President McKinley's Inauguration
About President McKinley's Inauguration
On 4 March 1897 the American Mutoscope Company filmed William McKinley’s inauguration in Washington. G. W. Bitzer was the cameraman. The catalog calls it the first footage of a sitting American president. McKinley appears as himself.
Cast & crew
More about President McKinley's Inauguration
Shot in March 1897 on 68mm film for the Mutoscope, in a 1.36:1 frame. American Mutoscope also distributed it. Silent Era lists no director. Billy Bitzer is the cameraman. The picture is in the public domain in the United States. Survival is not recorded.
Themes
Background
The oath was 4 March 1897. Mutoscope’s inauguration films include this view of McKinley and a separate shot of the 71st Regiment in the parade.
Making
Bitzer cranked a 68mm Mutoscope camera, not the 35mm Edison gauge, at the 1897 ceremony.
Look
G. W. Bitzer filmed the inauguration on 68mm for the Mutoscope.
Technique
The negative is 68mm, the Mutoscope gauge, rather than 35mm.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
Silent Era does not list a surviving print. The film is in the public domain in the United States.
Notes
- McKinley took the oath on 4 March 1897 at the east front of the Capitol, with Vice President Garret A. Hobart and outgoing President Grover Cleveland.
- The New York Times the next day put the crowd at 40,000. General Horace Porter marshaled the parade back to the White House.
- American Mutoscope also filmed the 71st Regiment, New York, passing in that parade, as a separate subject.
- The Mutoscope company had been formed in December 1895 by W. K. L. Dickson, Herman Casler, Harry Marvin, and Elias Koopman.
- A later Edison film of McKinley taking the oath, dated 1901, is a different picture.
Scenes
- McKinley is filmed at his inauguration on 4 March 1897.