Includes CD-ROM containing film clip and illustrations.
Contents:
Foreword / Neville Hunnings -- The mystery of the collapsing bridge / Bryony Dixon -- Bandits! or, The collapsing bridge: an early film and a late-Victorian stage / David Mayer -- Sands o' Dee, playtext.
Summary:
"Centres on the earliest surviving motion picture filmed in a British theatre. Brief but amazingly eventful, it records the conclusion of 'The Bandits,' a London Hippodrome sketch performed in 1902: soldiers give chase on horseback; a bandit queen fires a pistol; a mill explodes into flame; a bridge collapses in the millrush; a carriage and horses plunge into the millpond. All this -- and more -- can be seen in 89 seconds! The filmclip was made early in a decade of melodramatic sketches that were given sensational presentation at the London Hippodrome between 1900 and 1909. The Hippodrome was then a major London variety theatre, and sketches like 'The Bandits' were literally showstoppers, designed to bring the twice-daily bill to a spectacular conclusion as scenery collapsed, water cascaded, and animals cavorted. ... This amply illustrated booklet offers an authoritative account of the Hippodrome sketches with their spectacular effects and stage machinery. It also presents a lightly edited performance text of The Sands o' Dee, the only Hippodrome sketch for which a script is known to survive"--Back cover.
OCLC:
(OCoLC)940557323
Locations:
OVUX522 -- University of Iowa Libraries (Iowa City)
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.