The burglar's slide for life / - movie film screenshot

"The first scene shows the interior of a room in an apartment house. A burglar enters and seeing a portable vapor bath in the corner of the room gets into it to hide. Presently two ladies enter. One is the lady of the house and she is evidently showing her friend through the rooms. The new vapor bath interests her friend, so she lights the lamp and explains how it is operated. Soon the steam begins to come out of the top of the bath. Out jumps the burglar, carrying the cloth sides with him, and makes his escape by jumping through the window. The ladies now call the dog, who rushes into the room and follows the burglar. In jumping out of the window the burglar seizes a clothes line stretched from the house to a pole in the back yard and endeavors to reach the ground by a succession of slides from floor to floor. In the meantime the dog follows suit and finally overtakes the burglar in mid-air and securely fastens his teeth in the burglar's trousers. They both finally drop to the ground together and after a struggle the burglar manages to free himself and climbs to the top of a ten-foot fence. The excitement has aroused the whole neighborhood and in every back yard window a man or woman is leaning out, cheering and yelling encouragement to the dog. Reaching the top of the fence the burglar stops to get his breath and imagining himself perfectly safe he turns round and puts his fingers to his nose. In an instant the dog is after him again and before he can move the dog leaps to the top of the fence and pulls him back into the yard. While the dog keeps his hold the women beat the burglar with brooms, to the intense delight of all. 265 Ft."--Edison films catalog, no. 288.

H60117 U.S. Copyright Office

Copyright: Thomas A. Edison; 28Apr1905; H60117.

Performer: Mannie, the Edison dog.

Duration: 5:06 at 16 fps.

Photographed on April 14 and April 17, 1905 at the Edison studio in New York City.

Paper print shelf number (LC 1969) was changed when the paper prints were re-housed.

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

Sources used: Copyright catalog, motion pictures, 1894-1912; Musser, C. Before the nickelodeon, p. 311-312, 317, 324; Niver, K. Early motion pictures, p. 41; Edison films catalog, no. 288, July 1906, p. 35 [MI]; AFI catalog, film beginnings, 1893-1910, p. 135.

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

paper pos Received: 1905-04-28; copyright deposit; Paper Print Collection.

Paper print roll lacking suffix.

burglars drama watchdogs tramps vapor baths upper class women dogs behavior escapes social conflict burglar slide life humor clotheslines apartment dwellers punishment comedy films silent films short films fiction films comedy inventing entertainment the early motion pictures and sound recordings of the edison companies motion picture broadcasting and recorded sound division mannie paper print collection library of congress edwin s porter inc thomas a edison film video burglar slide united states history library of congress dog public domain movie stills

01/01/1905

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/

Public Domain