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Making America's Best Idea Even Better
Thomas Edison National Historical ParkThomas Edison sitting on the lawn of Glenmont.
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Thomas Edison National Historical Park
Motion Picture Soundtracks and Actor Auditions

The five bachelors
Performers unknown
Directed by: Ramsay
Recording date: December 7, 1912 (or February 16, 1913)
Location: Edison motion picture film studio, Bronx, NY
Record format: Edison Kinetophone cylinder
Record number: E (.12)
Film production log number: 5003 (or 5032)
NPS object catalog number: EDIS 4632

"Voice trial" - Kinetophone actor audition
Performed by: Bob Lett
Recording date: June 24, 1913
Location: Edison motion picture film studio, Bronx, NY
Record format: Edison wax cylinder master record (unissued)
NPS object catalog number: EDIS 44833

"Voice trial" - Kinetophone actor audition
Performed by: Siegfried Von Schultz
Recording date: c. 1913
Location: Edison motion picture film studio, Bronx, NY
Record format: Edison wax cylinder master record (unissued)
NPS object catalog number: EDIS 44983

"Voice trial" - Kinetophone actor audition
Performed by: Frank Lenord
Recording date: c. 1913
Location: Edison motion picture film studio, Bronx, NY
Record format: Edison wax cylinder master record (unissued)
NPS object catalog number: EDIS 44830

The old violin
Performers unknown
Directed by: Higham
Recording date: January 1914
Location: Edison motion picture film studio, Bronx, NY
Record format: Edison Kinetophone cylinder
Record number: 83 B (.1)
Film production log number: 5105
NPS object catalog number: EDIS 4627

Andrew Carnegie
Spoken by: Andrew Carnegie, industrialist & philanthropist
Directed by: Higham
Recording date: January 20, 1914
Location: Edison motion picture film studio, Bronx, NY
Record format: Edison Kinetophone cylinder
Record number: 84 A (.2)
Film production log number: 5113
NPS object catalog number: EDIS 4640
Note: The motion picture element of this sound film is believed lost.

The birth of the telephone
Spoken by: Thomas A. Watson, assistant to Alexander Graham Bell
Recording date: c. 1914
Location: Edison motion picture film studio, Bronx, NY
Record format: Edison Kinetophone cylinder
Record number: 257 B-2 (D-B2 Bell)
NPS object catalog number: EDIS 4634
Note: The motion picture element of this sound film is believed lost.
1888s photo of the Black Maria - the world's first motion picture studio.  

Did You Know?
West Orange, NJ, was the birthplace of motion pictures. In 1893, Thomas Edison built the first building for the recording of motion pictures. It was dubbed THE BLACK MARIA. It got its name because it was large and black and looked like the police wagons of the day, which were called black marias.

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Last Updated: February 03, 2009 at 19:51 EST