Hooligan Assists the Magician
About Hooligan Assists the Magician
A stage magician asks for a helper. Happy Hooligan climbs up. The magician drops through the floor and leaves him with two barrels. The barrels right themselves when he knocks them over. Clowns, ghosts, and demons pop out and take a crack at him. He hauls two figures from the barrels and finds only white muslin. The magician returns, turns one piece into a storm of paper, and the other into a goblin.
Cast & crew
More about Hooligan Assists the Magician
J. Stuart Blackton directed and plays Happy Hooligan. Albert E. Smith produced and ran the camera. The Edison catalog lists it at 100 feet. Thomas A. Edison copyrighted it on 16 November 1900 (D21658). It was filmed on Vitagraph's rooftop studio between September and early November 1900. The story comes from Frederick Burr Opper's comic strip Happy Hooligan.
Themes
Look
Albert E. Smith photographed it on the Vitagraph roof in New York.
Preservation
A paper print is in the Library of Congress Paper Print Collection.
Notes
- AFI lists the release as November 1900 and the series as Happy Hooligan.
- The Library of Congress holds a paper print.
- Blackton made further Hooligan shorts for Edison in 1901–1903, including Hooligan at the Seashore and Happy Hooligan Turns Burglar.
- A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Scenes
- The magician vanishes through the floor and leaves Hooligan with two barrels that spring upright.
- Pulled from the barrels, the captives turn out to be sheets of muslin.
Influenced by
- Frederick Burr Opper's Happy Hooligan
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Happy Hooligan assist the magician)
