Chinese Laundry Scene
About Chinese Laundry Scene
On a stage laundry front, a policeman chases Hop Lee. The laundryman hits the officer, ducks through a trick door, and the chase circles the cabin. Phil Doretto and Robetta play the vaudeville turn.
Cast & crew
More about Chinese Laundry Scene
W. K. L. Dickson produced it and William Heise was the cameraman. The Library of Congress dates the shooting to about November 26, 1894, in the Black Maria. This is number 2 of the Robetta and Doretto films. The Maguire and Baucus catalogue calls it Chinese Laundry and summarizes it as the pursuit of Hop Lee by an irate policeman. A viewing print is about 40 feet.
Background
Shot in late 1894 for the Kinetoscope, using a stage Chinese laundryman and an Irish policeman, stock types of the variety bill.
Making
Dickson and Heise filmed a vaudeville slapstick turn against a painted laundry front inside the Black Maria.
Look
William Heise photographed the single stage set in the Black Maria.
Preservation
A paper print and a 35mm viewing print are in the Library of Congress, in the Gordon Hendricks collection.
Notes
- The Library of Congress times a viewing print at 21 seconds when run at 30 frames per second.
- Another listing gives the negative as 50 feet.
- One catalogue names the policeman O'Flannigan.
- Numbers 1 and 3 of the Robetta and Doretto series are separate shootings of the act.
- It was on the Raff and Gammon price list around June 1895 and in the Maguire and Baucus catalogue of April 1897.
Scenes
- Hop Lee hits the policeman and runs through the trick door of the laundry cabin.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Robetta and Doretto (1894).webm)
