This brief actuality film, made by the Brooklyn-based Vitagraph Company, records a carnival-style fund-raiser at the old Polo Grounds in New York. Staged on August 19, 1910, the event was organized to generate money for the Actors' Fund, a cause that was particularly important in the era before the formation of Actors' Equity, the organization which since 1919 has struggled to improve working conditions for performers.
The footage in this short begins with a parade around the stadium. There's a marching band, schoolgirls in uniform, and a lady in a big hat waving an American flag. We see a lot of performers in flamboyant outfits, such as a man dressed as a dog, a stage Irishman, Scots in kilts, Zulu warriors, and several Napoleons. A number of popular stage stars of the day participated in the festivities. Most of these players are long forgotten today, and unfortunately the title cards do not identify any of them. There's a promising moment when three men approach, carrying a banner reading MARIE DRESSLER, but Miss Dressler, who was certainly one of the most distinctive looking stars of her era, is nowhere to be seen. We do get a brief look at Harry Watson Jr., better known as "Musty Suffer," who performs a brief clown routine with his partner, George Bickel. A lady said to be Annie Oakley takes shots at several targets, but she's filmed in such a way that we can't evaluate her marksmanship. We also get a quick glimpse of the legendary comedian Bert Williams, who spars in a comic boxing match with another actor, possibly Eddie Foy. Beyond that, most of the running time is devoted to familiar carnival events, such as a foot race, a pie-eating contest, a greased pig chase, etc.
Needless to say, the entertainment value of this newsreel-like snippet will be limited to viewers interested in the popular culture of the ragtime era. I found it fairly interesting, but I do wish we could have seen more of Mr. Williams, and I also wish that posterity might have granted us at least a peak at Miss Dressler. Something tells me she did in fact appear before the cameras on that summer day back in 1910, but the footage does not survive. How could she NOT have posed for the cameras? Shyness was never a problem for Marie!
The footage in this short begins with a parade around the stadium. There's a marching band, schoolgirls in uniform, and a lady in a big hat waving an American flag. We see a lot of performers in flamboyant outfits, such as a man dressed as a dog, a stage Irishman, Scots in kilts, Zulu warriors, and several Napoleons. A number of popular stage stars of the day participated in the festivities. Most of these players are long forgotten today, and unfortunately the title cards do not identify any of them. There's a promising moment when three men approach, carrying a banner reading MARIE DRESSLER, but Miss Dressler, who was certainly one of the most distinctive looking stars of her era, is nowhere to be seen. We do get a brief look at Harry Watson Jr., better known as "Musty Suffer," who performs a brief clown routine with his partner, George Bickel. A lady said to be Annie Oakley takes shots at several targets, but she's filmed in such a way that we can't evaluate her marksmanship. We also get a quick glimpse of the legendary comedian Bert Williams, who spars in a comic boxing match with another actor, possibly Eddie Foy. Beyond that, most of the running time is devoted to familiar carnival events, such as a foot race, a pie-eating contest, a greased pig chase, etc.
Needless to say, the entertainment value of this newsreel-like snippet will be limited to viewers interested in the popular culture of the ragtime era. I found it fairly interesting, but I do wish we could have seen more of Mr. Williams, and I also wish that posterity might have granted us at least a peak at Miss Dressler. Something tells me she did in fact appear before the cameras on that summer day back in 1910, but the footage does not survive. How could she NOT have posed for the cameras? Shyness was never a problem for Marie!
