Band Drill
About Band Drill
A brass band from Charles Hoyt’s A Milk White Flag marches into the Black Maria, led by bandmaster Steele Ayers. When he reaches his mark he turns and conducts while the players take their places. Frank Baldwin plays Ayers. The film is 36 feet, about 20 seconds at 30 frames a second.
Cast & crew
More about Band Drill
Shot in late November 1894, after the farce opened in New York on 8 October 1894. W. K. L. Dickson is the production credit. William Heise is the cameraman. It is one of at least five films of this cast. No copyright was registered. Raff & Gammon and Maguire & Baucus catalogs list it as Hoyt’s “Milk White Flag,” a marching band with the leader at the head. A Treasures note suggests the stage director Julian Mitchell may have handled the players. Hoyt’s burlesque mocked state militias and their uniforms.
Themes
Background
Hoyt’s A Milk White Flag had opened in New York on 8 October 1894. Within weeks the company was in West Orange for this and the other four band films.
Making
Edison brought the Broadway militia joke into the Black Maria and filmed the entrance and the turn to the front. There is no second scene in the catalog line.
Look
Heise’s camera stays on the march-in. Ayers reaches his spot, faces the lens, and the band fills in behind him.
Music
Silent. The band is seen, not heard.
Preservation
Prints survive at the George Eastman Museum, the Library of Congress, and the Museum of Modern Art. It is in the public domain in the United States.
Notes
- Fred W. Boardman, William Cushing, Ad. Dorsch, E. P. Brown, J. F. Boardman, George Goddard, E. F. Balch, and Paul Pfarr are named in the band.
- Early Kinetograph negatives of this period were cranked near 48 frames a second. The Library of Congress viewing time is 20 seconds at 30.
- Prints are at the George Eastman Museum, the Library of Congress (Gordon Hendricks collection), and the Museum of Modern Art.
- The Commons file is an .ogg of the 1894 subject.
Scenes
- Ayers marches to his mark, turns, and the musicians fall in under his baton.
Influenced by
- A Milk White Flag (Charles Hoyt)
Also available
- Library of Congress
- George Eastman Museum
- Museum of Modern Art
- Wikimedia Commons (1894 Band Drill.ogg)
