The Boxing Cats
“A glove contest between trained cats. A very comical and amusing subject, and is sure to create a great laugh.”
About The Boxing Cats
In Edison’s Black Maria, two of Henry Welton’s cats, gloves on their paws, box a short round while he handles them. The film is one shot, about nineteen seconds, and stops when the round stops.
Cast & crew
More about The Boxing Cats
William K. L. Dickson and William Heise directed it for Edison in 1894. Welton, who toured a cat circus, brought the pair. The negative is 35mm. An Edison catalog line sold it as a glove contest that would get a laugh. The same write-ups say the circus also put cats on bicycles.
Themes
Making
The Black Maria was Edison’s tarpaper studio in West Orange, built to turn with the sun. This subject is one of the animal turns Dickson and Heise shot there in 1894, not a staged story.
Look
Dickson and Heise photographed Welton and the two gloved cats in a single 35mm take inside the Black Maria.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
The Library of Congress holds The Boxing Cats (Prof. Welton’s). A copy is also on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The full title on the film is The Boxing Cats (Prof. Welton’s).
- One timing is 19 seconds for the whole picture, and about 20 seconds if run at 27 frames a second.
- Wikidata’s duration field says 23 seconds.
- The Library of Congress holds a copy.
- Welton is the only human in the shot.
Scenes
- The two cats, gloves laced on, trade paw-punches while Welton keeps them in the ring of the shot.
Also available
- Library of Congress
- Wikimedia Commons (The boxing cats (Prof. Welton's).ogv)
