A Trip Down Market Street Before the Fire
About A Trip Down Market Street Before the Fire
A hand-cranked camera rides the front of a United Railroads cable car from 8th Street down Market Street to the Ferry Building turntable. Wagons, automobiles, streetcars, and people cross in front of it, and many of them look back at the lens. The car turns 180 degrees on the turntable. Newsboys wave at the camera as the shot ends.
Cast & crew
More about A Trip Down Market Street Before the Fire
Harry Miles cranked the camera. His brothers were Herbert, Earl, and Joe. United Railroads lent the cable car. The camera was rigged at 8th Street, near the Miles studio, just after 3 p.m. David Kiehn's National Film Registry essay dates the ride to Saturday, April 14, 1906, four days before the earthquake. Hale's Tours of the World distributed the picture. On April 17 Harry and Joseph boarded a train for New York with the film, heard of the quake, sent the negative on, and went back. Earl Miles's Turk Street house survived. The studio did not.
Themes
Background
The earthquake of April 18, 1906, and the fire that followed, destroyed most of what the cable-car camera had just recorded.
Look
Harry Miles hand-cranked a camera fixed to the front of the cable car, the setup called a phantom ride: the street ahead is visible and the car itself is not.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
Four prints are accounted for: one reached the Library of Congress from a San Francisco projectionist through the American Film Institute; one is in the Prelinger Archives, bought by Rick Prelinger from a newsreel cameraman; one was held by animator Ward Kimball; one was acquired by Ruth Perlmutter and used by Ernie Gehr for Eureka (1979). The film is in the public domain.
Notes
- Early guesses put the filming in September or October 1905. Kiehn threw those out because the street is wet and those months had no rain, then found a February 1906 registration for a license plate in the film.
- A New York Clipper advertisement of April 28, 1906 said the film was shot just one week before the buildings were destroyed, which would be April 11. A San Francisco paper of March 29, 1906 said the Miles brothers meant to film from a cable car.
- Richard Greene, in 2011, dated the shadows on the Ferry Building to March 24–30, 1906, and read the Ferry Building clock as about 3:17 p.m.
- Kiehn describes about twelve minutes of cranking. The usual cited running time is 13 minutes.
- In 2016, Miles brothers footage of the ruined city, including a second ride down Market Street, was posted online.
Awards
- National Film Registry, 2010
Scenes
- Automobiles and horse-drawn wagons cut across the tracks in front of the lens.
- A Western Union messenger looks back at the camera.
- The car turns on the Ferry Building turntable and newsboys wave.
Influenced
- Eureka (1979)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (A Trip Down Market Street (High Res).webm)
- Library of Congress