Kansas Saloon Smashers
About Kansas Saloon Smashers
A bartender in a white coat pours drinks in a mirrored saloon. An Irishman sets a pail on the bar. Carrie Nation and her followers rush in with hatchets, jam his hat over his eyes, and dump the beer on him. They smash the mirrors, bottles, cash register, and fixtures. The bartender turns a seltzer stream on Nation. A policeman orders the room out.
Cast & crew
More about Kansas Saloon Smashers
Edwin S. Porter directed for Edison. James H. White supervised production. George S. Fleming assisted. Porter ran the camera and developed the negative. The picture was first advertised as Mrs. Carrie Nation and Her Hatchet Brigade. Edison released it on 16 March 1901. The women are played by men in drag. The idea came from a photograph and editorial cartoons in the New York Evening Journal.
Themes
Background
Carrie Nation's hatchet raids on Kansas saloons were in the papers through 1900 and early 1901. Edison turned the cartoons into a one-minute comedy.
Making
The whole gag is one saloon set. The hatchet crew wrecks the bar fittings in front of the camera.
Look
Porter used one camera on the whole set, the usual 1901 framing, and developed the footage himself.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
The Library of Congress holds a print. The 2007 NFPF DVD Social Issues in American Film 1900–1934 includes it.
Notes
- The Edison catalog ends its description with the line that the film is full of comedy from start to finish.
- The same year Edison released Why Mr. Nation Wants a Divorce, another joke on Carrie Nation and her husband.
- Biograph's Carrie Nation Smashing a Saloon followed in April 1901. Lubin made Mrs. Nation and Her Hatchet Brigade.
- A print is in the Library of Congress and is in the public domain in the United States.
- In 2007 the National Film Preservation Foundation put it on the DVD Social Issues in American Film 1900–1934.
Scenes
- The women jam the Irishman's hat down and empty his beer pail over him.
- The bartender hoses Nation with seltzer until the policeman clears the saloon.
Influenced
- Carrie Nation Smashing a Saloon (1901)
- Mrs. Nation and Her Hatchet Brigade (1901)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Kansas Saloon Smashers (1901) - yt.webm)
- National Film Preservation Foundation DVD Social Issues in American Film 1900–1934 (2007)
