Frederick S. Armitage

This is a single camera position film of muscle-flexing exercises by a professional physical culturist. The expansion, contraction, and flexing of the muscles and chest were done to display not only the prowess but also the control of the demonstrator.

Seeing New York by Yacht.

Film taken from a boat heading down the Hudson is shown at varying speeds, often giving a sense of rapid transit.

Special effects film with a train double exposed on the negative, creating a ghostly image.

Willie puts a pack of firecrackers in the flour which Nora is preparing for her dough. A policeman comes in and is entertained by Nora. Willie in the meantime explodes the firecrackers, covering Nora and policeman with the contents of the pan. —AMB Picture Catalogue

In this picture there is a limited amount of action in the pose. As the curtains are drawn aside the shell appears shut. It gradually opens, disclosing the model curled up in a recumbent position. She slowly arises as if awakening, and gracefully assumes the final position of the pose.

In this picture there is a limited amount of action in the pose. As the curtains are drawn aside the shell appears shut. It gradually opens, disclosing the model curled up in a recumbent position. She slowly arises as if awakening, and gracefully assumes the final position of the pose.

Stage star Anna Held (1872-1918) riffs on her once-famous scene from the comedy Papa's Wife (1899-1901) featuring a naif getting tipsy on her first champagne, in this "photographic interview", filmed in 68mm by Frederick S. Armitage. AM&B's Picture Catalogue of 1902 pitched it as "A stunning picture of the well-known actress in the drinking scene which made such a hit in Papa's Wife. The figure is shown in bust view, making the head very large and giving a clear view of the facial expressions of the beautiful artiste." The company said that both "make hits either in the Biograph [35mm projection service] or Mutoscope" [hand-cranked peep-show viewer].

Stage star Anna Held (1872-1918) riffs on her once-famous scene from the comedy Papa's Wife (1899-1901) featuring a naif getting tipsy on her first champagne, in this "photographic interview", filmed in 68mm by Frederick S. Armitage. AM&B's Picture Catalogue of 1902 pitched it as "A stunning picture of the well-known actress in the drinking scene which made such a hit in Papa's Wife. The figure is shown in bust view, making the head very large and giving a clear view of the facial expressions of the beautiful artiste." The company said that both "make hits either in the Biograph [35mm projection service] or Mutoscope" [hand-cranked peep-show viewer].

Time-lapse photography showing the one month-long demolition of the Star Theatre in New York.

Time-lapse photography showing the one month-long demolition of the Star Theatre in New York.

The film shows a parade down Fifth Avenue, New York. In the foreground many children, both black and white, can be seen following alongside the parade. The participants in the parade include cowboys, Indians, and soldiers in the uniform of the United States Cavalry on horseback and riding horse-drawn coaches. Buffalo Bill can be seen on horseback, lifting his hat to the crowd. Filmed on 1 April 1901.

A woman in ballet slippers wearing a large white hat and a long white dress - with ruffles, puffy sleeves and petticoats - dances across water with roiling waves behind her. She holds the edges of the skirt with her hands, lifting and twirling, sometimes exposing her bloomers and a dark garter on one leg. Her style combines ballet with the exuberant kicks and twirls of a burlesque dance hall. With churning waves behind her, the water seems to wash beneath her feet. The film of the dancer, "M'lle. Cathrina Bartho" (1899), is superimposed on that of the water, "Upper Rapids, from Bridge" (1896).

A combination of the picture entitled "The Ballet of the Ghosts," and a surf scene; the resulting effect being that the ghostly figures rise up out of the surf and come to the shore, cast their draperies aside and dance a few steps of the ballet, after which they again take up their draperies, and having covered themselves, retreat into the waves.

Two sets of images are superimposed. From the side, we see a two-masted ship. Across the deck walks a skeleton. It sits down, its legs akimbo. The legs separate and continue a dance while the body of the skeleton faces us and the skull moves its jaw bone. It rises and the legs rejoin the skull and body for an additional jig back and forth on deck.

Two Chinese men (in full regalia) and an American-style tough are sitting at a table, eating out of bowls, all of them using chop sticks; The American is quite practiced with his chopsticks, eating things of large size and indeterminate composition.

Filming of a character sketch by the well-known vaudevillian Charles E. Grapewin. On a bare stage backed by a dark curtain, a man dressed in a three-piece suit and overcoat holds a racing program and excitedly watches a race supposedly taking place offstage.

A splendid picture of the remarkable centrifuge railroad at Coney Island in which the car makes a complete circle in its course around the track, commonly known as "Loop the Loop."

An interesting view of Central Park before there was a skyline of buildings. All along the length of the park on both sides and to the north, with the exception of the Dakota Apartments located at 72nd Street and Central Park West, It was virtually impossible to see anything other than sky above the trees. In the nineteenth century when people went to visit the park, they really were leaving the "city."

Photographed February 5, 1900.

The famous Parisian chanteuse in the rag-time cakewalk 'Hello, Ma Baby,' with which she made such a sensation at the New York Theatre.

Taken during the land parade in honor of Admiral Dewey, just before the turn into 72nd street, with Grant's Tomb and decorated residences in the background.

"This is a street scene. The rain has just ceased, and passers-by are lowering their umbrellas. A well-dressed young man meets a pretty girl beneath an awning over a shop door. While they are standing there, the shopkeeper lowers the awning, which has accumulated a lot of water, and the two are thoroughly drenched. This picture has made a big hit."

The scene opens with a salesman displaying corsets to the buyer of a country store. He calls in a female model and tries a corset on her. While the buyer is looking at the figure, the salesman removes the head and arms and finally shows that instead of legs, she has a wire frame. This is one of the most effective trick pictures in our list.

From a single camera position, two young women are photographed lighting a cigarette. After several puffs, one of the young ladies becomes faint, and the other one tries to revive her fallen friend.

“The filmmaker took several different scenes shot earlier between 1896 and 1899 and double-printed two sets of images together to create a new artistic creation. The transformation of a stage dance into a unique ciné-dance could only be possible in cinema - Bruce Posner