Annie Oakley | |
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Directed by | William Kennedy Dickson |
Produced by | William Kennedy Dickson |
Starring | Annie Oakley Frank E. Butler |
Cinematography | William Heise |
Distributed by | Edison Manufacturing Company |
Release date |
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Running time | 90 seconds |
Country | United States |
Languages | Silent English intertitles |
Annie Oakley is an 1894 American black-and-white silent film from Edison Studios, produced by William K. L. Dickson with William Heise as cinematographer.
The film shows Oakley performing trick shooting as she was known for in her live shows. The first scene is of Oakley shooting her Marlin 91 .22 caliber rifle 25 times in 27 seconds. There is also a scene of her shooting composition balls in the air. [1] The man assisting her is likely her husband, Frank E. Butler. Both were veterans of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. [2] : 201–202, 262
The film is most notable for being Annie Oakley's first appearance on film. Thomas Edison had wanted to see if his kinetoscope could capture the smoke from a rifle, [3] so he employed Oakley to film some of her shooting. [4] : 66 In 1894, kinetoscopes were installed in 60 locations in major cities around the country. [5] : 53 Viewing the films cost a nickel. [1] : 55
It was filmed on a single reel using standard 35 mm gauge at Edison's Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey, November 1, 1894. The original film had a 90-second runtime. [4] : 66 The surviving film is preserved by the Library of Congress. [3]
William Kennedy Laurie Dickson was a British inventor who devised an early motion picture camera under the employment of Thomas Edison.
The Great Train Robbery is a 1903 American silent film made by Edwin S. Porter for the Edison Manufacturing Company. It follows a gang of outlaws who hold up and rob a steam locomotive at a station in the American West, flee across mountainous terrain, and are finally defeated by a posse of locals. The short film draws on many sources, including a robust existing tradition of Western films, recent European innovations in film technique, the play of the same name by Scott Marble, the popularity of train-themed films, and possibly real-life incidents involving outlaws such as Butch Cassidy.
William Frederick Cody, known as Buffalo Bill, was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman.
The following is an overview of the events of 1894 in film, including a list of films released and notable births.
The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device, designed for films to be viewed by one person at a time through a peephole viewer window. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector, but it introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before the advent of video: it created the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of perforated film bearing sequential images over a light source with a high-speed shutter. First described in conceptual terms by U.S. inventor Thomas Edison in 1888, it was largely developed by his employee William Kennedy Laurie Dickson between 1889 and 1892. Dickson and his team at the Edison lab in New Jersey also devised the Kinetograph, an innovative motion picture camera with rapid intermittent, or stop-and-go, film movement, to photograph movies for in-house experiments and, eventually, commercial Kinetoscope presentations.
Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin and a book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860–1926), a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, and her romance with sharpshooter Frank E. Butler (1847–1926).
Annie Oakley was an American sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West.
The Black Maria was Thomas Edison's film production studio in West Orange, New Jersey. It was the world's first film studio.
Edison Studios was an American film production organization, owned by companies controlled by inventor and entrepreneur, Thomas Edison. The studio made close to 1,200 films, as part of the Edison Manufacturing Company (1894–1911) and then Thomas A. Edison, Inc. (1911–1918), until the studio's closing in 1918. Of that number, 54 were feature length, and the remainder were shorts. All of the company's films have fallen into the public domain because they were released before 1928.
Lillian Frances Smith was an American trick shooter and trick rider who joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1886, at the age of fourteen. She was billed as "the champion California huntress," and was a direct rival to Annie Oakley in the show.
Wild West shows were traveling vaudeville performances in the United States and Europe that existed around 1870–1920. The shows began as theatrical stage productions and evolved into open-air shows that depicted romanticized stereotypes of cowboys, Plains Indians, army scouts, outlaws, and wild animals that existed in the American West. While some of the storylines and characters were based on historical events, others were fictional or sensationalized.
Annie Get Your Gun is a 1950 American musical Technicolor comedy film loosely based on the life of sharpshooter Annie Oakley. The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer release, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin and a screenplay by Sidney Sheldon based on the 1946 stage musical of the same name, was directed by George Sidney. Despite several production and casting problems, the film won the Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture and received three other nominations. Star Betty Hutton was recognized with a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.
Annie Oakley is a 1935 American Western film directed by George Stevens and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Preston Foster, Melvyn Douglas and Moroni Olsen. The film is based on the life of Annie Oakley.
Buffalo Dance is an 1894 black-and-white silent film from Edison Studios, produced by William K. L. Dickson with William Heise as cinematographer. Filmed on a single reel, using standard 35 mm gauge, it has a 16-second runtime. The film, with English intertitles, was shot in Edison's Black Maria studio at the same time as Sioux Ghost Dance. These are two of the earliest films made which feature Native Americans. According to the Edison catalog, the performers in both films were Sioux people wearing traditional costumes and war paint. All were veterans of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. Buffalo Dance has three dancers and two drummers. Hair Coat, Last Horse and Parts His Hair dance in a circle while drummers Pine and Strong Talker provide their rhythm.
Francis E. Butler was an Irish American marksman who performed in Wild West variety shows. He developed a shooting act with his performing partner John Graham, and when Graham fell ill the sharpshooter Annie Oakley stood in for him. Butler and Oakley began to perform together and later married, and they joined the Sells Brothers Circus. They became famous as a sharpshooting duo during their time in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show from 1885 to 1901. Butler also worked as a representative and salesman for gun manufacturers.
Norman C. Raff and Frank R. Gammon were two American businessmen who were known for distributing and promoting some of the Edison Studio films, and founding their own business, which was called The Kinetoscope Company.
Buffalo Bill is a lost American 1894 black-and-white silent film from Edison Studios, produced by William K. L. Dickson with William Heise as cinematographer. Filmed on a single reel, using standard 35 mm gauge, it has a 60-second runtime. The film was shot in Edison's Black Maria studio and is an exhibition of rifle shooting by Buffalo Bill himself. The film is one of several shot by Dickson and Heise after Thomas Edison invited Cody and his Wild West show performers to the kinetoscope studio.
Lasso Thrower is a lost 1894 American black-and-white short silent film from Edison Studios, produced by William K. L. Dickson with William Heise as cinematographer. It has a 60-second runtime and was filmed on a single reel, using standard 35 mm gauge, in Edison's Black Maria studio. The film, an exhibition of roping skills by Mexican vaquero Vicente Oropeza, is one of several shot by Dickson and Heise after Thomas Edison invited William F. Cody and his Buffalo Bill's Wild West show performers to the kinetoscope studio.
Mexican Knife Duel is an 1894 American black-and-white short silent film from Edison Studios, produced by William K. L. Dickson with William Heise as cinematographer. It features an exhibition of fighting skills by Mexican vaqueros Pedro Esquivel and Dionecio Gonzales. Filmed in Edison's Black Maria studio, it has a runtime of 60 seconds. Although stills exist, the film is understood to be lost.