http://www.examiner.com/x-7605-SF-Silent-Movie-Examiner~y2009m7d7-Afte...th-of-1
Aftermath of 1906 San Francisco earthquake depicted in newly available
films
By Thomas Gladysz
SF Silent Film Examiner
We have all seen still photographs of the destruction caused by the
1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. They are horrendous images.
But imagine being able to see sweeping panoramic moving pictures of
the wreck and ruin taken in the aftermath of the disaster. It’s almost
like being there.
Seven such films are among a group recently put on-line by Southern
Methodist University in Texas. They offer contemporary viewers rare
moving images of the citywide destruction caused by the catastrophe.
In their day, each of these silent movies was termed an actuality.
(Today, they would be considered a documentary.) Each was shot in 1906
for the Edison Film Company by cameraman Robert K. Bonine. Remarkably,
some depict near 180 degree views of ruined buildings and mounds of
brick and rubble. In their sweep, the scale of destruction is
striking.
In a few of the films, lone individuals stand in the distance –
offering both visual and psychological perspective. In others, groups
of ladies and gentlemen dressed in the attire of the day pass down
streets and sidewalks seemingly leading nowhere.
These short films carry descriptive titles like Ruins of Chinatown
(1906) and Earthquake ruins new Majestic Theater and City Hall (1906).
Other slightly less matter-of-fact titles suggest the destruction drew
no social distinctions: contrast Panorama Nob Hill and ruins of
millionaire residences (1906) with Panorama notorious 'Barbary
Coast' (1906). Each of the Edison films depicting the aftermath of the
Earthquake run between 35 and 65 seconds.
Vertical panorama City Hall and surroundings (1906) contains unusual
camerawork accomplished for its time, a horizontal and vertical pan
taken in one continuous shot. In this 52 second film, the Edison
camera slowly sweeps leftward across the destruction of the Civic
Center until reaching City Hall while in one uninterrupted flowing
shot the camera tilts upward toward the remaining dome taking in the
entirety of the ruined building before panning downward until reaching
street level and continuing its slow sweep leftward across wreck and
ruin.
The seven films depicting the aftermath of the 1906 Earthquake belong
to a larger group of works which together form the Sulphur Springs
Collection of Pre-Nickelodeon Films. Each of the 29 works in the
collection was digitized and can now be viewed online at
http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=/ssm
The Sulphur Springs collection, which spans 1898 through 1906,
includes single-shot actualities, vaudeville acts, comedies, and five
multi-shot story films of the 1904-1905 period. The films in the
collection were produced by companies like Edison, Lubin, Selig, and
Pathe Freres.
Each are interesting and amusing examples of the earliest cinema. One
trick film produced by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Co., for
example, depicts a scene inside a barbershop and the unconscious fears
of every customer.
In The Maniac Barber (1899), a gentleman customer is seated, and his
face lathered. The barber wields his blade – and then removes the
man’s head to a nearby sink. There, the maniac barber is able to angle
an even closer shave. The gentlemen’s head is then as non-chalantly
replaced as it had been removed. The gentleman gets up to thank the
barber, and is on his way!
The story behind the discovery of these little seen films is almost as
noteworthy as the films themselves. Sixteen years ago, staff members
of the Southwest Film-Video Archive (SWFVA) at Southern Methodist
University were contacted by an individual in the small east Texas
town of Sulphur Springs. The individual reported to be in possession
of nitrate stock moldering in a closet. When reels of the 35mm stock
were acquired, cleaned, and inspected – they revealed a rich find of
both documentary and dramatic films dating back to the turn of the
last century.
The films, uncovered in 1983 and digitized in 2008, have now been put
online as part of the Southern Methodist University / Central
University Libraries (CUL) Digital Collections.
For more info: Visit the homepage of the Sulphur Springs Collection of
Pre-Nickelodeon Films at
http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/all/cul/ssm/.
--
Bruce Calvert
Movies