Comedy cake walk - vaudeville film

Five African Americans--three men and two women--perform an exaggerated cakewalk in fancy evening clothes. Two of the men wear formal black tie in tuxedos with tails, while the third wears a gray tux of shiny material with an extremely long overcoat and exaggerated cuffs. All have matching top hats and canes. The women wear highly decorated hats and tight-fitting, frilly dresses of only mid-calf length, with one hand on their hip pulling up that side of the skirt. Two couples step in time against a white background as the third, center man prances forward and executes a comedic, wobbly-kneed step. He then moves back to lead the others in the strutting around the stage, all the time spinning and prancing among them. As the couple to stage left jaunt past the camera, the woman pauses to hitch up her stocking. The man in the gray suit on the right twirls his cane and struts toward the camera with his partner; they then pause on opposite sides of the frame. The woman kisses a handkerchief she is holding in one hand and flirtatiously throws it on the ground. As the man smiles knowingly and reaches for it, however, the woman yanks the fabric back to her on a string. Both laugh and continue strutting. All five dancers then return to a line and start a fancy step towards the camera.

"Amusing cake walk of three men and two women (colored) in costume, showing the usual antics that occur in affairs of this kind"--Biograph picture catalogue.

H31675 U.S. Copyright Office

Copyright: American Mutoscope & Biograph Co.; 11May1903; H31675.

Original main title lacking.

Niver's Early motion pictures incorrectly credits the Americus Quartet as performers. Niver's credit for F.S. Armitage as cameraman cannot be confirmed in secondary sources.

Duration: 0:27 at 16 fps.

Biograph production no. 234.

Paper print shelf number (LC 0377) was changed when the paper prints were re-housed.

Additional holdings for this title may be available. Contact reference librarian.

Sometimes confused with the film, Cake walk, which LC also holds.

The AFI catalog gives incorrect copyright information for this film, erroneously listing the title and registration number for the film, Cake walk.

Filmed at the Biograph New York City studio in May-June, 1897.

Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as digital files.

Sources used: Copyright catalog, motion pictures, 1894-1012; Niver, K. Early motion pictures, p. 63; AFI catalog: film beginnings, 1893-1910, p. 210; Biograph picture catalogue, Nov. 1902, p. 12; Biograph photo catalog, vol. 1, no. 234, viewed online via the New Jersey Digital Highway, July 11, 2014; Biograph production logs, 1896-1899.

Early motion pictures : the Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress / by Kemp R. Niver. Library of Congress. 1985.

35 mm viewing print renumbered: FEC 2272 to FYA 1235.

cakewalk dance dance black african american dance filmed vaudeville acts comedy films silent films short films nonfiction films variety stage sound recordings and motion pictures motion picture broadcasting and recorded sound division american mutoscope and biograph company paper print collection library of congress film video comedy cake new york city new york stockphoto raw image free stock photos photo online free free no copyright images united states history ballet performing arts library of congress

01/01/1903

Library of Congress

https://www.loc.gov/

Public Domain