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Frame enlargement: Silent Era image collection.
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Demolishing and Building Up the Star Theatre
Also known as Star Theatre and Demolishing and Building the Star Theatre, New York in the USA
(1901) United States of America
B&W : 400 feet
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: (unknown)
American Mutoscope Company production; distributed by American Mutoscope Company. / Cinematography by F.S. Armitage. / © 18 April 1902 by American Mutoscope & Biograph Company [H16735]. Released April 1901. / Mutoscope 68mm spherical 1.36:1 format. / The film was shot at 36 frames per second, and was made for Biograph projection. Possibly the first stop motion, time-lapse film, showing the destruction of a Broadway building in New York, New York. The film was also distributed in the USA at 67 feet. [?] Ramsaye-Million p. ? lists the release year as 1896; the film is included in Treasures from American Film Archives DVD set and is dated 1901 — probably the year of copyright.
Documentary: Actuality.
Synopsis: [From Biograph promotional materials] This film shows the demolition of the historic Star Theatre building (formerly Wallack’s) at the corner of Broadway and 13th Street, New York. To secure this unique picture a biograph camera was kept constantly at work by specially devised electric apparatus for weeks, during which time exposures were made every four minutes, 8 hours a day. Before the contractors began their work of tearing down and after the last vestige of the building had been removed, 15 seconds of exposure at normal speed were made. Thus in the finished positive one views at first the old Star Theatre standing as it had for years looking down with serenity upon the bustle of Broadway traffic. Then as if struck by a tornado of supernatural strength, the building begins to crumble. Chimneys totter, walls cave in, and whole stories vanish, until at last the site shows only a cellar excavation; and the Broadway cars with the sidewalk procession continue as if nothing unusual had happened. When this view is shown in the reverse, the effect is very extraordinary.
Survival status: Prints exist in the George Eastman Museum film archive [35mm positive]; and in the Library of Congress film archive (paper print collection) [35mm paper positive].
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 8 March 2011.
References: Film viewing : Ramsaye-Million p. ? : Website-AFI; Website-GEM.
Home video: DVD.
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