Detail

Title ID

8438

Collection ID

1196

Title

[Music Hall Sports] Comic Costume Race

Date

[1896?]

Collection

Early Films

Genre/Type

Professional Fiction

Theme

Early film in the South East

Keywords

Fancy dress Sport

Location

National	England United Kingdom

Credits

Production	Paul's Animatograph Works
Director	Robert W. Paul

Format

Black & White Silent

Duration

00:00:56:24

Summary

A costumed running race filmed by Robert Paul in the mid 1890s.

Description

Three race participants run to baskets at the end of the 100 metre [?] track and frantically dress in the costumes inside before running back to their starting position.

Contextual information

Robert Paul began to produce replicas of Edison's Kinetoscope in 1894. He built a cine camera to start shooting films with Birt Acres the following year. Paul worked on projection after his split with Paul in 1895, opening factories in London and New York before retiring from the film business in 1910.

Related resources

Books

Barnes, John. The Beginnings of the Cinema in England 1894-1901. Five Volumes, n.p. University of Exeter Press

Date: 1996-1998 John Barnes’s archaeological study of early cinema charts its development between 1894 and 1901. Barnes founded the Barnes Museum of Cinematography with his brother William in the 1960s. The collection provided primary material for Barnes’s study of early cinema.

Low, Rachael. The History of the British Film 1896-1906. n.p. London: George Allen & Unwin

Date: 1948

Rossell, Deac. Living Pictures: The Origins of the Movies. n.p. Albany: State University of New York Press

Date: 1998

Barnouw, Erik. The Magician and the Cinema. n.p. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press

Date: 1981 Investigation of the influence of magic on early film.

Gifford, Denis. British Animated Films. n.p. Jefferson/London: McFarland

Date: 1987

Collections

The Barnes Collection

Location: Hove Museum and Art Gallery Twins John and William Barnes founded the Barnes Museum of Cinematography in the 1960s. After the closure, the early part of the collection moved to Hove. The collection includes cameras, projectors and material relating to the Brighton School of film pioneers.
http://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discover/2015/02/26/the-barnes-brothers-collection/

Films

Location: BFI National Archive, British Film Institute, London Holds films made by Robert Paul.

Further Information on File at Screen Archive South East

BFI National Archive copies kept on file SASE 950000.

Websites

Who’s Who of Victorian Cinema: Robert Paul

Biographical overview and further reading.
http://www.victorian-cinema.net/paul.htm

Who’s Who of Victorian Cinema: Brit Acres

Biographical overview and further reading.
http://www.victorian-cinema.net/acres.htm