San Francisco Earthquake & Fire: April 18, 1906
About San Francisco Earthquake & Fire: April 18, 1906
The reel shows San Francisco after the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906. Static shots and slow pans move across burned blocks, collapsed buildings, and people in the streets. Title cards sit between the views.
More about San Francisco Earthquake & Fire: April 18, 1906
The footage was shot between the quake and early May 1906. Daniel Eagan's Library of Congress essay does not name the photographer, the producer, or the distributor. Other cameramen, including Robert K. Bonine for Edison, filmed the disaster separately.
Themes
Background
The earthquake hit San Francisco at 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906. Fires followed. Cameramen reached the city while ruins were still smoking, and prints of the disaster circulated across the country within weeks.
In film history
One of the early American news films of a major disaster, selected for the National Film Registry in 2005.
Making
Eagan describes a record assembled from aftermath views, some of them wide pans, rather than a staged story.
Look
The reel is black and white, with the camera fixed or moving in a slow pan and with title cards between the views.
Preservation
The Library of Congress released a 13-minute version. In 2005 the film was added to the National Film Registry.
Notes
- The quake struck at 5:12 a.m. Later estimates put the magnitude near 7.9.
- Bonine's Edison coverage was a separate group of short films: panoramas, rescue scenes, and a view from a car.
- The Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division issued this 13-minute film.
- In 2005 the Librarian of Congress named it to the National Film Registry.
Awards
- National Film Registry, 2005
Scenes
- A slow pan across blocks burned out by the fire.
- People picking through collapsed streets while smoke is still in the picture.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (San Francisco earthquake and fire, April 18, 1906.webm)
