The Gay Shoe Clerk
- August 12, 1903 (1903-08-12)[1]
The Gay Shoe Clerk is a 1903 silent short film directed by Edwin S. Porter. The film depicts a risqué comic encounter between a clerk and his female customer while she is trying on shoes.
In the film, a young woman enters the shoe store, accompanied by an elderly companion. While the older woman settles down in a chair to read, the young customer sits in the shoe demonstration chair and raises her foot. The customer selects a high-heeled slipper, and the eager clerk removes her shoe, and puts on the new shoe. The shot changes to a close-up of the young woman's ankle as the clerk ties her laces. The woman's skirt rises slowly, revealing her ankle and her leg. The camera returns to a wide shot, and we see the clerk lean in to kiss the customer, which she happily returns. Seeing their embrace, the elderly woman stands up, and beats the clerk over the head with her umbrella. The film ends as the clerk flees, and the old woman ushers the young woman out of the store.
Production
The structure of the short builds on the example of two other films: Biograph's No Liberties, Please (1902), which similarly featured a young man being punished for his fresh behavior in a public place, and George Albert Smith's As Seen Through a Telescope (1900), which used an insert shot to represent what one of the characters can see.[2]
While the insert shot draws the audience's attention to the customer's shapely ankle, it does not represent what the shoe clerk sees. It's shot from the side, preserving the point of view of the theater audience.[3]
Reception
Film historian Charles Musser observes that the film validates the male gaze: "True, the young man not only sees but touches and even kisses the young lady, but his transgression is promptly greeted by a bash on the head from the chaperone. Meanwhile, the male spectator enjoys the woman's ankle and the shoe clerk's chastisement... Cinema, by removing the spectator's physical presence from the scene, allows the (male) viewer to take pleasure in what is otherwise forbidden."[2]
Critic Tom Pollard says, "The film's seemingly innocuous format prevented local censors from doing much damage, yet it evoked sexuality... [This and similar films] evoke Victorian-era taboos while revealing the limits of permissible filmmaking at the time. They reveal a society deep in the throes of social conflict over the limits of sexuality."[4]
See also
References
- ^ Niver, Kemp R. (1985). Early Motion Pictures: The Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress. Library of Congress. p. 115. ISBN 0-8444-0463-2. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
- ^ a b Musser, Charles (1991). Before the Nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company. University of California Press. p. 246. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
- ^ Williams, Linda (1989). Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the "Frenzy of the Visible". University of California Press. p. 66. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
- ^ Pollard, Tom (2009). Sex and Violence: The Hollywood Censorship Wars. Paradigm Publishers. p. 13. Retrieved 11 March 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)