[Dickson Experimental Sound Film]
AKA [Dickson Violin]
(1895) American
B&W : 40 feet
Directed by W.K.L. Dickson

Cast: W.K.L. Dickson [violin player], [two dancing male Edison employees], [fourth man behind horn].

Edison Manufacturing Company production. / Cinematography by William Heise. / [?] Kinetoscope 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format? Edison experimental sound-on-cylinder sound system. / The production was shot circa September 1894 or 2 April 1895 in the Edison Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey. The original phonograph sound cylinder to accompany this film was recovered in the 1990s, although broken, and was pieced together and digitally resynched to the surviving film in 2002.

Experimental: Synchronized sound film.

Synopsis: A musician plays the violin into a recording horn while two male employees of the Edison laboratories dance together.

Survival Status: Prints exist in the Museum of Modern Art film archive, and in the Library of Congress film archive.

Keywords: Dances - Early sound film - Musical instruments: Violins - Sound recording - Synchronized sound film

Listing updated: 15 September 2007.

References: Film viewing : Kerr-Silent p. 3; Magliozzi-Treasures n. 3658; Menefee-Bernhardt p. 89; Musser-Before p. 32; Musser-Emerge pp. 88, 601; Robinson-Palace p. 48, 49 : Website-LoC.

Home Video: DVD.