Children in the Surf, Coney Island 1904

Also known as 'Orphans in the Surf'
Filmed August 3, 1904 at Coney Island's Sea Gate in Brooklyn, N.Y.
American Mutoscope & Biograph Company
Cameraman: Alfred C. Abadie

Ring-around-the-rosie
Young children wade and play in the surf at Sea Gate in Coney Island as some women swim in the distance. A jump cut [2:40] shows a toddler as he moves for the camera holding a cricket paddle. A moment later a man fetches the paddle out of the water, leaving the boy with a toy boat with which to play. He seems more interested in the real schooner sailing far out in the distance, but only momentarily. He'd rather be back on the beach with everyone else. After a few more attempts at making him a star the boy picks up the toy and leaves.

By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea!
You and I, you and I, oh how happy we'll be!
When each wave comes a-rolling in
We will duck or swim,
And we'll float and fool around the water.
Over and under, and then up for air,
Pa is rich, Ma is rich, so now what do we care?
I love to be beside your side, beside the sea,
Beside the seaside, by the beautiful sea!
- By the Beautiful Sea (Harold Atteridge / Harry Carroll) (1914)

By The Beautiful Sea / Billy Murray and the Heidelberg Quintet 1914: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PflIYLA9Fe8

Blitz & Blatz at the Seashore - Duprez and Roberts (1909)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_KeBsMpTbw&feature=related

01/01/12 - 3,061

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• newyorkcity
• new york city
• nycny
• nyc
• ny
• brooklyn
• sea gate
• coney island
• atlantic
• ocean
• surf
• waves
• wade
• swim
• ring around the rosie
• toddler
• toddlers
• child
• children
• play
• playing
• toy
• boat
• schooner
• by the beautiful sea
• actuality
• actualities
• 1904
• alfred c. abadie

[CMaxCooper]

Yeah, if you honestly think this short is a fake you need to either study some film history or not seek historic film on YouTube.

[menacinghat]

@rastamon334

he's wearing smart black outfit. Some people think 100 years ago it was still the stone age and smart clothes didn't exist..

[InnerMittenSignal]

if it were modern & they went to all the trouble of building a fake clipper ship, they would have given it very much more camera time, lol! but the man at 2:58 is just a dark blob...you can't see the cut of his clothes. these babes were born at the time of my grandparents (& i'm 60! :) they're long gone from this earth!

[rastamon334]

its not really 1904 look the man at 2:58 looks pretty modern?!

[ccdcat68]

omg this is old

[FaerieCrone]

Aw how adorable!