Laura Comstock's Bag-Punching Dog
- May 6, 1901 (1901-05-06)[1]
Laura Comstock's Bag-Punching Dog is a 1901 silent short film directed by Edwin S. Porter. The film depicts a vaudeville act featuring Laura Comstock and her trained dog, a pit bull named Mannie. Comstock's act was currently appearing at Keith's Union Square Theatre.[2]
The film begins with a five-second shot of Comstock and her dog seated at a table and looking at the camera, with a sign in the foreground that says "Laura Comstock". Following this, the rest of the film shows Mannie in front of a rustic backdrop, repeatedly jumping and punching a bag suspended by a rope.
Edison's film catalog said that Mannie's "high jumps and lightning-like punches are remarkable and cause one to marvel at the amount of patience that must be necessary to teach a dog such tricks."[2]
The technique of opening a film with a portrait-style shot of the performers was new to film. This was an innovation by Porter based on the practice of showing lantern-slide photos preceding the exhibition of filmed scenes.[2] It proved influential, and was adopted by other American producers during this period.[3]
Mannie appeared in a number of subsequent Edison films, including several Buster Brown shorts,[4] the Happy Hooligan short Pie, Tramp and the Bulldog, and The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog.[2]
See also
References
- ^ Niver, Kemp R. (1985). Early Motion Pictures: The Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress. Library of Congress. p. 180. ISBN 0-8444-0463-2. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
- ^ a b c d Musser, Charles (1991). Before the Nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company. University of California Press. p. 173. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
- ^ Musser, Charles (1994). The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907. University of California Press. p. 316.
- ^ Dickey, Bronwen (2016). Pit Bull: The Battle Over an American Icon. Alfred A. Knopf. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-345-80311-5. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
- v
- t
- e
- Faust and Marguerite (1900)
- The Magician (1900)
- Another Job for the Undertaker (1901)
- Day at the Circus (1901)
- Execution of Czolgosz with Panorama of Auburn Prison (1901)
- Kansas Saloon Smashers (1901)
- Laura Comstock's Bag-Punching Dog (1901)
- Love by the Light of the Moon (1901)
- The Martyred Presidents (1901)
- The Old Maid Having Her Picture Taken (1901)
- Terrible Teddy, the Grizzly King (1901)
- What Happened on Twenty-third Street, New York City (1901)
- Why Mr. Nation Wants a Divorce (1901)
- Fun in a Bakery Shop (1902)
- Jack and the Beanstalk (1902)
- The Twentieth Century Tramp; or, Happy Hooligan and His Airship (1902)
- Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show (1902)
- Electrocuting an Elephant (1903)
- The Gay Shoe Clerk (1903)
- The Great Train Robbery (1903)
- Life of an American Fireman (1903)
- Rube and Mandy at Coney Island (1903)
- Uncle Tom's Cabin (1903)
- What Happened in the Tunnel (1903)
- Dog Factory (1904)
- The European Rest Cure (1904)
- How a French Nobleman Got a Wife Through the New York Herald Personal Columns (1904)
- Maniac Chase (1904)
- Parsifal (1904)
- "Weary Willie" Kisses the Bride (1904)
- How Jones Lost His Roll (1905)
- The Kleptomaniac (1905)
- The Little Train Robbery (1905)
- The Miller's Daughter (1905)
- The Night Before Christmas (1905)
- The Seven Ages (1905)
- The Train Wreckers (1905)
- The White Caps (1905)
- The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog (1905)
- Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906)
- Kathleen Mavourneen (1906)
- Life of a Cowboy (1906)
- Waiting at the Church (1906)
- College Chums (1907)
- Daniel Boone (1907)
- Laughing Gas (1907)
- The 'Teddy' Bears (1907)
- The Trainer's Daughter; or, A Race for Love (1907)
- The Boston Tea Party (1908)
- Saved by Love (1908)
- Skinner's Finish (1908)
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1910)
- Peg Woffington (1910)
- By the Light of the Moon (1911)
- Captain Nell (1911)
- The Lighthouse by the Sea (1911)
- A Night of Terror (1911)
- Silver Threads Among the Gold (1911)
- The Count of Monte Cristo (1912)
- His Neighbor's Wife (1913)
- The Prisoner of Zenda (1913)
- The Crucible (1914)
- A Good Little Devil (1914)
- Hearts Adrift (1914)
- The Spitfire (1914)
- Such a Little Queen (1914)
- Tess of the Storm Country (1914)
- Bella Donna (1915)
- The Dictator (1915)
- The Eternal City (1915)
- Jim the Penman (1915)
- Lydia Gilmore (1915)
- The Morals of Marcus (1915)
- Niobe (1915)
- The Prince and the Pauper (1915)
- Sold (1915)
- When We Were Twenty-One (1915)
- The White Pearl (1915)
- Zaza (1915)