What Happened on Twenty-third Street, New York City

Of all the short films in the four disc Edison/Kino set this is the one I liked the best. And it's amazing it's from 1901. The majority of the films from the historic Edison Co. survived only in a paper print form. That is each frame of a particular film was printed on photographic paper and deposited in the LOC(Library of Congress). It's a very good fortune that these films were randomly deposited in this manner else they might have stayed lost forever. The paper prints, fortunately, were one or two steps away from the clarity of the camera negative, thus the pictorial quality on some of these early gems is quite clear as opposed to the murky/muddy quality we're used to seeing on films of this very early vintage.

WHAT HAPPENED ON 23RD STREET, is valuable as it documents a section of New York City that could probably be matched up today to the very point where the cameraman was filming. This film also has fun at tempting the sexual attitudes of it's time. Looking at it today you basically see people going about their daily affairs, though one can't help wondering if a taping measure or mark-off point has been told to the people to stay away & not look at the camera. Anyhow no one looks at the camera nor gets near it until the close of the film. Then the 'starring' couple walks up and the young woman in long skirt walks over an air duct and parts of her skirt fly up just above the knees. The lady and her male friend get a kick out of this but they would've understood the moral implications of this. They walk off laughing trying to play it off that she didn't know that there was an air grate on the sidewalk and that her dress would rise high up to her head.

It's hard for us today to believe that this was being risqué. But there was a time in America that if a woman showed her legs in public it could throw men into a frenzy. And no doubt many a man enjoyed this flick for the sexually stimulating experience of seeing her skirt go up and viewing her legs. Another thing is that this film must have been available in some kind of form in the 1950s since the same type of scene is virtually aped by Marilyn Monroe in the movie The Seven Year Itch. But to less effect if you ask me.

This short film starts with around forty seconds of people living their lives on 23rd Street in New York. In the distance we see a man constantly watching the camera. He made me wondering if the scene was about him. Other people walk by, some react like they are told to move out of the frame. Then a couple walks into sight and when the woman steps over an air duct her skirts lifts up, showing us her legs. The couple laughs it off and walks on. The short film ends with a young boy turning his laughing head towards the camera.

One has to see this short film from the Edison Manufacturing Company as if it is 1901. When you see a women walking in a bikini top these days not so many people are surprised, but back then it was somewhat different. What we see in this short could also be the inspiration for Marilyn Monroe's lifting skirt in 'The Seven Year Itch', a scene considered by many as sexually charged. For a short film from the early days 'What Happened on 23rd Street' is pretty amusing.

In a film class I learned director Billy Wilder was inspired by this short Edison clip to produce the iconic uplifting dress scene in The Seven Year Itch. But there are several deeper aspects of this film which makes this seemingly innocuous film more fascinating than at first glance. 1901 was the dawn of the automobile. The first really big oil strike happened a six months earlier near Beaumont, Texas, which signaled a plentiful, cheap form of energy to power the emerging horseless carriage. Up to this point, petroleum was competing with steam and electric (batteries) to be the main source of power for the autos. 1901 marked the beginning of the dominance of the internal combustion gasoline engine. Yet you don't see one automobile on the busy New York street, just wagons being hauled by horses as well as an occasional electrical trolley. Another fascinating fact is the United States was experiencing one of its hottest summers on record. The cities in the Northeast were especially hit hard from mid-June until early August. Hundreds of New Yorkers lost their lives from heat exposure. In this pre-air conditioning era, people were sleeping on rooftops and streets to escape the brutal heat building up inside their apartments. Yet, presumably this clip was shot that summer, and the attire for both men and women were full-length clothing. How they could survive in such apparel is truly remarkable. Maybe the symbolism behind the uplifted dress was the producer's way of suggesting that a more practical form of dress with lighter, less formal clothing should be worn when the summer heat turned brutal. Lastly, in July 1901 the Edison Manufacturing Company had won a federal court case again the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company, which ruled the later was infringing on certain patients. The verdict gave Edison complete control of both film cameras/projectors and movies, which hamstrung the industry since Edison's company had to approve each film--or it couldn't be shown. Consequently, simple "actualities" like this 23rd Street could only be produced since the Edison studio wasn't exactly known for cutting-edge narratives and film techniques until the court wisely overturned the ruling in early March, 1902.

... and that is the reason all old films are interesting and have value, even the boring ones. It is the reason pottery shards from ancient Greece are interesting but the coffee cup you broke this morning is not.

There are two paid actors - a man and woman walking together who come towards the camera near the end. Air blows up from below the street, and you can see the woman's legs almost to the knee at this point. It was an attempt to establish narrative in something that is mainly documentary. Only one in 5000 people had cars in 1901, so you see nothing but horse driven carriages in this 77 second film along with the trolley running down the center of the street, and it is not horse drawn. The trolley had been operational in New York City since 1832. The New York City subway was not operational until 1904.

There appears to be a young boy, about 12, not walking down the street but staring towards the camera. What is not known is if he was part of the "crew" or if he just noticed the people with the strange looking device and wanted to know what was happening.

This miniature feature works well enough in carrying off a rather amusing premise, and it also would have been worth seeing just for the photography. Besides successfully executing a simple but effective visual punch-line, it also provides some interesting footage of the New York City of over a century ago.

The film starts out as if it were one of the actualities, or footage of real life shot for its own sake, that were common in the earliest years of cinema. And even as such it would be worth seeing. The camera field is set up effectively, so as to catch a view of a rather lengthy stretch of 23rd Street, with some of the street traffic, a lot of action on the sidewalk, and a good view of many of the surrounding buildings. Like many of the features that survive from this era, it is invaluable in conveying the atmosphere of the times, in a way that no recreation today can match.

The actual highlight of "What Happened on 23rd Street", while hardly requiring great imagination or sophistication, is funny enough, and the two performers who carry it off seem to have enjoyed doing so. The commentary on the National Film Preservation Foundation video also gives some background to the simple but no doubt popular gag.