Author Archive: Retro

This picture is intended to portray the evil of the gangster in New York. The first scene shows New York’s other side. The poor musician is engaged to be married to a young woman and leaves for another city to accept an engagement whereby to improve his condition monetarily.While he is away the little one is forced to work at sewing to support her invalid mother and herself. Later on, in going to deliver some of her work, she meets “Snapper Kid” who is the chief of one faction of the gangsters of Pig Alley in the slum quarters. There are two factions of these gangsters. Like the musketeers of old, they go about, each side alert that they will not be taken unawares by the other. About this time the little girl’s mother dies and she finds herself alone, but the musician returns with replenished purse to become the protector of the little orphan. [...]

Two paperhangers are employed by a sanitarium to hang up some posters. Chaos Ensures.

The outlaw and his pals plot to rob the general store. He goes into the store with the intention of attracting the attention of the storekeeper while the rest of the gang enter from the rear. But the girl is the one who meets him and the outlaw feels a vague desire to reform at sight of her. He calls off the gang and orders them to let the store alone. But they are determined. While he is out of the camp gathering wood for the fire, they plot to overpower him. When he comes back they overpower him and leave him tied while they set out to rob. He frees himself by rolling into the fire and burning his bonds. He sets off in pursuit. He comes upon them in the act of robbing the store, forces them away at the point of his gun and accepts the thanks of the girl. Then he [...]

The incident here depicted shows a young American dispatch bearer, who, surprised by a band of Hessian foragers, seeks shelter in his father’s house. The old man has just time to hide the boy in the fireplace when the Hessians enter. After a fruitless search they express their intention of putting up at the house. As a subterfuge, the daughter takes them upstairs to show them their quarters, while the father hides the boy in a clothes hamper. The Captain, on his return downstairs, sees the basket, and suspicious, asks what it contains; not satisfied with the old man’s answer, sends a bullet crashing through into the boy’s body, killing him. The poor old man is frantic with grief and vows to avenge his boy’s brutal murder, so stealing outside with his daughter, they surprise the sentry and carry him off. The daughter, dressing in the sentry’s uniform, takes the post, while the father scurries [...]

A father who is obsessed with music won’t let his daughter marry anyone who isn’t a musician, so the girl’s fiancé poses as a violin player

Dickson Greeting’ is credited as one of the world’s very first films in the world and was made by William Dickson. It is only a 3 second film but it still captured the essence of motion and was made in 1891. It was the first public demonstration of motion pictures in the United States to a public audience as he showed it to The General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) in Edison’s lab. The very first sound-film was the ‘Dickson Experimental Sound Film’ by William Kennedy Dickson and is known to be the very first film with live recorded sound and was made in America. The very first hand-coloured film was called ‘Annabelle Serpentine Dance’ by William Dickson in America as it was distributed by Edison Manufacturing Company in 1895, a company based in New York City at the time. Theatres started to be built for films in the US as the first building exclusively [...]

The station at Lonedale is in charge of an old operator and his daughter. The young engineer who makes the run between Lonedale and civilization is the sweetheart of the operator’s daughter, and upon receiving his call on this particular day he escorts her to the station, where, finding her father suffering from a nervous headache, she takes his place at the key after bidding adieu to her engineer sweetheart as he mounts into the cabin of his engine and rolls away. As her father leaves he discovers that his revolver is out of order and takes it with him to fix it. The old operator has forgotten, however, that this is the first of the month, on which a large sum of money is expressed to the station from the city office of the Lonedale Mining Company for the payroll. The train pulls in and she receives the express bag of money. Two tramps [...]

A young man fights to overcome a piratical arms smuggler and to win the heart of a rich man’s daughter.