Leonard-Cushing Fight (1894) User Reviews

Interesting in its place in history regarding sports pay-per-view

[bob the moo · 30 December 2013]

Film was in its early days when this fight was filmed. In terms of what remains, only a very short snippet remains and to be honest watching it without any context will not tell you anything. You will see two boxers in the middle of a round, with no information on previous rounds. Essentially a fighter in long black trunks (Cushing) is against another fighter (Leonard) who appears to be wearing white Speedos and not much else; Leonard appears to be having the better of the fight but it is hard to say. The action is slowed down a little which makes skills hard to judge but punches seem telegraphed and it is a bit of a scrap – I'm not great fan of boxing but I have seen better fights.

So to just watch it will not tell you much since this small clip was only registered while getting the copyright to the whole fight – they did not need to submit the whole thing. What is really fascinating about the film is the story behind why it was made. This fight was filmed and provided to exhibitors for public showings at the price of $22.50 per round. Very roughly according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this equates to US$530 today – so the whole fight would have cost you $3200 to have the rights to show it to paying customers. Translated into modern prices this is of course nothing compared to the prices now when it comes to selling sporting events, but it is very interesting to see the ability to capture moving images being very clearly focused on making product to sell. There is no suggestion of art or creativity here – this is a sporting event that was filmed and sold as a package to others to sell to individuals. With cable TV and subscription channels, paying to see sport is so normal now that it stands out as much as breathing, but to see the same mechanics back in 1894 is really something to ponder on.

Not really worth looking at this very short film on its own merits but as a piece of history it is interesting as a very early example of pay- per-view sports programming.

Pretty disappointing for the time and genre

[Horst_In_Translation · 2/10 · 11 October 2013]

Boxing movies were quite common as choices to be put on film during the very early years of cinema. Dickson made a couple of these himself, but this is one of the least convincing. Even his portrayals of show-boxing were more interesting. Not only is the physical quality of the "Leonard-Cushing Fight" not good at all (the heads can't be seen at all), the action is also either too one-sided or just not entertaining at all. The most interesting thing about it may have been the totally different kinds of pants the athletes were wearing back then. The film runs for roughly 40 seconds, longer than most other Dickson films around that time, but it's simply not one of his better works. Not at all.

The beginning of the Edison Manufacturing Company's most profitable projects.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 8/10 · 27 December 2007]

This is the first ever filmed boxing match, from Edison and Co. They practiced it before with the movie "Men Boxing" in 1891, which featured two Edison employees in a fake fight.

Shot boxing matches would eventually in the future turn out to be the most profitable movies from the Edison Manufacturing Company. The footage was sold per round for $22.50 for each round, which could be viewed in a kinetoscope. Really a lot of money of course for that time. Nevertheless it became quite a success, also not in the least because boxing at the time was banned in some states in America. So for most this was basically the only legal way to ever see a boxing match at that time.

Only one round of the match has survived and can be seen this present day, simply because Edison and Co. didn't bother to make paper negatives of each round because only one was needed to submit for copyright purposes.

The match was shot in Edison's Black Maria studio, so it wasn't really a real fight. These matches also would have a prearranged ending and winner, in order for Edison Manufacturing Company to have the insurance that they could sell a certain amount of rounds per match. It involves the two professional boxers Mike Leonard (in white) and Jack Cushing (in black). Even though it wasn't an official match, that doesn't mean that the two are going easy on each other. The bare knuckle punches are all real alright. The fight is full of hard fighting, clever hits, punches, leads, dodges, body blows and some slugging. To make it look all the more authentic, a couple of seemingly random blokes are sitting in the background, behind the ring watching the match, as well as having a referee in the ring, who looks like he's ready to step between the two fighters any moment.

The frame rate doesn't seem to be right, since the entire round seems to occur in slow motion. Also the quality of the images isn't among the best of the Edison Manufacturing Company of that time but it still looks good enough alright.

Mostly because of the unexpected success of boxing matches on film, it became commercially really attractive to make more films such as this one, which caused that more artistic and experimental projects were pushed more to the background and became more or less a side-line for the Edison Manufacturing Company.

So this can be seen as the first real commercially produced film.

8/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

And So Began the Boxing Picture....

[Michael_Elliott · 1 May 2011]

Leonard-Cushing Fight (1894)

Edison had experimented with a fight movie in 1891 but this here was their first real attempt to show a boxing match (in 37-seconds) and apparently it was popular enough where many more followed. In the brief clip we see Jack Cushing and Mike Leonard each throwing a few punches at each other while the referee sits back as well as four other men who are sitting behind the ropes. It should go without saying but at just 37-seconds you're not going to get a full match or even a third of a round but this film is still worth viewing just for the bit of history of getting to see these two boxers. Their names are probably forgotten by most today but it's interesting to see the styles which they are fighting as well as the costumes they're wearing. Leonard is wearing some white "shorts" which appear to be way too small and too tight so that's not exactly an image you'll want to be looking at. It's also worth noting that it appears a couple of the men in the background are either extremely bored or wishing they were simply somewhere else as they don't appear to be into what's going on.