The Impossible Voyage

The Impossible Voyage 1904

7.20

Using every known means of transportation, several savants from the Geographic Society undertake a journey through the Alps to the Sun which finishes under the sea.

1904

The Mermaid

The Mermaid 1904

5.58

A magician conjures up a mermaid while fishing.

1904

The Untamable Whiskers

The Untamable Whiskers 1904

6.30

The background of this picture represents a scene along the beautiful river Seine in Paris. A gentleman enters, and taking a blackboard from the side of the picture, he draws on it a sketch of a novelist. Then, standing in the centre, he causes the living features of his sketch to appear in the place of his own, which is utterly devoid of whiskers. The change is made so mysteriously that the eye cannot notice it until one sees quite another person in the place of the first. Again another sketch is shown on the board, this one being that of a miser; then an English cockney; a comic character; a French policeman, and last of all, the grinning visage of Mephistopheles. It is almost impossible to give this film a more definite description; suffice it to say that it is something entirely new in motion pictures and is sure to please. (Méliès Catalog)

1904

Tchin-Chao, the Chinese Conjurer

Tchin-Chao, the Chinese Conjurer 1904

4.80

A Chinese conjurer stands next to a table, it becomes two tables. A fan becomes a parasol, lanterns appear and disappear. The conjurer spins the open parasol in front of himself, and a dog leaps out from behind it. The dog becomes a woman, then a masked man appears. The conjurer sits them each on a box a few feet apart: suddenly the woman and man have changed places. The disappearing and the transfers continue in front of a simple backdrop.

1904

Troubles of a Manager of a Burlesque Show

Troubles of a Manager of a Burlesque Show 1904

3.90

Facing a stationary camera, sitting at a desk, a man works busily. Posters of burlesque queens are on the wall behind him. A single woman, followed later by later two others, comes into the office seeking a job. The manager hands each a box with a costume in it and points to dressing rooms. Each of the women has a different reaction when she discovers the nature of her costume, and the busy manager has a distinct response to each of the women as well.

1904

Westinghouse Works

Westinghouse Works 1904

5.50

Billy Bitzer filmed 21 short actualities inside the Pittsburgh Westinghouse Works in April and May of 1904. Audiences of the day would have been treated to footage of factory panoramas, women winding armatures and turbines being assembled. These industrial films were produced for the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company.

1904

The Cook in Trouble

The Cook in Trouble 1904

5.21

A cook has his hands full with three mischievous devils, who pop in and out of his kitchen.

1904

Treloar and Miss Marshall, Prize Winners at the Physical Culture Show in Madison Square Garden

Treloar and Miss Marshall, Prize Winners at the Physical Culture Show in Madison Square Garden 1904

6.00

Opens with a woman posing on a pedestal, dressed in a white body leotard with a sash tied at her hips. Marshall continues with various feminine poses, reminiscent of classic Greek statuary, to accentuate her figure. Film cuts to Treloar posed on the bare stage without a pedestal. He wears brief leopard-skin trunks or short tunic, wrist bands, and Roman-looking laced sandals. His poses accentuate the muscular development of his upper body, particularly that of his arms, and include movements that make the muscles jump. Treloar finishes with a slight nod to the camera.

1904

A Day in the Hayfields

A Day in the Hayfields 1904

5.30

Documentary on the process of hay-making, from the cutting of the grass to the stacking of the hay.

1904

The Wonderful Living Fan

The Wonderful Living Fan 1904

5.12

As a conjurer awaits an audience, a procession announces the arrival of a royal representative, carried in a sedan chair, to see him. The conjurer then has a large box brought in. It is opened, revealing a very large folding fan. When the fan is spread out, the designs on it begin to change and move. And this is far from the last of the surprises that the conjurer has in store.

1904

The Clockmaker's Dream

The Clockmaker's Dream 1904

5.00

A weary clock-maker dozes off in a chair. While he is asleep, three women suddenly appear in the midst of his shop. They proceed to show the sleeping clock-maker some new kinds of clocks that they know how to make.

1904

An Interesting Story

An Interesting Story 1904

5.92

The adventures of an inattentive man who can't look away from his book.

1904

The Terrible Turkish Executioner

The Terrible Turkish Executioner 1904

6.10

In a public place in Constantinople at the corner of a bazaar, the executioner is seated upon a stone and is resting from his daily labors while eating a crust of bread. Suddenly there come running into the place a lot of Turkish men and women preceding some Turkish policemen, who drag along four prisoners in chains. The policemen shut up the four prisoners in the pillory. Their four heads stick up through the huge plank, which is provided with four openings. One of the policemen urges the executioner to decapitate the prisoners. He accordingly seizes a mighty sabre and cuts off by a single stroke the four heads, which roll upon the ground.

1904

Dog Factory

Dog Factory 1904

4.50

A brief vaudeville-style demonstration of a "Dog Transformator," a machine that instantly turns dogs into sausages, and amazingly, sausages back into dogs.

1904

The Suburbanite

The Suburbanite 1904

5.00

A family moves out to the 'peaceful' suburbs where everything goes wrong, including the mother-in-law moving in.

1904

Scarecrow Pump

Scarecrow Pump 1904

5.00

A pump stands outside a farmhouse, just inside a picket fence. A boy comes out of the house and dresses up the pump handle and its post as a scarecrow, so that he can play a practical joke on a drunken acquaintance when he passes by. The boy then hides and waits for him, but things do not turn out quite as he planned.

1904