Execution of Czolgosz with Panorama of Auburn Prison
About Execution of Czolgosz with Panorama of Auburn Prison
The film opens on the walls of Auburn Prison, filmed the morning Leon Czolgosz was electrocuted for the assassination of William McKinley. It dissolves to a corridor of murderers' row. Keepers take a man playing Czolgosz from his cell. In a studio set of the death chamber, the state electrician, wardens, and doctors test the chair. Guards strap him in. At the warden's signal the current is turned on. Doctors examine the body with stethoscopes and tell the warden he is dead. The warden announces the death to the witnesses.
Cast & crew
More about Execution of Czolgosz with Panorama of Auburn Prison
Edwin S. Porter directed and photographed it for Edison. He asked to film the execution and was refused. Two shots are the outside of Auburn Prison on 29 October 1901, the day of the electrocution. The death chamber was rebuilt in Edison's New York studio and played by actors. Edison released the film on 4 November 1901. The catalog lists it at 200 feet. A copy runs 3 minutes 24 seconds at 15 frames per second. The Edison catalog calls it a reproduction from an eyewitness description, in three scenes.
Themes
Background
Czolgosz shot McKinley in Buffalo on 6 September 1901. McKinley died on 14 September. Czolgosz was electrocuted at Auburn on 29 October. Edison had the reenactment in theaters on 4 November.
Making
Porter could film the walls on the morning of the execution and nothing inside. The chair, the guards, and the doctors are a set, matched to the real prison by a dissolve.
Look
Porter shot the prison exterior himself, including a higher pan across the yard, then photographed the staged chamber on a studio set.
Music
Silent. The Edison catalog supplied a prose description rather than a score.
Preservation
A paper print survives in the Library of Congress Paper Print Collection. A viewing copy runs 3 minutes 24 seconds at 15 frames per second.
Notes
- It was the last of several 1901 Edison films about the McKinley assassination.
- The prison panorama and the studio electrocution are cut together as continuous action.
- The catalog names six witnesses. Two of them use stethoscopes at the end.
- A paper print is in the Library of Congress Paper Print Collection.
- The Library of Congress record places the camera at the studio in New York City and at Auburn, New York.
Scenes
- The camera pans the walls of Auburn Prison on the morning of the electrocution.
- On the studio set, doctors test the chair before the prisoner is strapped in.
- Two witnesses listen with stethoscopes and the warden announces the death.
Also available
- Library of Congress (Execution of Czolgosz, with panorama of Auburn Prison)
- Wikimedia Commons (Execution of Czolgosz, with panorama of Auburn Prison.ogv)
