Cohen’s Fire Sale
About Cohen’s Fire Sale
At Cohen's millinery, an expressman delivers a crate marked from France. Mrs. Cohen uses the imported hats to pull leaving customers back inside. A trash collector then carries the crate off by mistake. The chase scatters hats through the neighborhood. Cohen later has a fire at the shop. Fire engines put it out. Days afterward a sign reads "BIG FIRE SALE." He pockets the insurance policy, gives his wife a diamond ring, and they manage a kiss only after their noses get in the way.
Cast & crew
More about Cohen’s Fire Sale
Edwin S. Porter directed and photographed the one-reeler. Edison released it on 29 June 1907. Thomas A. Edison copyrighted it on 14 June 1907, numbers H95238 through H95249. The AFI Catalog gives the length as 900 feet. Moving Picture World printed the storefront synopsis on 20 July 1907. Wikidata lists Wallace McCutcheon Sr. as cameraman. The AFI credit is Porter.
Themes
Making
The joke is an insurance fire after a real loss. The French crate disappears with a trash collector before Cohen strikes the match that pays for the ring.
Reviews
Moving Picture World, 20 July 1907, ran the scene-by-scene description, from the France crate to the diamond ring.
Look
Porter shot the shopfront, the chase after the crate, and the fire engines. The AFI page credits him as cameraman.
Preservation
Silent Era lists a surviving print. The film is public domain in the United States. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The AFI subject list names arson, cats, hats, millinery shops, and Jews.
- No cast is printed on the AFI page or in Silent Era.
- Silent Era records a surviving print and public-domain status in the United States.
- A New York Clipper item is dated 29 June 1907.
- A file is on Wikimedia Commons.
Scenes
- The trash collector walks off with the crate from France, and the hats spill in the chase.
- Firemen soak the shop. The next sign is a fire sale.
- Cohen puts the ring on his wife's finger, and the kiss has to get past both their noses.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Cohen's Fire Sale (1907).webm)
