Thomas A. Edison

Three men hammer on an anvil and pass a bottle of beer around. Notable for being the first film in which a scene is being acted out.

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.

This short was released in connection with the 20th anniversary of Warner Brothers' first exhibition of the Vitaphone sound-on-film process on 6 August 1926. The film highlights Thomas A. Edison and Alexander Graham Bell's efforts that contributed to sound movies and acknowledges the work of Lee De Forest. Brief excerpts from the August 1926 exhibition follow. Clips are then shown from a number of Warner Brothers features, four from the 1920s, the remainder from 1946/47.

A short film depicting the execution of Mary, Queen of the Scots. Mary is brought to the execution block and made to kneel down with her neck over it. The executioner lifts his axe ready to bring it down. After that frame Mary has been replaced by a dummy. The axe comes down and severs the head of the dummy from the body. The executioner picks up the head and shows it around for everyone else to see. One of the first camera tricks to be used in a movie.

William K.L. Dickson plays the violin while two men dance. This is the oldest surviving sound film where sound is recorded on the phonograph.

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.

A short Edison Black Maria studio film featuring famed sharpshooter Annie Oakley, known as “Little Sure Shot.” Born Phoebe Ann Oakley Mozee in Ohio in 1860, she rose to global fame performing with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. Accompanied (likely) by her husband and fellow marksman Frank Butler, Oakley’s diminutive stature belied her legendary marksmanship.

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.

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.

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.

Late 1800s cigarette advertisement produced by Thomas Edison Manufacturing.

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.

This fight consists of six rounds, each round on a film 150 feet long. It's an actual contest between James J. Corbett, former champion of the world, and Peter Courtney. The films are listed as "1st Round", "2nd Round", "3rd Round", "4th Round", "5th Round", and "6th Round".

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.

This film captures the departure of the 2nd Special Service Battalion, Canadian Infantry, from Quebec for the war in South Africa. Soldiers in campaign uniform march under a triumphal arch to the cheers of flag-waving crowds before proceeding to the wharf and embarking on the transport Sardinian, bound for the Transvaal.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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