A Morning Alarm
About A Morning Alarm
Doors open at a Newark engine house and a fire company starts for an early alarm. Horses prance as they pull out, and people on the sidewalk push forward to watch the run begin.
Cast & crew
More about A Morning Alarm
James H. White directed and William Heise photographed it on November 14, 1896, the same day Edison filmed Starting for the Fire and Fighting the Fire with the Newark department. Thomas A. Edison copyrighted it on November 27, 1896, number 64784. An Edison catalog offered 45 feet for $6.75. The AFI Catalog also records release lengths of 125 and 150 feet. Maguire & Baucus distributed it.
Themes
Background
Edison was selling short actualities to exhibitors in 1896, the year after the first projected film shows in the United States. Newark's companies still rolled with horse-drawn engines.
Making
White was Edison's production head for these actualities. Heise cranked the camera at the engine house rather than on a studio stage.
Look
William Heise photographed the company leaving the engine house, with the doors, the horses, and the crowd on the sidewalk all in one outdoor setup.
Preservation
A 35mm reference positive from the Gordon Hendricks collection is held by the Library of Congress. The picture is in the public domain in the United States.
Notes
- Wikidata also lists the titles Going to the Fire and Morning Fire Alarm.
- The AFI Catalog says the three Newark films of November 14 could be shown separately or in order, from this departure through Fighting the Fire.
- It is not The Morning Alarm, a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, run filmed on December 25, 1896, which the Library of Congress says was once misidentified as this Newark picture.
- Silent Era lists a 96-foot copy and quotes both a Maguire & Baucus blurb and the Edison catalog's 45-foot listing.
- A 35mm reference positive from the Gordon Hendricks collection is at the Library of Congress. A viewing print was received on May 13, 1994.
Scenes
- The engine-house doors open and the horses start out with the company.
- Spectators crowd the sidewalk as the apparatus leaves.
