1894 – The Boxing Cats

Directed by: William K. L. Dickson, William Heise

More than a hundred years prior to cat videos exploding online, this film starring two boxing cats was recorded in Edison’s Black Maria Studio. The cats featured were part of Professor Welton’s vaudeville show which, reportedly, also included acts such as cats jumping through flaming hoops and riding on bicycles. It is possible that the film was used to promote the show.

News, 27 January 1894.

The man in the background is Professor Henry Welton himself. To achieve the effects in the film, the cats wore shoulder harnesses that were manipulated by Welton to help them stand upright.

Bibliography

IMDb contributors (n.d.). ‘The Boxing Cats (Prof. Welton’s) (1894)’, IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0219560/ [Accessed: 1 December 2021].

Kay, L. (2014). ‘The Boxing Cats (Prof. Welton’s) (1894)’, Cinema Cats, 28 February. Available at: http://www.cinemacats.com/?p=1042 [Accessed: 1 December 2021].

Tschorn, A. (2015). ‘Thomas Edison, inventor of…the cat video?’, Los Angeles Times, 20 June. Available at: http://www.latimes.com/style/pets/la-hm-pets-cat-video-side-20150620-story.html [Accessed: 1 December 2021].

1889/1890 – Monkeyshines, No.1

Directed by: William K. L. Dickson, William Heise

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “monkeyshine” as: “mischievous or playful activity : PRANK —usually used in plural”. This is an apt title that would have been suitable for Roundhay Garden Scene (1888) as well– people playing around with new technology. It is considered the first motion picture made in the United States and is part of a series of internal tests of the Kinetoscope, followed by Monkeyshines, No.2 and Monkeyshines, No.3. Accounts of whom it features and when it was filmed vary, though general consensus is that it’s either Fred Ott in June 1889 or Giuseppe Sacco Albanese in November 1890 (both men were laboratory assistants for Thomas Edison).

Bibliography

Dirks, T. (n.d.). ‘Greatest Film Milestones Pre-1900s’, filmsite. Available at: http://www.filmsite.org/milestonespre1900s_2.html [Accessed: 18 November 2021].

IMDb contributors (n.d.). ‘Monkeyshines, No. 1 (1890)’, IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361921/ [Accessed: 18 November 2021].

Merriam-Webster (n.d.). ‘Monkeyshine’, Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Available at: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monkeyshine [Accessed: 18 November 2021].

Wikipedia contributors (2021). ‘Monkeyshines’, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 11 July. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkeyshines [Accessed: 18 November 2021].