Grundy and Frint Breakdown Challenge Dance Grundy, James performer Frint performer Film 1895 Edison Manufacturing Company Kinetoscope, 1894 b&w short film. Silent. Length 50 ft. Produced by W.K.L. Dickson with William Heise on camera. For Edison Film Company in late January 1895 at Edison's Black Maria Studio in West Orange, NJ, James Grundy and Frint, members of the all-black company of The South Before the War performed a breakdown challenge dance. "These are the best negro subjects yet taken and are amusing and entertaining." (The Kinetoscope Company, Price List of Films, (May 1895), p. 4. This film no longer survives. Snatches of this routine, comparing it to break dancing, has been seen in various documentaries, such as "Watch Me Move." Performing Arts Encyclopedia http://www.loc.gov/performingarts Musser, Charles: Edison Motion Pictures, 1890-1900: An Annotated Filmography. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press (1997). Tap Dance America http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/tda/tda-home.html tda IHAS 151216 loc.music.tda.1323