Inventing Entertainment: the Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies

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The materials available in Inventing Entertainment provide an opportunity to develop non-fiction and creative writing skills. Magazine articles and biographies can be assessed for a discussion of a writer's goals and technique and then used as an example in composing original articles based on the resources in this collection. Comic sketches from audio recordings of vaudeville performers can serve as the basis for creative writing projects. Other audio and video recordings in the collection can provide a catalyst for projects involving critical assessments of music and film, the development of newscasts, and the study of parody.

Biography and Magazine Writing

The 1910 Nickelodeon article, "Who's Who in the Film Game," uses Thomas Edison's biography to discuss the inventor's influence on the motion picture industry. (This article can be compared to the more comprehensive biography available in the Special Presentation, "The Life of Thomas Edison.") What is the main topic of the article, "Who's Who in the Film Game"? Who do you think is the author's intended audience? Where does the biographical information appear in this article? How does the biographical information relate to the rest of the piece? Imagine that you are a newspaper reporter in the early twentieth century with an assignment to write an article about Thomas Edison and the music industry (e.g., "Who's Who in the Phonograph Business"). The articles in this collection, "Edison Views the World at Seventy" and "New Aspects of the Art of Music" feature interviews with the inventor regarding the state of the phonograph and popular music. Select a few quotes as the basis for your piece and use the information in the Edison biography and timeline to supply background information about the inventor.

A portrait of Thomas Edison featured in "Who's Who in the Film Game."

Creative Writing: Newscasts

A search on the term actuality produces documentary footage of events such as Cuban Volunteers Embarking for the Spanish-American War and a Life Rescue at Long Branch, in which a drowning person is pulled to shore. Also available is a documentation of the Paris Exposition's technological innovations as featured on the Panorama from the Moving Boardwalk.

A drowning victim is brought to shore in Life Rescue at Long Branch.

Films such as these can be used to create television newscast (performed live or on film) modeled after contemporary news programs. Search specific terms or browse the Subject Index for ideas about what to include in a variety of segments, including "World News" (Spanish-American War), "National News" (McKinley funeral), "Sports" (sports), "Weather" (Galveston cyclone), and "Entertainment" (vaudeville). Write a script introducing each piece, featuring transitions between reports, and including banter between the anchor and correspondents at the end of each piece.

Comic Dialogues

Customer: Where can I get a silver tea pot?
Shop Girl: Do you want it solid?
Customer: No, I want to put tea in it.

• Do these sketches tell a specific story or present a string of jokes?
• How do these situations and characters generate the humor of each sketch?
• What are the similarities in the situations and characters of these comic sketches? What are the differences between the scenarios in each sketch?
• How are comic elements such as puns, exaggerations, and misunderstandings used in these sketches?
• Choose a situation in which a character is required to interact with many people. Develop a comic dialogue by brainstorming about the various characters that the protagonist might have to encounter.

Editorial Songwriting

Songwriters often comment on contemporary issues within their society by adopting a fictional persona who has a vested interest in the debate surrounding the issue. For example, the 1916 nativist song Don't Bite the Hand That Feeds You imagines a dream sequence in which Uncle Sam is distraught about immigrants living in the United States who "come to him friendless and starving when from tyrant's oppression they fled / but now they just abuse and revile him." Uncle Sam finally responds in anger at these ungrateful citizens with the chorus:

If you don't like your Uncle Sammy then go back to your land o'er the sea
To the land from where you came, whatever be it's name but don't be ungrateful to me.
If you don't like the stars in Old Glory, if you don't like the Red, White and Blue,
Then don't act like the cur in the story, Don't bite the hand that's feeding you.

A search on the term, prohibition, produces two songs critical of the temperance movement. In the comedy sketch preceding the musical number in Dinnie Donohue, on Prohibition (1921), the Irish character criticizes the ban on alcohol with lines such as, "When we were young they gave us a bottle to keep us quiet and now when we need a bottle, they take it away from us." Meanwhile, Save a Little Dram for Me (1922) presents a comic song about men drinking in church when the preacher demands his share with comments such as, "Why drinkin' gin ain't against my teachin'" and "I've shared your joy and I've shared your sin / and believe me, brothers, I'm gonna share your gin."

• Why do you think that songwriters chose to adopt the personas of characters such as Uncle Sam, an Irishman, and a preacher to voice opinions on issues such as immigration and prohibition?
• What types of poetic elements (rhyme scheme, meter, imagery, etc.) do songwriters use to convey their message?
• How is dialect used in the songs about prohibition?
• Why do you think that a dialect was not used in the song discussing immigration?
• How do songwriters use stereotypes about these characters to convey their arguments?
• Choose a contemporary issue and write a poem from the perspective of a character who might be directly impacted by the debate surrounding that issue.

Parody and Satire

The Great Train Robbery (1903) was a wildly popular commercial and critical success about outlaws in the American West. Two years after its release, the parody, The Little Train Robbery (1905), featured children holding up a miniature train and stealing candy before being brought to justice. A search on the term, parody, yields satires such as European Rest Cure (1904), which depicts the misadventures at a European spa and Terrible Teddy, the Grizzly King (1901), a lampoon of Theodore Roosevelt featuring a man hunting a black cat while a photographer and press agent document his every move.

The robbery in the Little Train Robbery.

• How do these films exaggerate the nature of their subject matter?
• What is the relationship between a parody and the original work upon which it is based? What is the purpose of a parody? What makes a parody funny?
• Do you think that it is necessary to be familiar with the original subject matter to appreciate a parody?
• How do you think that audiences might have responded to these parodies?
• What is the purpose of a satire? What makes it funny? What kind of message does it convey and how?
• How is a satire different from a parody? What are the similarities between the two? What types of comic techniques appear in each?
• Choose a popular contemporary film and develop a parody.

Comedic Genre: Mischievous Children

In 1902, cartoonist Richard Outcault brought Buster Brown and his dog Tige to readers of newspaper comics pages. This trouble-making duo moved to the medium of film in 1904 with the "Buster Brown Series", in which Tige's athletic ability allows him to overcome almost any obstacle that the two face during their misadventures. (A few months after the films, the Brown Shoe Company purchased the rights to the characters for its children's shoes and dispatched midgets wearing Buster Brown costumes across the country to peddle their wares.)

Buster and his mother look on as their acrobatic dog, Tige, puts a balloon vendor out of business.

Buster Brown was one of the most recognizable comic characters of its era, but he also fit well within the comic tradition of mischievous children. Many of the collection's films feature "bad" kids wreaking havoc on the adult world. Titles available in this collection include Little Mischief, Maude's Naughty Little Brother (1900), and Love in a Hammock (1901). In the latter film, two boys upset a happy couple's time together under an oak tree.

• What types of pranks do these children play on their elders?
• How do the adults become susceptible to these pranks?
• How do the adults respond to the children?
• What do these sketches suggest about the behavior of adults and children and their relationships with each other?
• How do these films use physical comedy in their gags?
• How do these films compare to the works comprising the literary tradition of mischievous children, such as Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?
• Are there any contemporary films, comic strips, or cartoons in which this tradition continues?
• Write a short story or comic strip imitating these films.

Music and Film Criticism

When Thomas Edison was describing popular music in the May 1917 Edison Diamond Points article, "New Aspects on the Art of Music," he explained: "People like or dislike what they are told to. There is very little fresh and original thought upon the subject." Sample some of the recordings available in the "Alphabetical List of Edison Disc Titles."

• Are there certain melodies or stylistic themes that appear in a number of the recordings?
• Do you agree or disagree with Edison's claim that people "like or dislike what they are told to"?
• Do you think that contemporary audiences are told what to like?

Professional critics are one group of people who seek to influence popular tastes in the arts. Select a song, comedy sketch, or fictional film (available with a search on the term, drama) and write a critique of the work while keeping in mind the technological limitations of the era.

• How does the work make you feel?
• What do you think is the goal of the piece?
• Do you think the material successfully achieves this goal? Why or why not?
• What did you like most about the work? What did you like least?
• How does the work compare to contemporary efforts in the same genre?
• Would you recommend the piece to anyone you knew?
• Would you limit your recommendation to a select few? If so, who?