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Delightful Piece of Film History
Made in 1905 when short films were still being done in just one shot (for the Kinetoscope peep-show machines) and lasted about 2 minutes, Edison's A TRIP TO SALT LAKE CITY depicts a Mormon man trying to get his wives and children settled down for the night on a Pullman car in a train. The children wear him out wanting piggy-back rides, he and the wives put the children in their beds, but of course they need a drink. The poor mans takes a lip lashing from his wives and hurries out, returning shortly with a large milk can with several straws attached. He hands a straw to each thirsting child and all is well as he proudly shakes hands with the train conductor. That's all there is to it. It is likely the first film ever done using Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)as its theme, and may well be the first with any kind of religious theme. The film itself no longer exists and was only saved because at the time (1905) the Library of Congress had no provisions for copyrighting moving pictures, only stills. So a still frame was made of EACH frame for copyrighting purposes. It was done for this and a number of other early films. In the late 1950s the Library of Congress rephotographed each still photo onto movie film and presto -- once again a lost piece of film history lives again! This little 2 minute film has recently been scored and is included on a DVD with the British anti-Mormon 1922 film TRAPPED BY THE MORMONS. It is now available on DVD through Grapevine Video and may ordered at:(www.grapevinevideo.com). There are lots of interesting "Extras" on the DVD and the theatre pipe organ score by Blaine Gale is excellent!
helpful•60
- blue-7
- Nov 26, 2005
Details
- Runtime2 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
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