Athlete with Wand (1894) User Reviews

Another Newark athlete helps Edison and Co. out.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 6/10 · 20 October 2007]

The athlete shows some great flexibility here! ...Seriously what is this guy doing? It looks ridicules. He is simply flexing his arms and legs in different positions while constantly holding a wand in his both hands. Of course they simply wanted to test as many movements as possible to see what the possibilities were, the do's and don't's and how it all looked on film.

Interestinly there is also a dog lying in the corner, presumably also as part of the experiment to see how secondary objects, persons, other things or in this case a dog would look on the corner of the camera field. The dog also looked as if he/she was trying to figure out what this athlete was exactly doing, but he/she mostly didn't bothered with him and simply choose to relax a bit. I sympathize for him/her.

For an early Edison Manufacturing Company film it's quite long. It's over 30 seconds long. And all shows that Edison and Co. were all making progress at the point.

6/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Canines apparently beat felines to the big screen . . .

[cricket30 · 5/10 · 28 July 2013]

. . . and they do it with some attitude. Unlike the feline title characters who sell out for second billing in a later short from the Edison Manufacturing Company--PROF. WELTON'S BOXING CATS--the dog who graces ATHLETE WITH WAND (pay close attention to the lower right of the screen) proves why his kind are considered "man's best friend" decades before LASSIE ever filled the nickelodeon. At first this principled canine (who would not allow his name to appear in the final credits) looks at his alleged "athlete" co-star thinking "this guy is CRAZY!" as the Newark "gymnast" mugs for the camera. This dog obviously has the breeding to know the rough outlines of what male gymnasts would be doing in the Olympics (rings, pommel horse, parallel bars, floor exercise and such), which is why he virtually ignores the poser taking center stage here. "You won't win a gold medal for dancing with a yardstick, Mac!" the dog certainly is thinking, as he turns his head away in disgust. All I can add is, Good call, Fido! Too bad the clown with a "wand" did not pick up on your training cues.

Most Important Warm-Up ever.

[ronin-88 · 4/10 · 12 March 2022]

In this film, a man makes some movements, including calisthenics, while working with a 3 foot long pole. His work is not particularly athletic or artistic. Our athlete in the film is not famous. He looks like he's in good shape but we don't even know what his name is. There's also a dog in the foreground behaving like a dog.

The importance of this film lies in being an experimental film to see how movement looked to the camera. This was an early film in Edison's Black Maria studio. The director, WKL Dickson, was preparing for later films which would feature famous performers such as Eugene Sandow, the strongman, or Carmencita, the dancer. The athlete in the film looks like he is warming up. The film is also warming up for what would be come a multi-billion dollar industry. These are very early stages.

A Glimpse Into Early Cinema Development, With A Dash of Ironic Humor

[Snow Leopard · 6 October 2005]

This brief footage provides a glimpse into a developmental stage of early cinema, in that it preserves what was understood to be a practice feature made by the Edison Company, in preparation for filming some popular acts in their 'Black Maria' studio. The material itself is largely bland, but it contains a dash of ironic humor, whether it was intentional or not.

The focus here is on a gymnast who does a brief, very simple routine using a wand or short staff, which he holds as he takes up various positions using his arms and legs. The point of the movie was not the gymnastic routine, which in itself is neither difficult or interesting. Rather, this footage allowed W.K.L Dickson and the other Edison film-makers to gain experience in the studio before filming the strongman Sandow (which they did shortly after making this) and other popular acts. Filming a moving performer helped them in judging how much movement the subject could make without leaving the camera field, and also with other such considerations that did not apply to still photography.

Besides its main purpose, it has one humorous detail, in the dog lounging in the corner of the foreground. It's quite possible that the dog was placed there solely as a practical measure, to see how well the camera captured movements at the edges of the camera field. But it's also rather amusing to watch the dog and to see its reaction to the activities of the gymnast and the camera crew. Whether intentional or not, it adds a touch of humor to a movie that already holds some historical interest.

One of Dickson's weaker works

[Horst_In_Translation · 2/10 · 11 October 2013]

Another very early short by William Dickson, in his mid-30s at this point, shows an athlete wearing a white skirt and long pants showing us a couple tricks with his wand. If this was a Méliès film, the wand would have spat out a couple rabbits or stars or something else magical. But this is really just a sports presentation, one of the earliest sports documentaries ever. It's not particularly engaging and I wouldn't recommend it. Even at 45 seconds, it almost feels a bit repetitive. Worst thing about it is the poor fella didn't even get his name in the title like many other athletes or dancers from these Dickson showcase films from the late 19th century.

An athlete? with a wand?...and a dog

[kobe1413 · 1/10 · 6 July 2014]

W.K.L. Dickson films another "performer". This unnamed "athlete" steps left, right, and towards the camera, while moving a "wand" in basic movements.

Not sure what to make of this strange presentation from Dickson and Edison. The guys movements are not what one would call athletic. For examples of athletes around the turn-of-the-century, watch Dickson's "Sandow" and "Hadj Cheriff", both from 1894. Those performers show real physical aptitude, while the "athlete" from this film is upstaged by the dog in the lower right. Why the dog is there, no one knows. Such were the crazy days in cinema's first year.

I am not sure is this guy real athlete?

[vukelic-stjepan · 1/10 · 17 January 2017]

Like I said in title, I am not sure that this guy is any kind of real athletete, nor he is doing anything special. But review Snow Leopard in his review said that '' The point of the movie was not the gymnastic routine, which in itself is neither difficult or interesting. Rather, this footage allowed W.K.L Dickson and the other Edison film-makers to gain experience in the studio'', if this is correct I understand point of this movie, but anyway, I can't give this movie more than rate 1. It is boring and you will not see any interesting. I think that his dog also thinks that he is boring. I also agree with Thomas, put bad athletic performance aside, but this guy deserve his name in movie title, like Annie Oakley.

Edison: Invention of Movies

[Michael_Elliott · 31 December 2008]

Athlete With Wand (1894)

The title is pretty much what you get in this Edison film. This is a rather interesting film on many levels because of the history behind it. I'm not sure if the athlete has ever been identified but he certainly doesn't get to show off his talents, if he even had any. Pretty much the man just stands in the center of the frame and moves his arms and legs into various positions while holding a wand in both hands. The point of this? I'm really not sure but it's interesting to note that Dickson keeps the actor in the center of the frame apparently thinking this is where people are going to be looking. If you're eyes are centered on the center of the frame then you're going to miss the best moments and that's the dog sitting on the floor, looking at the athlete with a face, like the viewer, wondering what the hell the guy is doing. The dog itself makes this worth viewing not only for history but for pure entertainment.

Test Run for Sandow

[Tornado_Sam · 19 December 2017]

People who criticize "Athlete with Wand" as being boring clearly do not see the actual point of this brief shot. No, the athlete was not a professional performer who had his performance filmed for publicity like Edison did later the same year, and the act he puts on for the camera here wasn't meant to be entertaining. In the long run, the footage thus served one purpose: it was a test run for "Souvenir Strip of the Edison Kinetoscope", later to be retitled "Sandow No 1", (as at least two other films of strongman Eugene Sandow were shot by the same company). Clearly, as Snow Leopard says, to have an athlete bend his knees and pose with the wand was a mere way of figuring out the staging and camera placement within the studio. (Don't forget the Black Maria was finished just the previous year and that until now they hadn't have much of a chance to work within it). There was obviously nothing meant to be entertaining about this piece of footage, it was probably never titled (which would explain the square brackets used for this and the early camera tests) and no doubt never even released to be viewed in Kinetoscope parlors. The athlete, said to work for the Newark Turnverein, was probably more likely a factory worker than a true gymnast; the chances of Edison taking the time to get the actual thing down to his studio just for a test run is unlikely. Simply put, this footage was shot for mere experimental reasons.

While I agree with Snow Leopard's assumption that the dog in the corner of the frame was placed there to test non-central movement, I think another possibility could be that someone just brought their dog into the studio and he/she ended up finding that part of the stage to his/her liking, and couldn't be budged. The chances of Edison actually getting a dog to sit on the floor by command seems a little far-fetched. You'd think they'd have gotten the dog to lay there another way, possibly by putting a bone or a slab of meat in the right spot so the dog would lay there for filming.