In 1994 the Library of Congress collaborated with Smithsonian Folkways on the production and release of The Library of Congress Video Collection, six videocassettes representing early films in various genres (Vol. 1 The African American Cinema I, Vol. 2 Origins of the Gangster Film, Vol. 3 Origins of American Animation, Vol.4 Origins of the Fantasy Feature, Vol. 5 The African American Cinema II, Vol. 6 America’s First Women Filmmakers). Dr. Carli, already the staff accompanist for the George Eastman House (as it was then called) was commissioned to provide solo piano background scores for the 5 features and 26 short films in the collection. His recollection of gradually stripping to his skivvies during marathon recording sessions in the D.C. summer weather is a story in itself, but many of the films first introduced at that time have remained classics of silent film, including Within Our Gates and Scar of Shame, A Florida Enchantment, Alias Jimmy Valentine and films by Alice Guy-Blaché and Lois Weber. Copyright and technical issues complicated the transition of the collection from videotape to more recent formats, and the tapes are now out of print. However, the Library of Congress mounted the entire contents of the third volume, The Origins of American Animation, in its streaming digital collections, and those early films can still be seen with Dr. Carli’s scores, the first of many that he recorded over the years.
Mary & Gretel
“Alice in Wonderland meets the Garden of Eden in this surreal fable of a drunk rabbit, bowling dwarfs, and the two bewildered girls of the title”–Origins of American animation 1900-1921 notes. This stop motion animated film is equal parts cute, hilarious, and chilling, and must be seen to be believed.
Date: 1917
[The centaurs–excerpts]
Winsor McCay is famous for his groundbreaking graphic tales of the adventures of Little Nemo in Slumberland. These fragments of an animated sequence in fully realized art style document another whimsical subject – life in a family of centaurs, including a young couple, her parents, and their small son. The animation of the centaurs is surprisingly graceful, clearly a part of the artistic aim of the sequence. It is a little disturbing that the characteristic action of the young wife is to pick flowers, while that of her husband is to kill a bird with a rock.
Date: 1921
Dud leaves home
Dud wants to buy his girlfriend Maime an ice cream cone so he breaks open his mother’s bank, and splits their last dime in half in the process. His mother punishes him so he runs away. Dud is scared by imaginary ghosts in the dark, so he runs back home where he gets a spanking from his mother.
Date: 1919
AWOL, all wrong old Laddiebuck
Pen and ink sketched animation of a cautionary PSA to American troops in Europe impatient to return home after the armistice. Joy-riding AWOL [absent with out leave] does not end well!
Date: 1919
Keeping up with the Joneses. [Women’s styles]
Mr. McGinis is not pleased with the new short skirts in women’s fashions, but is in the minority at his home. One feature of this serial is the animated depiction of the drawing of the first cell.
Date: 1915
Keeping up with the Joneses. [Men’s styles]
Mr. McGinis thinks his new hat stylish – but is once again in the minority.
Date: 1915
[Gertie on tour–excerpts]
In another McCay, Gertie the dinosaur has been transported to the modern day (of 1921). Despite her fascination with an unfortunate intercity trolley, she wishes she were home.
Date: 1921
Dreamy Dud–he resolves not to smoke
Dud steals a man’s pipe because he is fascinated with smoking and blowing smoke rings. He smokes the pipe and the smoke turns into a ghost and carries him up to the moon and leaves him – while his little dog cries so hard he drowns in his own tears! Dud falls off the moon and down to earth, and wakes up on the floor of his room, resolving never to smoke.
Date: 1915
Bobby Bumps starts a lodge
Bobby Bumps plays a trick on his friend who wants to be initiated into his lodge. When his friend outsmarts him and saves his life, they both agree to be initiated into the lodge together. Bobby’s unnamed friend is depicted using racial stereotyping common for the period – as if in blackface and using a dialect different from Bobby’s own rural patois – but he is clearly Bobby’s equal in resource and initiative.
Date: 1916
Policy and pie
The mischievous Katzenjammer Kids featured in a stock serial that appears to continue the adventures of Max und Moritz, the 1865 creation of Wilhelm Busch. In this installment, the Captain gets a life insurance policy and gives it to his wife. In gratitude she makes him a pie. The Katzenjammer Kids play a trick on the Captain and sneak toads into his pie so that he would think his wife is trying to poison him.
Date: 1918
The first circus
The silhouette animation used for the two short vignettes (one about a prehistoric prohibition agent, and the other the First Circus of the title) features graceful motion, especially the handling of long necks and tails.
Date: 1921
Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse at the circus An animated cartoon about the adventures of Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse at the circus, where they demonstrate their courage to each other by attempting to scare a woman.
Date: 1916
Krazy Kat, bugologist While in the woods studying bugs, Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse encounter a sleeping bee and an angry elephant.
Date: 1916
Krazy Kat goes a-wooing Krazy Kat’s serenade outside the window of Ignatz Mouse meets with a barrage of bricks.
Date: 1916
Mr. Nobody Holme–he buys a jitney
Mr. Nobody Holme, warms up his sluggish automobile with the assistance of a stick of dynamite.
Date: 1916
Never again! The story of a speeder cop
An ineffectual policeman (Officer Heeler) quits the force after a losing battle against speeders.
Date: 1916
The phable of a busted romance
A workman recovers and returns Miss Gotrox’s lost purse containing 10,000 dollars, and receives a Canadian dime as a reward.
Date: 1916
The phable of the phat woman
A fat lady attempts unsuccessfully to lose weight.
Date: 1916
The dinosaur and the missing link, a prehistoric tragedy
Clay animation tells a story of prehistoric times. Three suitors, named the Duke, Stonejaw Steve, and Theophilus Ivoryhead, compete for the hand of Miss Araminta Rockface. Ivoryhead, an unassuming weakling, wins her hand when the others mistakenly believe that he has killed a large ape which was actually felled by a dinosaur.
Date: 1917
W.S.S. Thriftettes
A promotion for war savings stamps, reputed here to help confine Germany’s Kaiser to a circus cage.
Date: 1918
The enchanted drawing “Upon a large sheet of white paper a cartoonist is seen at work rapidly sketching the portrait of an elderly gentleman of most comical feature and expression. After completing the likeness the artist rapidly draws on the paper a clever sketch of a bottle of wine and a goblet, and then, to the surprise of all, actually removes them from the paper.”
Date: 1900
Fun in a bakery shop The set is of the interior of a bakery. A man in a baker’s hat and costume enters and begins kneading some dough on a table by the oven. He notices a make-believe rat crawling up the side of a nearby barrel and throws the dough at the rat, covering it completely. He then goes over to the dough and begins to pummel it.
Date: 1902
Humorous phases of funny faces J. Stuart Blackton “draws” a series of funny faces, including a line drawing of two faces, a man with an umbrella, a line drawing of two faces in profile, and a clown.
Date: 1906