the wharf, over which blanket-clad snowshoers haul the Governor, his wife, and their guests. A vivid glimpse of winter travel and ceremonial pageantry in early 20th-century Canada. Although Thomas Edison has sometimes been mistakenly named as director, he was never credited as director on any films; the actual director of this short is unknown.

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A great feature of the Pan-American Exposition, as unanimously conceded by all visitors, was the electric illumination of the Exposition grounds at night. After a great deal of experimenting and patience, we succeeded in securing an excellent picture of the buildings at the Pan-American as they appeared when lighted up at night.

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A comic short in which a tramp attempts to ride a bicycle, tumbling repeatedly before giving up in despair. A skilled rider then takes the stage, performing rope-jumping tricks while balanced on the wheel. Often attributed to British film pioneer R.W. Paul. Although Thomas Edison has sometimes been mistakenly named as director, he was never credited as director on any films.

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Filmed at the second inauguration of William McKinley on March 4, 1901, this short captures the president taking the oath of office at the U.S. Capitol. Although Thomas Edison has sometimes been mistakenly named as director, he was never credited as director on any films; the actual director of this short is unknown.

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