The year 1900 in film involved some significant events.
The following is an overview of the events of 1898 in film, including a list of films released and notable births. The Spanish–American War was a popular subject. Several films made by Col. William N. Selig dealt with the subject of war preparations at Camp Tanner in Springfield, Illinois, including Soldiers at Play, Wash Day in Camp and First Regiment Marching.
William Nicholas Selig was a vaudeville performer and pioneer of the American motion picture industry. His stage billing as Colonel Selig would be used for the rest of his career, even as he moved into film production.
The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company that was founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago, Illinois. The company produced hundreds of early, widely distributed commercial moving pictures, including the first films starring Tom Mix, Harold Lloyd, Colleen Moore, and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Selig Polyscope also established Southern California's first permanent movie studio, in the historic Edendale district of Los Angeles.
Ravished Armenia is a book written in 1918 by Arshaluys (Aurora) Mardiganian about her experiences in the Armenian genocide.
A jungle girl is an archetype or stock character, often used in popular fiction, of a female adventurer, superhero or even a damsel in distress living in a jungle or rainforest setting. A prehistoric depiction is a cave girl.
Queen of the Jungle is a 1935 independent film serial produced by Herman Wohl and released theatrically by Screen Attractions.
Aurora (Arshaluys) Mardiganian was an Armenian-American author, actress, and a survivor of the Armenian genocide.
Justus D. Barnes, named George Barnes in some sources, was an American stage and film actor. He is best known for his role in the 1903 silent short The Great Train Robbery, which the American Film Institute and many film historians and critics recognize as the production that first established both the Western and action genres, setting a new "narrative standard" in the motion picture industry. Kim Newman says it is "probably the first Western film with a storyline".
Frederic Chapin was an American screenwriter and composer. His name was also written as Frederick Chapin. He wrote the scores for several Broadway musicals. In addition he worked writing screenplays during the silent and early sound eras.
The Carpet from Bagdad is a 1915 American silent adventure film directed by Colin Campbell and based on Harold MacGrath's 1911 eponymous novel. In the story, Horace Wadsworth, one of a gang of criminals planning a bank robbery in New York, steals the titular prayer rug from its Baghdad mosque. He sells the carpet to antique dealer George Jones to fund the robbery scheme. But the theft places both men and Fortune Chedsoye, the innocent daughter of another conspirator, in danger from the carpet's guardian.
Ravished Armenia, also known as Auction of Souls, is a 1919 American silent film based on the autobiographical book Ravished Armenia by Arshaluys (Aurora) Mardiganian, who also played the lead role in the film. The film, which depicts the 1915 Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Empire from the point of view of Armenian survivor Mardiganian, who plays herself in the film, survives in an incomplete form.
Elinor Field was an American film actress who was one of Mack Sennett's Sennett Bathing Beauties. She also starred in the 15-episode serial The Jungle Goddess (1922).
Religion and Gun Practice: The Way of the West is a 1913 American silent Western film directed by William Duncan and starring Tom Mix, Rex De Rosselli and Myrtle Stedman. Among other roles in similar films at the time, Tom Mix's role in Religion and Gun Practice established what would be the cowboy hero of the twentieth century. The movie was played in theaters across the nation.
Miracles of the Jungle is a 1921 American adventure film serial, directed by James Conway and E. A. Martin, in 15 chapters, starring Ben Hagerty, Wilbur Higby, and Al Ferguson. A co-production by Selig Studios and Warner Bros., it was distributed by the Federated Film Exchanges of America; it originally ran in U.S. theaters between May 24 and August 24, 1921.
The Tramp and the Dog (1896) is believed to be the first commercial production of American film pioneer William Selig at Selig Polyscope. It is also likely the first commercial narrative film shot in Chicago. Described as a "backyard comedy", in the opening bit, a baker comes outdoors into her yard and leaves a pie on a chair to cool. A tramp hops the fence into the backyard grabs the pie and seeks to hop back over the fence. A bulldog appears who catches the backside of the tramp as he tries to escape, leading to various pratfalls, and the woman reappearing with a broom.
Otto F. Breitkreutz, universally known as Big Otto, was an American circus man and film producer during the early 20th century. He was called Big Otto because he weighed somewhere between 350–480 lb (160–220 kg) and was "big in heart and policy."
Olga Celeste trained leopards and pumas for performance in circuses, vaudeville and film. She starred in very early animal films for Selig Polyscope, and was said to have handled animals for 1,000 films, including the leopard in the Katharine Hepburn film Bringing Up Baby. For most of her career she was associated with the Selig Zoo in Los Angeles.
"Baby" Lillian Wade was an American child actress who performed in silent films.
