Move On
About Move On
On a Lower East Side sidewalk, pushcart vendors stand so close they block the walk. A policeman comes along and they hurry the carts off. The Edison catalogue sold the joke as Jewish and Italian peddlers afraid of arrest and afraid of spilling the fruit. The shot ends on a close view of the officer scolding one of them.
Cast & crew
More about Move On
Alfred C. Abadie photographed it on 22 October 1903. Edison copyrighted it on 27 October 1903, H37369, and the AFI Catalog lists a 100-foot release that month. The company sold it as a comic actuality of police keeping vendors moving.
Themes
Background
Edison's 1903 catalogue framed a Lower East Side street as a comedy of immigrant peddlers and a patrolman. The same year the company released other New York "ghetto" subjects, including a fish-market film and a bathing film.
Look
Alfred C. Abadie shot it on the Lower East Side on 22 October 1903, with a closing close view of the policeman.
Music
Silent. Martin Marks later wrote music for the National Film Preservation Foundation transfer.
Preservation
A paper print is in the Library of Congress. The archive holds 16mm and 35mm viewing prints and a duplicate negative.
Notes
- The Library of Congress times a print at 1 minute 42 seconds at 15 frames a second. A 16mm viewing print is 38 feet. A 35mm viewing print is about 95 feet.
- The National Film Preservation Foundation's transfer, copied at 18 frames a second, runs 75 seconds. Martin Marks wrote new music for that copy.
- The paper-print deposit is why the picture survived. It is in the public domain.
- The Film Preservation Foundation notes that early actualities like this one mix what the camera found with what was arranged for it.
Scenes
- Vendors rush the carts into the street when the officer appears.
- The film closes on the policeman scolding one vendor.
Also available
- Internet Archive (move_on_1903)
- Library of Congress (digital viewing copy)
