The Kinetoscope by Richard Brown

Author:Richard Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2017-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Fig. 21. Boxing Kangaroo, 1895 (BFI National Archive).

Fig. 22. Tom Merry, Lightning Cartoonist, Sketching Kaiser Wilhelm, 1895 (BFI National Archive).

Fig. 23. Dancing Dogs, 1895 (BFI National Archive).

As a well-known stage cartoonist Merry’s appearance carried with it celebrity appeal, whilst the caricatures he produced for the popular press would have made his art recognisable to a wide public. He had been appearing at music halls for the previous 20 years in an act that remained remarkably unchanged. As early as 1877 a reporter for The Era attending the Raglan Music Hall, North London, wrote: ‘Mr Tom Merry, the gifted caricaturist draughtsman drew with marvellous rapidity large and readily recognised portraits of Beaconsfield, Gladstone, Midhat Pasha, Mr Murray and Mr Parker’.13 Merry’s ability to produced oversize cartoons in less than a minute was ideal for kinetoscope exhibition. The surviving footage of Tom Merry, Lightning Cartoonist, Sketching Kaiser Wilhelm depict the artist having just finished a 6 ft high portrait of the German Emperor with a liveried attendant looking respectfully on (Malcolm Cook has suggested that this secondary figure represents the Kaiser).14 The same format was almost certainly employed for the films Tom Merry, Lightning Cartoonist, Sketching Bismarck; Tom Merry (Lightning Artist) Sketching Lord Salisbury; and Tom Merry (Lightning Artist) Sketching Mr Gladstone. The provenance of the Merry films is obscure, with no reference to them surviving from 1895. However, the fact that both Paul and Acres had joint ownership of at least one of the films after the conclusion of their partnership strongly suggests that they originated during the first half of 1895. Merry’s music-hall appearance during 1895–1856 were limited to a handful of performances in February and March 1895.

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