Below are descriptions of the items shown as part of this presentation:
Dan Streible, “A New Look at an Old Sneeze: Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze,” 9th Orphan Film Symposium, Obsolescence, Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, Mar. 31, 2014. Includes live accompaniment by Stephen Horne. 27 min. Audio here,
Recorded in January 1894, Fred Ott’s Sneeze (as it came to be known) was not seen as a moving image until reanimated from still photographs to 16mm film in 1953. The many film histories written before and after that year mistakenly refer to The Sneeze as a motion picture that circulated publicly, first on Edison kinetoscope viewers. All instances of The Sneeze on film, video, DVD, television, or the internet are derived from this 16mm copy, itself made from only one of two composite photographs on deposit at the Library of Congress since January 9, 1894. Kemp R. Niver and his company did the preservation work for the Paper Print Collection at the Library of Congress, in partnership with the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. The copyrighted work from W. K. L. Dickson showed 45 frames on paper, printed from the original 35mm Edison film.
When I read the March 24, 1894 publication of Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze in Harper’s magazine, I saw (and many others had) it consisted of 81 frames (a 9 x 9 grid). After research confirmed no reanimated copies used all of the available frames, I asked the Library of Congress (National Audio-Visual Conservation Center) about this in 2013. Straight away Moving Image Section team had the Harper’s piece (81 frames on 1894 paper) and the copyright card (45 frames) sent to the lab in Culpeper, Virginia. By September, LOC produced a bright, sharp new 35mm print that married the two sources into a longer version of Fred Ott’s Sneeze. A version never before seen as a moving image.
For the premiere screening of this 35mm restoration, Mike Mashon of the Library of Congress and I presented it at the Indiana University Cinema for the film symposium entitled Orphans Midwest: Materiality and the Moving Image, September 27, 2013. [Audio here: Dan Streible, “Versions of ‘Films’: Kinetoscopic and Digital.” 14 min.]
Next, Eye Netherlands Filmmuseum projected Fred’s re-premiere on 35mm for my presentation “A New Look at an Old Sneeze: Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze,” 9th Orphan Film Symposium, Obsolescence, Amsterdam, March 31, 2014. (The title itself alludes to a 1961 essay by early cinema historian Gordon Hendricks, “A New Look at an ‘Old Sneeze,’” Film Culture 22/23.)
(1) Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze, Jan. 7, 1894 (W. K. L. Dickson, US, 1894) 13 sec. .MOV file, sound, b&w.
Source: Library of Congress YouTube channel, Mar. 26, 2009.
Video also here: www.loc.gov/item/00694192/.
(2) Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze, January 7, 1894 (W. K. L. Dickson, US, 1894) 5 sec. Alternate titles: Fred Ott’s Sneeze; Ott’s Sneeze; The Sneeze, short version (ca. 1955): derived from 45 still images from one of the two copyright deposit cards. 35mm print, silent, b&w, 4 ft. (video transfer at 16fps). Camera: William Heise. Performer: Fred Ott.
Source: Library of Congress, FEC 8091 (AFI/Gordon Hendricks Collection), 1994.
(3) Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze, January 7, 1894 (W. K. L. Dickson, US, 1894) 3 min. longer version (2013); 35mm print created using 81 still images (45 from the copyright deposit card and 36 additional images published in Harper’s Weekly, March 24, 1894). This version shows Fred Ott sneezing twice, in one continuous take. This double-sneeze take is printed ten times on the 2013 film print. 35mm, silent, b&w. If run at 24 frame per second, the duration is little more than 5 seconds. The 2013 digital intermediate, made before output to 35mm motion-picture film negative and positive print, retained the amber color of the original copyright deposit cards. But the LOC preservation lab only processes black-and-white film. Both the digital color longer version and the black-and-white 35mm film print were projected at the “Orphans 9” presentation at Eye Filmmuseum.
Source: Library of Congress
(4) excerpt (2 min.) from 30th Academy Award Show (NBC, US, 1958); segment “50th Anniversary of the American Motion Picture,” begins with footage (2 seconds) from Fred Ott’s Sneeze; MOV file, sound, b&w. Performers: David Niven, Donald Duck, Paul Frees (voice), Fred Ott. Likely the first broadcast of the film. Source: Academy Film Archive, ©A.M.P.A.S.
(5) Thomas Alva Edison — outtakes (US, Mar. 15, 1930) 88 seconds. Fox Movietone News story 5-537. MOV, sound, b&w. Camera: William Storz. Sound: Jim Duffy. Thomas Edison walks and talks with Fred Ott and unidentified man, in Fort Meyers, Florida.
Source: University of South Carolina Moving Image Research Collections Fox Movietone News Collection. Watch online: digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/MVTN/id/2409/rec/1.
(6) excerpt from Reclaiming American History from Paper Rolls by the Renovare Process (Primrose Productions, 1953). Produced and narrated by Kemp Niver. 2 of 18 min. MOV, sound, color. Demonstrating how paper prints were converted to 16mm motion-picture film; a compilation is introduced with narrator saying the film is The Sneeze — deposited for copyright in 1891 [sic] rather than 1894. Many published sources provide incorrect dating on the film, anywhere between 1888 and 1900, despite its full title containing the correct year.
Source: Library of Congress
(7) Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze, January 7, 1894 / Thomas A. Edison, Inc. (anon. [David Shepard], 1971) 2 min. Alternate title: The Films of Thomas A Edison presented by Raymond Rohauer [sic]. 35mm, silent, b&w, 169 ft.
Source: Library of Congress, FEB 9185 (E. Fulton Brylawski Collection, received 1989), FEB 9186 (AFI/Shepard (David) Collection, received 1977).
Note from the LOC catalog record: “New edition, with editing and additional matter / directed, produced and written by David Shepard.” Also: “This film is a spoof on the copyrighting of re-edited silent films. It consists of a comic written introduction tacked onto a very brief original film.” And “Copyright notice on film: Raymond Rohauer; 1971 (notice is bogus per AFI/Shepard (David) file).” Not actually registered for copyright. “Copyright notice on film: Raymond Rohauer ; 1971 (notice is bogus per AFI/Shepard (David) file). Alternate title, The sneeze, from leader.”
Shepard told me (in 2013 emails) he gave various friends 16mm prints of his playful parody. Fellow film collector Rohauer received a copy and reportedly appreciated the tease about his (sometimes dubious) copyright practices with silent films. Shepard surmised that an additional print of his film is catalogued as from the E. Fulton Brylawski Collection, because Brylawsi was Rohauer’s attorney — and that Rohauer might have attempted to copyright the Shepard parody.
Bonus note (not from the catalog): George Willeman put a soundtrack to the silent film: “Jolly Coppersmith” and “Butcher Boy,” from the recording Al Melgard at the Chicago Stadium Organ: World’s Largest Theatre Pipe Organ (Audio-Fidelity, 195?). Hence, a new edition:
(8) Raymond Rohauer presents “The Sneeze,” (Geo. Willeman, Aug. 10, 2011).
In this riotous version, Mr. Ott holds his handkerchief in his left hand. In the original and its other descendants it’s in his right. Was Shepard having fun with this “error”? Seems likely.
With thanks to Library of Congress informants Paul Spehr and Pat Sheehan (emeriti), Mike Mashon (Moving Image Section Head), Ken Weissman (Supervisor, Film Preservation Laboratory), George Willeman (Nitrate Vault Manager), cataloguer Andrea Leigh (Moving Image Processing Head), paper print specialist Alexis Ainsworth (Processing Technician), and Zoran Sinobad (Reference Librarian, Moving Image Research Center).