Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze, Jan. 7, 1894

The earliest surviving copyrighted motion picture, the Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze is a short film made by W. K. L. Dickson in January 1894 for advertising purposes. Often referred to as "Fred Ott's Sneeze," this is is one of the world's earliest motion pictures and America's best known early film production. The star is Fred Ott, an Edison employee known to his fellow workers in the laboratory for his comic sneezing and other gags. This item was received in the Library of Congress on January 9, 1894, as a copyright deposit from Dickson.

Two other Edison experimental films on the Library's YouTube site - DICKSON GREETING (May 1891) and NEWARK ATHLETE (May or June 1891), predate The Sneeze. The Sneeze was submitted for copyright as 45 frames from the motion picture printed as positive prints on paper rather than as a reel of film. The prints were mounted on cardboard and submitted to the Copyright Office in this form. The video of the Sneeze on loc.gov and YouTube was later rephotographed and turned into a moving image from these mounted frames.

SUMMARY
Film made for publicity purposes, as a series of still photographs to accompany an article in Harper's weekly.

OTHER TITLES
Sneeze
Fred Ott's sneeze

CREATED/PUBLISHED
United States : Edison Manufacturing Co., 1894.

NOTES
Copyright: W. K. L. Dickson; 9Jan1894; 2887.

Performer: Fred Ott.

Camera, William Heise.

Filmed ca. January 2-7, 1894, in Edison's Black Maria studio.

SUBJECTS
Sneezing.
Publicity.
Motion picture industry--Public relations--United States.
Actuality

RELATED NAMES
Dickson, W. K.-L. (William Kennedy-Laurie), 1860-1935, production.
Ott, Frederic P., performer.
Heise, William, camera.
Thomas A. Edison, Inc.
Hendricks (Gordon) Collection (Library of Congress)
Paper Print Collection (Library of Congress)

DIGITAL ID
edmp.0026A http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsmi/edmp.0026A

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Library
• congress
• edison
• silent
• paperprint
• short
• film
• sneezing