cricket crockett
. . . as their fire department takes another day off to pose for Thomas Edison's cameras. Many New York City area landmarks (including the Durland Academy) bit the dust as soon as Edison began monopolizing the time of the local Hosemen to "fight" fake fires in his film studios, and to stage miles-long bogus fire runs into the middle of nowhere so old Tom could still have his "film at 11," as the expression goes. Though only four sworn protectors of the public appear in camera frame during FIRE RESCUE SCENE, their uniforms indicate that these guys are from FOUR DIFFERENT FIRE DEPARTMENTS, the remainders of which are no doubt watching Nero--oops, I mean Edison--fiddle as Rome, NY, along with the rest of the southeastern Empire State, plus probably parts of Jersey and Connecticut, burn.
Cineanalyst
From my studies of early films, it seems filmmakers at the turn of the 20th Century were fascinated with, perhaps more so than with any other subject, fire and firemen at work. That fascination began here, as with so many firsts in film history, in the "Black Maria" at the Edison Laboratories. The Edison Company, American Mutoscope, the Lumière Company and probably just about every other filmmaker took to making actuality films, or documentaries, of firemen putting out fires, or they staged fire scenes such as the one here. Some filmmakers became fire-engine chasers; in one film, "Atlantic City Fire Department" (1897), the camera was accidentally run over by a horse-drawn fire engine. In early, multi-shot fictional story films, firefighting remained a popular subject, such as in James Williamson's "Fire!" (1901) and Edwin S. Porter's "Life of an American Fireman"(1903).The production values within these 50 feet of film from 1894 and within the cramped space of the "Black Maria" shanty are quite remarkable. In under a minute, four firefighters, one of which is on a ladder and another holding a hose spraying water, rescue two children from what spectators would assume to be the second story of a burning building located out of frame. (Of course, there was no two-story structure within the "Black Maria".) Smoke covers most of the background of the scene, except for, the careful viewer will notice, the "R" logo in the lower lefthand corner, which stands for Raff & Gammon, who funded this Edison Company production. This film must have been rather exciting to spectators peeking through the peepholes of the Kinetoscopes; in a way, "Fire Rescue Scene" was the 19th Century equivalent of the big action flick, complete with the special effect of smoke.
Snow Leopard
Footage of fire-fighters in action quickly became one of the popular genres of 1890s motion pictures, and this very short feature is one of the very earliest examples. Unlike most of the later movies of similar subjects, it was filmed in the studio rather than outdoors. Yet it is still successful for its time in conveying the inherent sense of danger and urgency that made the fire-fighting genre popular to begin with.The footage of "Fire Rescue Scene" consists of a staged enactment of a typical rescue operation, most likely using real professional fire-fighters, in which one of the fire-fighters uses a ladder to reach residents trapped in a burning building. By using children as the endangered residents, it adds extra tension and suspense. The then-standard 50 foot length of film limits how much can happen, but it fills almost the entire running time with action.It must have been both difficult and hazardous to stage such a scene inside Edison's 'Black Maria' studio, but they were able to pull it off. The thick smoke is effective, and only the lack of any background detail limits the realism.It was not long before film-makers realized that outdoor photography worked better for features like this, and soon many movies would be made of live fire-fighting scenes as well as staged enactments, with almost all of them being filmed outside of a studio. This pioneering effort, though, is quite creditable for its time.
