NZFA EDUCATION COMPILATION: THE PEOPLE’S PALACE. CINEMA GOING IN NZ 1896 - 1940

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Year
2009
Reference
F201202
Media type
Moving image
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Rights Information
Year
2009
Reference
F201202
Media type
Moving image
Item unavailable online
Categories
NZFA Screening
Duration
210 mins
Production company
NZFA

Extensive collection of early cinema fare for New Zealand audiences using both foreign and New Zealand produced film.

THE PEOPLE’S PALACE: CINEMA GOING IN NEW ZEALAND 1896 - 1940

THE BEGINNINGS 1894 - 1913

Sandow the Strong Man
Edison / American Mutoscope Company 1894
Eugene Sandow flexes his muscular physique for the camera.
One of the most famous advocates of male physical culture and sport, Sandow toured New Zealand in 1902 and flexed his almost nude body in front of large audiences. This copy is the Edison Kinetoscope from 1894. There is another version by the American Mutoscope Company in 1896.
Along with the film Serpentine Dance, this film of Sandow was included in the first Wellington programme 28 October 1896: “an electric knob is touched, and where all was darkness there appears an illumination, and Sandow, ‘the strong man, not a picture but Sandow in his habit as he lives, displaying every feature of his marvellous muscular power and physical strength...” Evening Post 27 October 1896

Serpentine Dance
Edison Manufacturing Company 1895
A “Skirt Dance”, a popular vaudeville attraction, performed by Annabelle Moore.
This film was shown at Wellington’s first public screening of motion pictures, held at the Exchange Hall, 28 October 1896. Early evidence of colour tinting - frame by frame.
“But the palm among the pictures must be accorded to a skirt dance..., the limelight effects of which were beautifully rendered, while the grace of the evolutions far exceeded any dancing we have seen in New Zealand.” - (Evening Post, 29 October, 1896)

Le Manoir du Diable
Georges Méliès 1896
The oldest surviving movie found in New Zealand to date (in a Christchurch junkshop in 1988), this is considered to be the first horror movie. The trick sequences were a Meliès specialty.

Cupid at the Washtub
R W Paul 1897
A variation on the courtship comedy which R W Paul had launched with his first staged film “The Soldier’s Courtship” in 1896. Here, according to the catalogue, a country girl is talking and laughing with a groom who is cleaning a harness before his boldness gets him into trouble. Notable for the first use of a natural setting, full of detail.

Hanging Out the Clothes
G A Smith 1897
A bit of risque narrative to add to the comedy items, from British pioneer George Smith. There was plenty of wink-wink humour involved in early cinema output.

Mr Edison at Work in his Chemical Laboratory
Edison Manufacturing Company 1897
A single continuous shot showing Thomas Edison at work in a laboratory. Behind him are shelves of chemical bottles. The scene is lit by sunlight, which suggests that it was posed in a studio, possibly Edison's 'Black Maria' studio West Orange, New Jersey.

Parade of Guardsmen
[1898]
A single continuous shot of guardsmen parading at St James's Palace, London. Processions and events associated with royalty flooded the British Empire cinema market, particularly in New Zealand. The narrative quality of the films took second place on many occasions!

Farrier Shoeing Horse in Camp / A Camp Smithy
R W Paul 1899
Shot during the Boer War. A single continuous shot of a horse being shod in a field. An army tent and several soldiers are present in the background. One man with bellows at a fire and a blacksmith deals with a horse. One soldier walks up and down as sentry, other soldiers hang around a tent.

Departure of the Second Contingent to the Boer War (extract)
A H Whitehouse 1900
‘The film is of the Second New Zealand Contingent filmed on January 13 or 14 1900 at Newtown Park, Wellington. It shows the Contingent members in fatigues undergoing riding tests or training. It is almost certainly the A H Whitehouse film of the Second Contingent, which makes it the only known surviving Whitehouse film and now the oldest surviving moving film taken in NZ.’ ( Chris Pugsley )
In 1895 entrepreneur and producer Alfred Henry Whitehouse exhibited motion pictures in New Zealand. Although only one person could watch at a time, his Edison kinetoscope was a smash and toured nationally. Whitehouse then visited Thomas Edison in the United States and returned with a new projecting kinematograph. Around the late 1890s he again he toured successfully and, to counter growing competition, he imported a camera so he could make his own moving pictures.

Les Nouvelles Luttes Extravagantes / The Wrestling Sextette
Georges Méliès 1900
Comical Méliès film about wrestling. Puppets and models are used to illustrate gravity and body-mass. Good examples of Melies trademark camera and editing tricks.

Royal Visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall to New Zealand (extract)
Limelight Department, Salvation Army 1901
A fragmentary record of the 1901 royal visit to New Zealand by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York to thank New Zealanders for their contribution to the Boer War. Guide Sophia and her niece Maggie Papakura are the guides, Seddon & Ward and James Carroll are prominent. A standard bearer holds the Takitimu flag and gets his head chopped off for his troubles.

Gaumont Review: The Glitter of Ascot
British Gaumont 1904
‘The Glitter of Ascot. Prince of Wales at Mayfair’s own race-meeting - last refuge of Victorian tradition’.
Well-dressed men and women at the race-meeting. Women with parasols and hats. Men in morning coats and top hats. Tally ho.

Sights in New Zealand
[1906]
Taken at a hui at Tamatekapua Marae, Ohinemutu, Rotorua. A high percentage of early local product plugged the themes of one, New Zealand as scenic wonderland and two, New Zealand’s fine and loyal native race. The feeling here is that this community was well used to being the photographer’s subject.

Costumes of Different Periods
Pathe Frérès 1911
Stencil coloured scenes of costume through the ages, worn by one female model in each sequence, standing on a revolving platform. Just gorgeous.

Scenes at the East End Picnic, New Plymouth (extract)
Empire Theatre 1912
Family fun activities at a seaside picnic: includes children in togs paddling, "chewing the tape", a lolly scramble, the "greasy pole" and sticky bun contests. Filmed by the Empire Theatre crew in New Plymouth it was played to large audiences before the feature film. Other films made by the theatre were an industrial, a meeting of schoolchildren and scenes from a race meeting.

New Zealand Leads the Way (extracts)
Jury’s Imperial Pictures 1913
KING GEORGE V INSPECTS HMS NEW ZEALAND ... On 5 Feb 1913, accompanied by First Sea Lord Prince Louis of Battenberg; the Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth, Admiral the Hon Sir Hedworth Meux; the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr Winston Churchill; the Second Sea Lord Vice Admiral Sir JR Jellicoe and other Admiralty officials. Among the New Zealanders present were the Hon. James Allen, Minister of Defence; Hon. Thomas Mackenzie, High Commissioner and Sir Joseph Ward M.P.
NEW ZEALAND LEADS THE WAY ... Visit by Mr Thomas MacKenzie and NZ Minister of Defence plus a party of three hundred New Zealanders who travelled by special train from Waterloo to Portsmouth on 3 Feb 1913 to witness the unveiling of the replica of the New Zealand Coat of Arms.
A lot of feet stamping and replays occurred when kiwis were filmed overseas and the films were shown at home. And of course a contribution to Empire - great stuff.

WARTIME 1914 - 1918

Off to the Front
NZ Govt / Pathe Freres / New Zealand Picture Supplies 1914
The official farewell to the Wellington Section of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) on Thursday 24 September 1914, at Newtown Park by the Governor General Lord Liverpool. There were 2,500 men on parade and a crowd of 25,000-30,000 at the park. “Of the units on parade the Wellington Infantry Battalion was the largest with a strength of slightly over 1,000 offices and men, while the Field Artillery Brigade and Brigade Ammunition Column came next with something like 300.... The balance of 500 was made up in the other units”.
The ships were loaded and pulled out in the stream but it all proved to be something of an anti-climax as the news of a possible threat from the German Pacific Fleet delayed the sailing until a warship escort could arrive. This meant that the men of the Main Body were able to see the film of their own departure in the picture theatres”.

Visit of the Hon W H Massey and Sir J Ward to Western Front 1918 (extracts)
NZ Govt / Pathe Freres / New Zealand Picture Supplies 1918
This is the last of three surviving films taken of the 'Siamese Twins' , Prime Minister Massey and Leader of the Opposition Ward on their frequent trips to the UK and the Western Front. Popular PR moves of the time obviously included the symbolic cigar, the patriotic speech, the message taken for folks back home, and the mandatory observance of the haka. Given that these images were shot just 4 months before the Armistice, and the grim 58% casualty rate for New Zealanders on active service, the whole affair seems remarkably jovial.

CARTOONS & COMEDY

CARTOONS

Felix Finds ‘em Fickle
Pat Sullivan Studios 1924
Either Aussie Pat Sullivan or his employee Otto Messmer’s creation, Felix the Cat tries to gain the amorous attentions of a girl cat by scaling a mountain to pick her a flower. Along the way he disturbs the mountain inhabitants, Felix makes it back only to find he has picked the wrong flower. Animation’s first superstar, Felix had his own comic strip, merchandising and hit songs on the jazz charts! Overtaken by the talkies and Mickey Mouse he rose again in 50s TV production.

COMEDY FORMATS

Snookee’s Disguise
Sterling Motion Picture Company 1914
A mix up between two couples leads to a restaurant brawl. Note the borrowing of Keystone Cop routines. Comedy format was generally of a shorter duration that feature drama narrative until the arrival of the talkies, although the short subject comedy as a type continued till the late 1930s.

The Waiter (extract from ‘The Rink’)
Mutual Film Corporation 1916
Written, Directed and Produced by Charlie Chaplin. Genius. Mabel Norman, The Keystone Kops, Fatty Arbuckle, the other genius Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, and later The Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers, added to the tradition of slapstick

COMMUNITY COMEDIES

Daughter of Invercargill
Rudall Hayward [1928]
“Queen of Southern Provincial Centres, famed for its commercial stability and far-sighted town planning - Invercargill”
“T’was Saturday afternooon in the great throbbing metropolis”
“Getting more like New York every day!”
“A really progressive little town - always forwards in going backwards”
“It was only when a pretty new school teacher arrived that the local lads thought their education had been neglected”
The Daughter of Invercargill played to sell out crowds at the Majestic Theatre. It was a rare occasion for Southlanders to see themselves on screen. The community comedy formula was a great success for Hayward, who made over 23 between 1928 and 1930.

The Takapuna Scandal
Rudall Hayward 1928
A comedy filmed in and around Auckland...
“You Have Seen Intolerance, You Have Seen the Birth of a Nation, You Have Seen Ben Hur, This film has got nothing to do with any of these...”
The groovy flying sequence is shown in this extract.

THE SILENT NEWSREEL

AMATEUR

Happy Faces at the Duchess Theatre / All Black Trial at Spriggens Park
[Duchess Theatre 1927]
Children line up to go to see “The Call Of The Wild” featuring Buck the Marvel Dog on Saturday 1 October, 1927 in Wanganui. In a steady stream they walk past a sweet shop window and into Wanganui’s Duchess Theatre. An advertisement in the Wanganui Chronicle 1 October 1927 announces ”all children attending this Matinee will be photographed by the “movie man”.
This was the basis for much of early New Zealand film making - local films of local events and people, for local audiences, squeezing in as many people as possible, completed quickly and shown within days. A Taranaki Herald report from 1912 describes the rest -
“It was quite evident that the local element in the programme was proving a big draw... and the only disappointed ones in the huge crowd were those who could not gain admittance... As scene after scene was unfolded before the audience, parents joyfully recognising their own particular ‘Jimmys” or ‘Nellies’ and some groups of merry makers, gave vent to their feelings in little suppressed exclamations of satisfaction.”

GAUMONT

Gaumont Mirror: Men Mannequins
British Gaumont 1929
Spiffing stuff old chap. Fancy some tennis.

GOVERNMENT

Royal Visit Auckland
NZ Government Publicity Office 1927
NZ Govt. Publicity produced several films of Duke & Duchess of York's visit. This is the first part - their arrival & reception at Auckland. Duke and Duchess of York were later King George VI & Queen Elizabeth. Once again with royalty, these reels were well used on the cinema circuit.

PATHÉ

Fur For the Fair Ones
Pathé 192-
Fabulous colour stenciled footage of Paris scenes and good looking animal murderers.

Vanity Fair & Fisher Folk Finery
Pathé 1920
Fabulous colour stenciled footage of Paris scenes and good looking animal murderers.

Pathé News No. 67
Pathé 1924
Fashion parades.
‘St. Louis, Mo. Ladies, attention! Long waistlines and large hats keynote of fall styles - 1924 Fashion Revue hints at what’s “in vogue”’. Models emerge through structure beside a pool, where they line up to show the dresses they are wearing. Closer views of dresses. ‘Winter coats also have long, graceful lines...’.Models, women and children’ parade in coats (some fur).
‘Here’s an idea for your wardrobe - - in 1950!’ Women in futuristic costumes (skirts like lanterns), carrying lanterns on sticks. Woman in shiny all-in-one costume (halter neck).

CONTESTS

Beauty Contest
Rudall Hayward / Frank Stewart 1924
Fragments, believed to be from the “Motion Picture Bathing Beauty Contest” organised in conjunction with the Grand Theatre, Auckland, to discover Auckland’s most beautiful bathing girl, showing six competitors in bathing costumes.
Filming of the contestants took place at Shelly Beach, Auckland, on Saturday, February 14, and also (possibly at other locations) on Sunday, February 15, 1925. The “N.Z. Herald” reported that “the services of Mr. Rudall Hayward, motion picture producer, and Mr. Frank Stewart, an expert cinematographer, were secured to conduct the competition.”
At that time Hayward was preparing to film “Rewi’s Last Stand” for Maori War Films, Ltd. The first of the “bathing beauty” contestants depicted appears to be Nola Casselli, who was chosen to play the role of Cecily Wake in “Rewi’s Last Stand”. Might this contest have been a form of screen test? The “Motion Picture Bathing Beauty Contest” film was screened at the Grand Theatre, Auckland, from February 17, 1925, and voting papers were distributed to enable the audience to act as judges. The leading candidate prior to the last night of voting was “Miss Rua, of Milford” (possibly a pseudonym) with 682 votes, 81 ahead of her nearest rival, but no record has been found identifying the eventual winner.

Hamilton Shingle & Buster
[1926]
Fragments from the haircut competition organised in conjunction with the Strand Theatre, Hamilton, to find “The Winning Cut”. Filming of the contestants took place in August 1926 and the first section of film showing ten competitors was screened at the Strand Theatre, from September 1, 1926.
Judging was by public vote. The competition continued for seven weeks with a series of heats and finals. No record has been found identifying the eventual winner, but as the leading candidate prior to the last three nights of voting was “No. 40” with 325 votes, 276 ahead of her nearest rival, it seems likely that she won first prize.
In this competition, the first prize was a costume or frock from House and Daking Ltd. to the value of 15 pounds. Regrettably, the surviving film shows only competitors who did not make it into the final round of competition.
(Intertitle) “In its screening there may be a few contestants who naturally appear unused to the camera. We New Zealanders are apt to be over critical. Let us judge fairly & give the palm of applause where it is due”.

Centennial Baby Contest
St John’s Ambulance 1940
Awww. Great donation generator.

INDUSTRIAL FILMS

The Magic Collar Box (extract)
NZ Radio Films 1927
Female dominated manufacturing - lots of tricky sewing etc. An element of higher class manufacture in this specialised factory, hence the dress style.

NZ Industries: Tea Packing & Blending (extract)
Industrial Films NZ 1932
Narrative is spoken in ‘verses’ and sometimes rhymes. Some wonderful industrial noises are heard.

GOVERNMENT PRODUCTION

He Pito Whakaatu I Noho ā Te Māori i Tairāwhiti: Scenes of Life on the East Coast (extracts)
Dominion Museum / James McDonald 1923.
Fishing techniques including the stone, net and channel method. Part of the McDonald / Elsdon Best series. This amount of material was recorder in an earlier trip to the Whanganui River area.

Elsdon Best's notebooks are in the Alexander Turnbull Library, as are JC Anderson's diaries of the expedition. Over 300 still photographs were taken, over 50 cylinder recordings made of speeches and songs, and between 5000-6000 feet of film exposed (not all of which has survived).

McDonald had been employed by the Govt Tourist Dept in 1907 to make publicity films. Regular govt filmmaking began in 1923. Early production captured significant events - Dominion Day, Shackleton’s departure for Antarctica, Lord Kitchener’s visit, Prince of Wales etc. The mid to late 1920s saw a divergence into the mechanics of the NZ economy, structural advancements and topics more typical to overseas newsreel examples, as well as the familiar scenic wonderland and indigenous topics.

The Breakfast Egg (extract)
Government Tourist & Publicity Office 1927
From fluffy chick to the breakfast table, the life story of an egg is explained by a man amusing his two enthralled sons with disappearing egg tricks. The story begins on a moralistic note; “There are two kinds of eggs... good eggs and bad eggs...” and covers all stages of poultry farming. Shows chicks hatching and eggs being loaded onto J.Liggins truck (of Christchurch). Intertiltes guide the film back to the children; “Then they’re sent off to the grocers...where Mummies buy them for our breakfast.”

In Auckland Zoo
Government Tourist & Publicity Office 1928
“Do take us to the zoo Clare!” Oh jolly. More puns than a vaudeville stand-up.

The Sky Riders
Government Tourist & Publicity Office 1929
“Offering a wide scope and excellent future, the profession of aviation is undoubtedly a strong magnet to the present day youth. Alive to its possibilities, the New Zealand Government undertakes the training of selected cadets at Wigram Aerodrome, Sockburn...”
Pilots are trained at Wigram airbase. They under go medical examinations, and are instructed in the use of the “winged fleet” weapons. Shows mechanics working on a Moth and students in the cockpit with pilots.

Holiday Haunts
Government Tourist & Publicity Office 1935
Tourist attractions at Rotorua Typical of the continuous stream of tourist films that the government churned out. In terms of representation, this example has a specific image of Maori in mind." Want a guide?.. and who wouldn't with a guide like this!"...Check out the simple, lazy image of the two sleeping Maori men, and the very European commentary on those "anything but cordial" carvings. Conversely the inherent primitive narrative changes to slicked back and racy when the europeans appear.

Magic Playgrounds
Government Tourist & Publicity Office 1935
Variation on the above.
Scenes of Rotorua and its environs, showing the various tourist attractions:
Blue baths, golf course, mud pools, Maori village, Waikite Geyser, Maori carvings, crafts such as weaving, Ohinemutu Church, memorial to Queen Victoria at Ohinemutu, water skiing on Lake Rotoiti, trout fishing, in lake & stream, Lake Tarawera, Mt Tarawera and Lake Rotomahana with its steaming cliffs.

Health Camps For Happiness (extracts)
Government Film Studios 1937
An appeal by Michael Joseph Savage for the King George V Memorial Fund for health camps. Shows children at a health camp. Slipping under the radar here, MJS does some politicking for the kids.

NZ Review No. 1. Holiday Sounds (extracts)
Government Film Studios 1937
Slick tourist film of Picton and Marlborough district. Tourists go by boat to Ship's Cove - Cook's Memorial, The Grove, Portage Hotel. Aerial views of Blenheim, and a visit to the Redbrook Homestead. Titled NZ Travel for overseas release.

EARLY FEATURES

The Great Train Robbery
Edison / Edwin Porter 1903
One of the milestones in film history was the first narrative film, The Great Train Robbery (1903), directed and photographed by Edwin S. Porter - a former Thomas Edison cameraman. It was a primitive one-reeler action picture, about 10 minutes long, with 14-scenes, filmed in November 1903.
The precursor to the western film genre was based on an 1896 story by Scott Marble. The film's title was also the same as a popular contemporary stage melodrama. It was the most popular and commercially successful film of the pre-nickelodeon era, and established the notion that film could be a commercially-viable medium.
The film used a number of innovative techniques, many of them for the first time, including parallel editing, minor camera movement, location shooting and less stage-bound camera placement. Jump-cuts or cross-cuts were a new, sophisticated editing technique, showing two separate lines of action or events happening continuously at identical times but in different places.

Bobby and his Pal
[1911]
A cowboy story featuring romance, bandits & abduction. Possibly the film listed as Billy and His Pal produced by Gaston Melies. Jim is captured by bandit-looking individuals, one of whom is the fellow who offended Helen. Bobby alerts Helen who gathers a posse & chases after the bandits. They find Jim & rescue him just as the bandits throw down a rock on him. Jim is very grateful to Helen &, in turn, to Bobby

The Hunter
Pine Tree Pictures 192-
Stunning tinted print, uses close ups and point of view nexus to extremus! Not confirmed but probably Canadian film company.