Cock Fight, No. 2
“Most popular of all. Shows two cocks fighting, and spectators betting. Perfectly true to life.”
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About Cock Fight, No. 2
Two gamecocks fight inside a small wire pen. Two men watch from behind the cage and bet on the birds. The shadow of a third man falls across the scene.
Cast & crew
More about Cock Fight, No. 2
W. K. L. Dickson directed and William Heise worked the camera. The subject runs about 50 feet, shot for the Kinetoscope around August or September 1894. An October 1894 Edison catalogue sold it as a parlor picture of a cockfight with bettors. No copyright was registered.
Themes
Background
Edison Kinetoscope parlors opened in 1894. Customers watched these films one person at a time, for a coin, in a cabinet rather than a theater.
Making
The birds and the bettors were staged in the Black Maria, the tar-paper studio at West Orange that turned on a track to face the sun.
Look
William Heise's camera holds a single view of the wire pen and the men behind it, the standard Black Maria setup.
Preservation
A print is held by the Museum of Modern Art. The film is in the public domain in the United States.
Notes
- It is a second Edison cockfight film. The first, The Cock Fight, was already in Kinetoscope parlors by June 1894.
- Silent Era also lists the title Roosters.
- Silent Era gives the Kinetograph speed for these early films as 48 frames a second.
- The October 1894 catalogue of the Kinetoscope Company called the cockfight the most popular of the subjects and said the feathers could be seen to fly.
Scenes
- The two roosters strike each other in the pen while the men behind the wire show their bets.
Influenced by
- The Cock Fight (1894)
