COMMONSCUT

Commons Cut Stories

Silent and Early Film

How the first movies were made, lost and found (Häxan, City Lights, Edison’s Frankenstein).

How the first movies were made, lost and found. Edison's 1910 Frankenstein, The Great Train Robbery and its photograph copyright, the Lumière train panic that may never have happened, and City Lights, which enters the U.S. public domain on Jan 1, 2027.

Early film history is full of good stories that get repeated without a source. These come with theirs.

5 stories

  • New York, January 1910

    The Frankenstein Film That Wasn’t Lost

    Edison’s 1910 Frankenstein was on the list of most-wanted lost films. One print had survived all along.

  • Edison's copyright on The Great Train Robbery is dated Dec 1, 1903 (H38748).

    The Movie Copyrighted as a Photo

    In 1903 American law had no category for movies. So Edison's company copyrighted The Great Train Robbery as a photograph, and sent the Library of Congress a copy printed on a long roll of paper. That paper roll is one reason the film survives.

  • First paid public show of the Cinématographe Lumière, Salon Indien du Grand Café, Paris, Sat Dec 28, 1895.

    The Train Panic Nobody Saw

    Every film history class hears that the first audience screamed and ran when the Lumières' train pulled into the station. The train film was not on the first night's programme, and a film historian who searched the 1890s press found no report of a panic.

  • Enters US PD Jan 1, 2027.

    Chaplin’s Silent Bet

    Three years after the talkies arrived, Charlie Chaplin spent two years and $1.6 million on a film with almost no dialogue. Albert Einstein came to the premiere.

  • The Moose Hunt (1931) enters US PD Jan 1, 2027.

    How Pluto Got His Name

    Mickey's dog was called Rover before he was Pluto. He got his new name in 1931, a year after an 11-year-old in Oxford named a new planet. Disney's own archivists can't say for sure the two are connected.

Commons Cut · free every week

Get stories like this in your inbox, free.

The strange stories behind familiar classics, in a free weekly newsletter, on the website, and in short videos. Free every Tuesday. Issue No. 2 is out now: Was trick-or-treating born on Thanksgiving?

Free when you subscribe: the Public Domain Day 2027 cheat sheet (PDF).

New issue every week. Unsubscribe anytime.

Want the full, true story behind each work? See The Director’s Cut, our paid edition.

from Half-In Productions