Searching Ruins on Broadway, Galveston, for Dead Bodies

1900 Documentary 1 minute Directed by Albert E. Smith

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About Searching Ruins on Broadway, Galveston, for Dead Bodies

After the hurricane of September 8, 1900, laborers clear a drift of wreckage on Broadway in the east end of Galveston. They are looking for bodies in the pile. One corpse is uncovered while the camera is running.

Cast & crew

More about Searching Ruins on Broadway, Galveston, for Dead Bodies

The AFI Catalog credits J. Stuart Blackton as director and Albert E. Smith, listed there as Alfred E. Smith, as cameraman, for Edison. The company said it sent photographers by special train and shot between September 11 and 19, while the city was under martial law. Thomas A. Edison copyrighted this subject on September 24, 1900, number D18566, at 150 feet. The Edison catalog says the crew took about a thousand feet in all, of which this is one view.

Themes

  • a drift of wreckage
  • a search for the dead
  • one body found on camera
  • Galveston
  • hurricane
  • Broadway
  • debris
  • corpse
  • Edison
  • 1900

Background

The storm hit Galveston on Saturday, September 8, 1900. This reel was copyrighted sixteen days later.

Making

The catalog sold the Galveston series as the only motion pictures made while the city was still in chaos, and as the worst American disaster since the Johnstown flood of 1889. Those lines are the company’s advertisement.

Look

Albert E. Smith photographed one fixed view of the Broadway drift. J. Stuart Blackton is the director in the AFI credits.

Music

Silent. No composer is credited.

Preservation

A copy is on Wikimedia Commons as Searching for bodies, Galveston 1900.ogv. The copyrighted length was 150 feet.

Notes

  • Other Edison views from the same trip include Bird’s Eye View of Dock Front, Panorama of East Galveston, Panorama of Galveston Power House, Panorama of Orphans’ Home, Panoramic View of Tremont Hotel, and Launching a Stranded Schooner.
  • Alternate titles in the AFI listing are Searching Ruins for Dead Bodies and Searching Ruins on Broadway for Dead Bodies, Galveston.
  • The Edison catalog says the odor from the drifts could be smelled for miles, and that one body was found while this picture was being taken.
  • A Commons copy runs 47 seconds.

Scenes

  • Laborers pull apart the Broadway drift.
  • A body comes out of the wreckage during the shot.

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons (Searching for bodies, Galveston 1900.ogv)