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

[Andrew Homzy]

I'm vindicated! I knew it was staged.

Andrew


On 2011-03-23, at 3:49 PM, DanKj wrote:

> This film has been on the American Memory pages of the Library of Congress for at least 12 years, and the description 
> includes : "a careful tracking of automobile traffic shows that almost all of the autos seen circle around the camera/cable 
> car many times (one ten times). This traffic was apparently staged by the producer to give Market Street the appearance of a 
> prosperous modern boulevard with many automobiles. "
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/4bp3rk2
> 
> That doesn't mean that the pedestrians or other drivers knew about it - there are some disappointed faces when the 
> streetcar fails to stop to pick up passengers.
> 
> 
> The newsboys at the end sure knew what a movie camera looked like, with all their waving & smiling - but that's mostly 
> AFTER the end of the LoC copy - it is cut short.
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Sammy Jones" <sjones69 at bellsouth.net>
> To: <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 3:17 PM
> Subject: [78-L] It was staged - 1906 film of a cable car ride
> 
> 
>> Here's an interesting article shedding light on much of the mystery around the film.
>> 
>> http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2010/10/17/historic-1906-marketstreet-film/
>> 
>> Film historian David Kiehn was able to identify several license plates and discover the dates and to whom they were 
>> registered.
>> 
>> Somewhere I've read that many of the cars appear over and over again, suggesting that they circled the trolley throughout 
>> the film to give the impression of heavy traffic.
>> 
>> Sammy Jones
>> 
>> Cary Ginell wrote:
>> 
>> I agree with Craig. The logistics of staging such a scenario would be ridiculous to do even today. There were too many 
>> people looking too natural for it to be phony. That would have taken all of the charm out of the scene anyway, so if it's 
>> true, I refuse to believe it. Is there evidence that this was staged?
>> 
>> Cary Ginell
>> 
>>> Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2011 11:47:28 -0500
>>> From: craigventresco at gmail.com
>>> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
>>> Subject: Re: [78-L] It was staged - 1906 film of a cable car ride
>>> 
>>> 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
>> 
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