Audio
(ENG) Building 13 - Black Maria (325)
Transcript
[SOUND—PIANO ROLL, SUGGESTING SILENT FILM MUSIC.]
NARRATOR— The Thomas A. Edison Foundation donated this replica of the Black Maria. If it is open, you can step inside. The original structure went up near the water tower in 1893. The Black Maria was the first building ever constructed as a motion picture studio. Its nickname came from the black tarpaper that covers it. In 1890s slang, a “Black Maria” meant a police paddy wagon.
[SOUND—PERIOD POLICE SIREN, IF AVAILABLE.]
NARRATOR— Archivist Leonard DeGraaf.
LEONARD DeGRAAF—The Black Maria was designed so that its roof could be opened up. And it was constructed on a circular track so that the building could be moved as the day progressed; with the roof open, the sun would shine down, and would give the film producers inside the Black Maria enough natural light in order to make the films, because at that time, they didn’t have bright enough lights.
NARRATOR— Professor Bernard Carlson.
BERNIE CARLSON—The Black Maria was used by Edison employees to make a series of what we would today call “shorts.” That is to say small, quick films on a variety of special topics. And those topics included “Fred Ott’s Sneeze”; they also included boxing matches, and also exotic dancers. But my all-time favorite was a short sequence in which they showed two cats boxing. I’ve never actually seen the film, but I have seen stills from it.
[MUSIC—DICKSON’S EXPERIMENTAL VIOLIN RECORDING 1894–5.]
NARRATOR— Edison’s men tore down the original Black Maria after The Old Man opened a new studio on New York’s 21st Street in 1901. Thomas Edison was the first to see a commercial potential in motion pictures. He hired trailblazers like Edwin S. Porter, director of The Great Train Robbery—the first movie that told a story. The Edison Company continued to make motion pictures—including an early version of Frankenstein—until the beginning of World War One. The outbreak of war in Europe in August 1914 closed an important market for Edison films. This, as well as competition from new film companies operating in Southern California, ultimately forced Edison to leave the motion picture industry in 1918.
Description
English audio guide for Building 13 - Black Maria, #325
Date Created
01/01/2007
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