Scarecrow Pump
About Scarecrow Pump
A boy going to a village pump sees a drunken man zigzagging down the road. He puts an old coat and hat on the pump, paints a face on it, and hides in a tub under the spout. The man tries to shake the handle as if it were a hand. When it will not shake back, he finds the boy and pumps until the boy is soaked.
Cast & crew
More about Scarecrow Pump
Edwin S. Porter directed and photographed it for Edison. Thomas A. Edison copyrighted it on December 9, 1904, as H54486, at 95 feet. Edison also sold it as Scare Crow Pump.
Themes
Making
Porter stages the joke in one farmyard setup: the pump is the scarecrow, and the tub under the spout is the boy's hiding place.
Look
Porter shot the gag himself, in one view of the pump, the fence, and the tub.
Preservation
A print survives and was included in the 2005 Kino set Edison: The Invention of the Movies.
Notes
- The Edison summary has the boy fetch the coat and hat from a nearby house.
- The pump stands just inside a picket fence.
- The gag ends with the boy drenched, not with the drunk fooled.
- IMDb lists it among the films in Edison: The Invention of the Movies (2005).
Scenes
- The boy paints a face on the pump and puts a hat on it.
- The drunken man tries to shake the handle.
- He pumps until the boy climbs out of the tub soaked.
Also available
- DVD: Edison: The Invention of the Movies (Kino, 2005)
