Long before Hollywood started painting white men red and dressing them as 'Injuns' Edison's company was using the genuine article! Featuring for what is believed to be the Native Americans first appearance before a motion picture camera 'Buffalo Dance' features genuine members of the Sioux Tribe dressed in full war paint and costume! The dancers are believed to be veteran members of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Filmed again at the Black Maria studios by both Dickson and Heise the 'Buffalo Dance' warriors were named as Hair Coat, Parts His Hair and Last Horse. Its quite strange seeing these movies at first they all stand around waiting to begin and as they start some of the dancers look at the camera in an almost sad way at having lost their way of life.
Two gamecocks fight in the Edison Company film studio. This feature was remade later in the same year, with additional detail added.
Lee Martin, one of the cowboy stars in 'Buffalo Bill's Wild West', rides a bronco as a crowd looks on. While the horse is trying to throw Martin off its back, another cowboy stands on top of a fence rail and occasionally fires his six-shooter, to spur on both horse and rider.
�Interior of Barber Shop. Man comes in, takes off his coat; sits down, smokes; is handed a paper by attendant, who points out a joke; both laugh. Meantime the man in the chair is shaved and has his hair cut. Very funny.� (Edison's Latest Wonders, 1894)
Annabelle (Whitford) Moore performs one of her popular dances. For this performance, her costume has a pair of wings attached to her back, to suggest a butterfly. As she dances, she uses her long, flowing skirts to create visual patterns.
Eugen Sandow, who claims to be the strongest man in the world, appears in the Edison Company's film studio.
"A glove contest between trained cats. A very comical and amusing subject, and is sure to create a great laugh." (by Edison Films)
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 film consists of a series of animations on a beach containing two beach huts and a diving board. Two characters play at diving into the water from the diving board and then appear on the beach. The woman begins to play with a small dog and is then joined by a gentleman. The two play around on the beach before getting changed into bathing costumes and going into the water. They bob up and down in the water before swimming out of the scene. Once the couple have gone a man sails out in a boat.
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.
The first woman to appear in front of an Edison motion picture camera and possibly the first woman to appear in a motion picture within the United States. In the film, Carmencita is recorded going through a routine she had been performing at Koster & Bial's in New York since February 1890.
A man (Thomas Edison's assistant) takes a pinch of snuff and sneezes. This is one of the earliest Thomas Edison films and was the second motion picture to be copyrighted in the United States.
