Annie Oakley

Annie Oakley (1894)

This film from Edison is certainly of historical interest since it shows the legendary Annie Oakley performing some of her trick shots. This film clocks in at just 21-seconds but there's no question that you can't help but be highly entertained just because you get to see her in action. What's so fascinating about these old movies is that they often captured famous shows and acts on film and it's great being able to see them today. More times than not these shows are long forgotten but being able to see someone like Oakley was great fun.

Like many of Dickson and Heise's performance movies, such as the well-known "Annabelle" series, this brief film serves a much different purpose when viewed today than when originally released. In the beginning, the biggest reason Edison's company was so into shooting vaudeville acts and other various sensations of the period was, obviously, to promote the titular performer further as well as cashing in on showing brief sneak peeks of the act through this new medium. Like all of the performance movies, "Annie Oakley" did help this cause, but today serves a completely different purpose than normally. Frequently, watching films of Luis Martinetti, Hadj Cheriff and others help us remember these forgotten historical figures: yet, in this case we can use Edison's record of the act to acquire an idea of what Oakley's skill was like when viewed all those years ago. Clearly her persona is already very well known, and does not need any more recognition; so a film like this one helps illustrate the original fame of the performer rather than serving as a purpose to remember a forgotten historic sensation.

As such, "Annie Oakley" would be a must-see short for any film historians or (more importantly) history buffs. The famous sharpshooter was filmed only once in the Black Maria studio on September 24 1894, a date on which many members of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show (including "Buffalo Bill" Cody himself) were shot in order to promote their acts further into Europe. (Indeed, the show itself would also be touring European continents shortly after these movies were made, which shows how Edison probably wanted an excuse to introduce his invention to other countries). In this thirty-second clip, the only known motion picture record of Oakley, Annie is shown inside the studio against that boring black background we've gotten used to, shooting several rows of glass balls in rapid succession. A man (very probably Francis E. Butler, her husband) then assists her in tossing coins into the air which she shoots down one by one.

We can only speculate why Edison chose to film Oakley in such an unnatural setting. As Snow Leopard has already pointed out, it's clear she isn't always always right on the mark and occasionally takes two shots before getting a hit. A more natural setting might have been a rodeo ring, (like the one used for Bucking Broncho) in which she may have felt more confident and/or comfortable with her marksmanship. Alas, that wasn't the case at all, and it would be a couple more years until shooting on location became a more practiced concept with the Edison studios.

Nonetheless, "Annie Oakley" is a very important record simply because of the famous historical figure it portrays. As is the case with most cinema of this period, watching brief documentary snippets such as these allow us to get an idea of what was popular during the time. Keeping that in mind, every Edison performance short, entertaining or not, is worth seeing simply because of how they depict long forgotten life of all those years ago.

Her story is motivating, her skills are worthy of respect, plus she is... well, quite attractive. This short movie isn't giving her the appreciation she needs, since let's be honest: you could destroy those targets with a longer butter knife is you have one, that's how close they are to Annie. Still, very nice gunwork and steady shooting, with the camera too. So yeah, this is something you should definetly check out if you think women are only capable to do stuff in the kitchen.

What an interesting little piece of very early film by Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope studio. From the start, even the inventors in the communications field had savvy for marketing. What better way to tout the new motion picture camera than to show a legendary person of the time, Annie Oakley, doing what made her famous?

Another reviewer noted that Oakley appeared to miss all the glass balls tossed in the air. Indeed, this short shows most of them dropping back down and no splattering fragments from hits. I wonder if that wasn't intentional here. The guy who was tossing them was looking right at them and no more than a few feet from where they would be hit and shattered. He wasn't wearing any kind of eye protection and surely would have been pelted with glass splinters had Oakley hit any of the balls. This studio was a single room building that rotated on tracks to follow the sun. The "Black Maria," as it was called, was a very small space, which made it more dangerous for scenes of rifle shooting.

In any event, this was a successful venture for Edison's company. And Annie Oakley continued to entertain the throngs with her dead-eye shooting skills. She performed for crowds that included royalty around the world. For many years, she was a leading draw for Buffalo Bill's Wild West show that performed from 1883 to 1913. Two very good movies have been made about her. "Annie Oakley" of 1935 stars Barbara Stanwyck with a fine cast and a good portrayal of what Buffalo Bill's show must have been like. A 1950 musical comedy biography, "Annie Get Your Gun," stars Betty Hutton and Howard Keel.

For those interested in the technical development of the movies, here's how this little short film came about. Thomas Edison's phonograph, invented in 1877, became so popular that he wanted a way to put music with pictures. Of course, it would take more time to perfect that process (the late 1920s), but in 1888 Edison charged his assistant, William Dickson, with the task of creating a motion picture camera. Dickson pulled together the research and technology of British, French and American scientists and researchers, and used the new American technology of celluloid film to make the first motion picture camera.

Like many of the earliest Edison Kinetoscope movies, this one showed a popular entertainment figure performing one of her specialties. It's an interesting attempt, and it's nice to have something preserved on film of Annie Oakley, one of the legends of her day. But the footage that resulted is clearly limited by the constraints of the studio.

Like most of the earliest Edison movies, this was filmed inside their 'Black Maria' studio. That setting worked very well in producing movies of various dancers, vaudeville acts, and the like. But with Annie Oakley, it forces her to squeeze her routine into an area much smaller than normal, and while she does a pretty good job anyway, it's clear that under the conditions to which she was more accustomed, she would have done much better.

It was not long at all before the Edison film-makers began to film subjects outdoors when it better suited the material. Even then, though, the scale and speed of Oakley's regular act would probably have created an insurmountable challenge to film with the equipment available in the 1890s. All the same, it's nice to be able to see moving footage of her, so as to be able to flesh out this legendary figure just a little bit better.