Theatre and Film

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Comment by Jeff on June 29, 2011 at 11:12pm

This 1906 postcard may rank as one of the first contemporary "Movie Still" photos ever made for a motion picture. Produced in 1899 Kiss in the Tunnel was one of several early films made by the Bamforth Company of Holmfirth, England. James Bamforth was one of a small group of early British filmmakers, along with Cecil Hepworth, George Albert Smith, and Robert Paul, and the first to take the music hall tradition into film. Bamforth started in business in 1870 as a studio photographer and began the production of magic lantern slides around 1883. During the showings background music would be played to accommodate the piece shown and a narrator would explain the images to the audience. The expertise gained in this led the Riley Brothers of Bradford, who had been involved with moving picture technology since 1896 and had already begun to make films of their own, to commission Bamforth in 1898 to produce further films, known as 'RAB' films. The first series of films are from 1899 to 1900. These include, Women’s Rights and Kiss in The Tunnel both from 1899. These earlier films were made, initially, just as a way to find out how the equipment worked. It is lucky that they survived as they were originally stored in the office of the managing director, where the temperature ruined many of the films. After 1903 the Company concentrated on picture postcards — although postcards weren’t allowed by the GPO (General Post Office) until 1906 — and then returned to films between 1913 and 1915. Kiss in The Tunnel is essentially a re-make of a film of the same title made earlier the same year by the Brighton based filmmaker George Albert Smith. In the earlier film Smith and his wife are the kissing couple. Bamforth developed this idea by a three shot film: one of a train entering the tunnel, one from inside the carriage, and one from the station. It was more realistic – the inside of the carriage – and having a more passionate embrace. The man in the film is James Bamforth himself, who upset his wife by kissing another girl – and from a lower social class! The tunnel is possibly between Huddersfield and Thongsbridge, Holmfirth. This Movie Still postcard shows the recreated scene of Bamforth kissing in the darkened train carriage. For fun, Bamforth added an extra to the scene, a woman taking advantage of an unseen moment by sneaking a swig from a bottle that was hidden in her basket. You can visit the Yorkshire Film Archive link below to view this short film.Yorkshire Film Archive Online

Comment by Stephen D. Malcolm RN on May 25, 2011 at 9:26pm

Any one out there on the "internets" looking for, or knowing someone else, interested in a 1910 Photo ( 11" x 14" ), a publicity still of the D.W. Griffiths Movie, "Ramona". Photo is of "Americas Sweetheart", Mary Pickford. She was 18 at the time and this was one of his first movies filmed in California.