Newark Athlete
About Newark Athlete
A young athlete swings Indian clubs. The fragment runs about twelve seconds. His name is not recorded.
Cast & crew
More about Newark Athlete
W. K. L. Dickson directed and produced it, with William Heise on the camera. It was shot in May or June 1891 in the Photographic Building at the Edison Laboratory in West Orange, before the Black Maria went up in late 1892 or early 1893. It was made for the Kinetoscope, on the experimental horizontal-feed camera, using film about three-quarters of an inch wide. Wikipedia gives twelve seconds. A Library of Congress note calls Gordon Hendricks's reanimation a viewing print.
Themes
Making
Dickson and Heise used the experimental horizontal-feed kinetograph, not the later 35mm camera.
Look
Dickson and Heise filmed the club swinger in the Photographic Building against a plain ground.
Technique
The fragment was exposed on the experimental horizontal-feed camera, on film about three-quarters of an inch wide.
Preservation
Selected for the National Film Registry in 2010, the oldest film on the list. A viewing print from the Gordon Hendricks collection is at the Library of Congress.
Notes
- Charles Musser lists variant titles Club Swinger No. 1 and Indian Club Swinger.
- The athlete has not been identified.
- In 2010 the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry. It is the oldest title on the registry.
- The Black Maria was not the set. That studio was built the next year or the year after.
Scenes
- The athlete swings the clubs for the length of the fragment.
Also available
- Library of Congress
