Arabian Gun Twirler - 1899

Arabian gun twirler / Thomas A. Edison, Inc.

CREATED/PUBLISHED
United States : Edison Manufacturing Co., 1899.

SUMMARY
Hadji Cheriff, of the original Midway Plaisance- performer.
A bearded man performs a rifle twirling act on a stage with a painted backdrop of a city street corner. He wears a white turban and a dark two-piece costume of tunic and baggy pants that narrow at the knees; perhaps the costume of an Arab infantryman.

Hadj Cheriff was a regular at the Midway Plaisance, where he headed a small troupe that got in trouble with the police due to his wife's sexy dance performances. He eventually joining Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, even though he purported to be a dervish rather than a wild west Indian.

NOTES
Copyright: Thomas A. Edison; 20Mar1899.

Duration: 0:40 at 18 fps.

Materials listed originate from the paper print chosen best copy of two for digitization; for other holdings on this title, see the M/B/RS Paper Print database.

Portion of summary from K.R. Niver, Early motion pictures, 1985, p. 11.

Cheriff was apparently a performer on the Midway Plaisance of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, perhaps in the "A Street in Cairo" or Turkish village exhibits.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Classic
• video

[cerice]

Maybe Thomas Edison set up his camera and recorded several different people as part of a project. (See video notes for extra info on the film.)

[homfencing]

Not bad at all....especially considering the likely weight of the weapon at the time.

[janemba30]

lol first place 1899 isis solo

[PolyesterMoustache]

I really like the combination of the low quality 19th century recording and shitty modern compression (sarcastic). I really wish someone would get the original recordings and then make high quality digital recordings of them to post online for everyone to see.

[cwinget2580]

Rising Sun...Helicopter...Flow...Two Hand Spin...Wrist Roll...Ninja...All this time I thought all these moves were invented in the past 15 years or so

[betadamai]

crazy….check on youtube : brella ku pengen teman banyak

[helli3yte]

maybe these new radicals should learn a thing or two from this guy. twirl guns not war ;)

[GodWilling1993]

WOW!!



[gothandpissed]

This man was recorded not by Thomas Edison. Edison went and copyrighted the film in 1899 and named it the "Arabian Gun Twirler"

[Jocol85]

The beginings of Exhibition Drill...how awesome. Thanks for putting this up. :)

[spirmessi]

if you like old films watch *BIRTH OF CINEMA* in you tube

[bibbibboy]

mute^^