[78-L] It was staged - 1906 film of a cable car ride

[Craig Ventresco]

I don't think it was staged. I like near that street and people still
stumble around there like they're in a  haze!

On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 10:43 AM, Andrew Homzy <homzy at vax2.concordia.ca>wrote:

> Danger didn't register because it was a staged scene -
>
> At least, that's what I think. Notice how all the u-turns look exactly the
> same arc - they even seem to occur at regular intervals.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Andrew
>
>
> On 2011-03-22, at 10:44 PM, victrola78s at aol.com wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >
> > This film isn't "new" to me. In the late 1980s through the 1990s the San
> Gabriel Mission Playhouse used to run a "railroad show" every year.  Theatre
> organist Gaylord Carter would accompany various silent films that included
> trains, trolleys, & anything else that rolled on the tracks. The shows
> always started with "A Trip Down Market Street"-the one being shown on
> YouTube, & Gaylord always made a big point out of the film being made in
> 1905. "That was a GREAT year, because that's the year I was born!", he would
> tell the audience. Now the film is said to be from 1906-ah, well. Gaylord
> would do his usual musical improvisations on the action onscreen, including
> the songs "Horses, Horses, Horses", "Daisy Bell", & "In My Merry
> Oldsmobile". There were always loud gasps of amazement from the audience at
> all that moving chaos all over the screen. Nobody could get over how
> reckless or stupid or oblivious people were on that street, both drivers &
> pedestrians. It is mind boggling tha
>  t
> > the cameraman didn't capture an actual wreck or collision while the film
> was rolling. When you look at this scene today(and there must have been
> similar ones in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, etc.), you wonder why
> "danger!" didn't register on the faces of the pedestrians at least. Street
> kids running around & back & forth in front of the cable car, grown men who
> can't seem to decide which side of the street they should walk to, & the one
> driver who pulls his wagon out into traffic without one single look around
> him! Say what you will about modern drivers(and most are still pretty
> ignorant or impatient), but most of 'em have a strong enough sense of self
> preservation to avoid getting killed-most of the time. Decades of traffic
> laws have conditioned the average slug on four wheels enough to at least
> look around before gunning the engine to beat that yellow light. I still
> lift out of my seat a little every time I see this footage. Incredible!
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