Billy Edwards and the Unknown
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About Billy Edwards and the Unknown
Former lightweight Billy Edwards spars with an opponent in a ring set up inside the Black Maria. More than a dozen men stand behind the ropes and watch. The bout was staged as a five-round exhibition for the Kinetoscope.
Cast & crew
More about Billy Edwards and the Unknown
William K. L. Dickson directed and William Heise was the cameraman. It was shot for Maguire and Baucus between late January and early February 1895, in a makeshift ring in the Black Maria. The AFI catalog lists the length as 50 feet. A 1898 reissue titled Boxing described a five-round go between Warwick and Billy Edwards.
Background
An 1895 Edison boxing subject, made after the first filmed prizefights of 1894 and sold for peep-show machines in the United States and, through Maguire and Baucus, in Europe.
Making
The match was not a public prizefight. It was boxed in the Black Maria so the rounds would fit the Kinetoscope.
Look
William Heise cranked the camera on the Black Maria ring.
Preservation
A 35mm print is at the Library of Congress. The surviving picture runs 15 seconds.
Notes
- The original title calls the other boxer the Unknown. Later Maguire and Baucus advertising named him Warwick.
- Edwards had been the American lightweight champion and later trained John L. Sullivan.
- Dickson had objected to more prizefight films after the trouble around The Hornbacker-Murphy Fight, then took this job anyway.
- A digital transfer from a Library of Congress 35mm print runs 15 seconds.
Scenes
- Edwards and his opponent trade punches while the crowd stands just outside the ring.
Influenced by
- The Hornbacker-Murphy Fight
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Billy Edwards and the Unknown (1895).webm)
- Edison: The Invention of the Movies (DVD)
