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- Mis à jour : 8 avril 2024
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SAN FRANCISCO
Jean-Claude SEGUIN
San Francisco est une ville de Californie (États-Unis).
1894-1895
Le kinetoscope (644 et 646 Market street, [1er] juin-30 [septembre] 1894)
Kinetoscope Parlor, 644 Market street, San Francisco, 1894.
Les frères Holland installent plusieurs kinetoscope parlor aux États-Unis. Après New York et Chicago, c'est au tour de San Francisco de découvrir la nouvelle invention de Thomas A. Edison. Il es probable que la location du local commence au début du mois de juin :
The Edison Kinetoscope.
A marveolus reproduction of movable objects. Nothing more vivid or more natural than these changing forms with their familiar tricks of gesture and action. Headers of the June number of the Century Magazine can have an opportunity to practically appreciate the Importance of the article on the Klnetoscope. Holland Bros have live of these machines bow on exhibition at 644 Market street.
San Francisco Call, San Francisco, mardi 5 juin 1894, p. 10.
Sur la photographie qui a été conservée, on reconnaît Peter Bacigalupi (le premier). Quelques jours plus tard, un entrefilet indique que sous peu le kinetoscope parlor va présenter le combat entre Leonard et Cushing :
The Fight at Edison's Laboratory.
We have telegraphed for kinetograph pictures or the Leonard-Cushing fight at Edison's Laboratory, and will have them at the kinetoscope exhibition at 644 Market street next week. HOLLAND BROS.
San Francisco Call, San Francisco, 17 juin 1894, p. 10.
Un autre article offre davantage d'informations au sujet du kinetoscope parlor :
Nearly everybody has heard of the inventor of the kinetoscope, but very few know that Edison's most wonderful invention Is now on exhibition tn San Francisco. Through the courtesy of the gentleman who is managing the exhibitions at 644 Market street I am able to state that the report circulated by a contemporary to the effect that the views are indecent is incorrect. In fact nothing could be more interesting than the moving photographs, as shown by these Instruments. If you wish to see yourself as a waltzer, vocalist, or as an orator, the machines will produce it true to life. In short it is difficult, almost impossible, to believe any true description of what can be seen in the kinetoscope by any persons who have not themselves looked into it. There are only twenty-five of these machines in existence, ten of which are in New York, ten In Chicago and five here.
San Francisco Call, San Francisco, 19 août 1894, p. 6.
Le propriétaire du local, Peter Bacigalupi, semble changer de local à partir de la fin du mois d'août, au 946 Market St où il continue de fonctionner à la fin du mois de septembre :
EDISON KINETOSCOPE.-On exhibition at 946 Market street (Baldwin Hotel).
San Francisco Call, San Francisco, vendredi 28 septembre 1894, p. 6.
Après quatre mois d'exploitation, il va mettre en vente le kinetoscope parlor dans les derniers jours de septembre :
EDISON KINETOSCOPE AND PHONOGRAPH parlors for sale $3,000 will purchase an elegantly fitted arcade on the best street in Los Angeles, paying $25 per day. Apply to PETER BACIGALUPI, 946 Market street, Baldwin Buliding, San Francisco.
The San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, dimanche 30 septembre 1894, p. 14.
L'annonce est encore publiée -avec quelques variantes- en janvier 1895.
1897
Le Cinématographe Lumière (The Orpheum, [30] août-[05] septembre 1897)
Orpheum (1896)
Source: collection Jack Tillmany
L'Orpheum propose à la fin du mois d'août un spectacle de variétés où figurent de nombreux numéros dont celui du cinématographe Lumière :
Stanley Whiting is a distinctively novel entertainment at the Orpheum this week. He appears in white face and a dress suit, sits at a baby grand piano, sing "Syncopated Sandy," a song of his own composition, and several other negro ditties, and shows the Southern darkey juste as he is at present.
[...]
Lumiere's cinematograph was another novelty. A panorama of the Grand canal at Venice, taken from a moving gondola; a charge of the Spanish lancers, and a Russian dance on a stage at Moscow excited the most enthusiasm. The rest of the bill was up to the Orpheum standard and the house vas packed.
San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, mardi 1er août 1897, p. 5.
Le poste du cinématographe est tenu par l'opérateur Henry Tett. Les séances se déroulent sans problème jusqu'au 5 septembre où un début d'incendie provoque une certaine panique. Le drame du Bazar de la Charité (4 mai 1897) dont le procès vient à peine de se terminer et dont les journaux américains ont amplement parlé explique, sans doute, que The Examiner consacre sa Une du lendemain, 6 septembre, à l'incendie provoqué par la maladresse d'Henry Tett qui est blessé :
This was not the case, however, with the man Henry Tett, who operated the machine. He was in the act of entering the closet to begin his performance when the fire started. He had nothing with which to put out the fire but his hands, and these he used without sparing himself. As a consequence he is severely burned on the hands and forearms.
The Examiner, San Francisco, lundi (matin) 6 septembre 1897, p. 1.
The Examiner, San Francisco, lundi (matin) 6 septembre 1897, p. 1.
La presse publie des dessins effrayants et des commentaires visant à provoquer l'inquiétude et, ce, à tel point que l'autre journal local, The San Francisco Call va dénoncer ces procédés et intitule son article "Made much ado about nothing" :
Yellow journalism essayed to make a holocaust of the little blaze which occurred at the Orpheum Sunday night and tried in vain to find a few dead and maimed.
[...]
The truth of the occurrence, however, can be told in a few words. During the operation of the cinematograph Henry Tett, who was handing the machine, by accident placed a lighted candle too close to one of the films, and, as it was made of celluloid, a flash of light marked its destruction. The flame, brief as it was, communicated to a few yards of cloth draped around the stand on which the machine rested, and the thin material began to burn. Tett, with cool deliberation, took the burning fabric in his hands and extinguished the flames.
With the first flash of the film several excitable people started for the exit. A cry of "fire" from the gallery started a few more people toward the safe open air, but in a moment they were assured that they were in no danger and the "headlong rush" and "fire panic" was at an end.
The San Francisco Call, San Francisco, mardi 7 septembre 1897, p. 8.
Le Biograph (The Orpheum, <24> octobre 1897)
Le Biograh propose des vues animées en octobre à l'Orpheum :
The Orpheum.
The "American Biograph,' which is evidently some new improvement of the vitascope, is one of the new attractions for the Orpheum. It will display "McKinley at Home," "How a Young Man Makes Love," "In a Bowery Cafe," and a dozen and more other scenes. Mlle. Ortasang and her troupe of trained cockatoos will execute novel tricks, and Miss Edna Collins will whistle new selections. Miss Collins is decidedly an artist. Ola Hayden will continue to sing "A Hot Time," assisted by the cake-walk chorus, but her other numbers will be new. Press Eldridge promises to unload another cargo of well-preserved jokes and sing a new song that has been written for him by a local composer, and the Dunus have a new sketch. The Hungarian Boys' band starts on a concert tour next week.
The San Francisco Call and Post, San Francisco, dimanche 24 octobre 1897, p. 27.
1899
Vente d'un kinetoscope parlor (15 juin 1899)
En juin, on met en vente un kinetoscope parlor avec dix appareils :
$250-Edison phonograph and kinetoscope parlor: 10 machines; a good cash business; worth $400. Adress box 2889. Examiner office.
The San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, jeudi 15 juin 1899, p. 11.