Der Jongleur
About Der Jongleur
On a stage, a juggler billed as Paul Petras balances a bowler hat and a billiard ball on his arms and body. The turn is the fourth item in the Skladanowsky brothers' Wintergarten program.
Cast & crew
More about Der Jongleur
Max Skladanowsky photographed variety acts in Berlin in the summer of 1895 on unperforated stock cut to about 54mm from photographic negative. Der Jongleur was shown with eight other shorts at the Wintergarten variety theater from November 1, 1895, projected on the brothers' Bioscop. Sylvester Schäffer Sr. plays the juggler, billed as Paul Petras. A program table times this act at 19 seconds.
Background
Premiered at the Berlin Wintergarten on November 1, 1895, a month before the Lumière public shows in Paris.
Making
Skladanowsky filmed the juggler as one short strip, then dropped it into the variety bill between the boxing kangaroo and the acrobats.
Look
Max Skladanowsky shot the act on unperforated 54mm stock, so the frame spacing is uneven.
Technique
The Bioscop projector alternated two filmstrips.
Music
The Wintergarten screening used a specially composed live score.
Preservation
The act survives inside the Bundesarchiv reconstruction of the Wintergarten program. Original negative material for the program is down to a few frames.
Notes
- The Wintergarten show was the first projected film program in Europe shown to a paying audience.
- The Bioscop ran two strips in alternation.
- A live score was played with the pictures, loud enough to cover the projector.
- Other acts on the same bill included a boxing kangaroo, a serpentine dance, and Eugen Sandow wrestling.
- The Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv reconstructed the program in the early 1990s, with the Deutsche Kinemathek and Optronik, for the 1995 centenary. Only a handful of frames of the original negatives were found.
Scenes
- Petras holds the bowler and the billiard ball in balance on his arms.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Jongleur.webm)
