electrocuting an elephant
fishboy release rock opera / comic / animated website about thomas edison electrocuting an elephant .
this portion of edison' s film electrocuting an elephant is taken from a german television show .
electrocuting an elephant
was a film released by edison in 1903, which captured on film the death by electrocution of topsy, an elephant deemed dangerous after she had killed three men .
fishboy release rock opera / comic / animated website about thomas edison electrocuting an elephant only for the ghost of the elephant to seek its’ revenge. now being released january 20th .
a crowd put at 1, 500 witnessed topsy' s execution, which was filmed by edison and released later that year as electrocuting an elephant .
synopsis: in 1903, on brooklyn’s coney island, thomas edison electrocuted an elephant. moreover, he filmed it, for all to witness. based on historic accounts, edison’s elephant explores the life and death of topsy, the circus elephant who, after much abuse, retaliated against those who harmed her, and who was ultimately executed for her actions—then made the subject of edison’s film electrocuting the elephant .
though if edison wasn' t there in person, he was at least there in dog - electrocuting spirit .
review fix chats with playwright chris van strander who discusses “electrocuting the elephant, ” which is set for its run at the metropolitan playhouse gilded age festival from january 16 - 25 .
check out urltoken for the 10 most shocking animal attacks ever. a freak accident leads to an elephant rescue that quickly turns electrifying .
gets immediately to the point, faded foggy footage of an obedient harmless seeming elephant literally hooked up to electrodes, falling over, writhing & dead .
coney island' s topsy the elephant was by far edison' s biggest victim .
edison’s link to the death of topsy the elephant may not be entirely grounded in reality .
topsy offered an opportunity that edison couldn' t resist. what better way to demonstrate the horrible consequences of alternating current than to roast a full - grown elephant ?
topsy, the famous “baby” elephant, was electrocuted at coney island on january 4, 1903 .
topsy the elephant was electrocuted by thomas edison’s technicians at coney island before a crowd of thousands .
in fall 2014 the band will unveil an elephant: an album and wordless graphic novel about the ghost of topsy, the elephant who was publicly electrocuted by thomas edison in 1903, and her attempts to avenge her death and pass into the afterlife. the results are as if tarantino scrapped a remake of dumbo after commissioning a full soundtrack and storyboards resulting in an unmade supernatural - historical - sci - fi - all - ages - revenge - thriller - rock - opera - comic - book .
critical thinking video series: thomas edison electrocutes topsy the elephant, jan. 4, 1903 - death penalty - urltoken
we see an elephant being led from an enclosure in the middle of what seems to be a construction site. its trunk is bound in a complex harness that almost looks like a bondage garment. the camera pans to follow the elephant and we can see that there are crowds of spectators in the background. after a cut, we see the elephant is strapped in place, apparently roughly in the same place as it was before the edit. suddenly the elephant stiffens, and you can see a puff of smoke from below its feet. after a few moments, it falls slowly over to the left. it twitches a few times on the ground before the end of the movie .
she died almost instantly, and almost took one of the edison technicians with her. he was also electrocuted when he threw the switch. even though she had already been pronounced dead, workers tightened a noose around her neck for ten minutes to make sure. spca doctors on hand pronounced it as the most humane way to kill an animal they had ever seen, and edison had his documentary. the film “electrocuting an elephant” depicted the first actual death on screen, and was seen by audiences across the country. a part of it
synopsis: the execution of topsy, a female elephant, in a publicity stunt advertising the opening of luna park on coney island .
_ _ 1903: _ _ thomas edison stages his highly publicized electrocution of an elephant in order to demonstrate the dangers of alternating current, which, if it posed any immediate danger at all, was to edison' s own direct current .
synopsis: the electrocution of an elephant who had killed three men. / / [ from edison promotional materials ] topsy, the famous “baby” elephant, was electrocuted at coney island on january 4, 1903. we secured an excellent picture of the execution. the scene opens with keeper leading topsy to the place of execution. after copper plates or electrodes were fastened to her feet, 6, 600 volts of electricity were turned on. the elephant is seen to become rigid, throwing her trunk in the air, and then is completely enveloped in smoke from the burning electrodes. the current is cut off and she falls forward to the ground dead .
about an aging film director who is in desperate need of a hit. there are scenes of the cyclone .
charlie is an immigrant who endures a challenging voyage and gets into trouble as soon as he arrives in america .
described in the chicago tribune as
the original baby elephant ,
edison reportedly agreed to put down the giant after it had killed three men .
in the aftermath of the gruesome event, westinghouse commented ,
they could have done better with an ax .
update: fishboy’s new album an elephant is now being issued on january 20th, 2015. the record has had a series of delays from faulty test pressings, bad color vinyl issues, and two broken stampers. the record is currently in production, but the new date has been set .
when a murder occurs on an ocean liner docked in new york, the trail leads to coney island and a spy ring .
edison is not mentioned in any of the numerous contemporaneous newspaper accounts of the killing of topsy. nor is there any evidence that officials of luna park, the spca, or the brooklyn illuminating co. consulted him on the case. it is also unlikely that he was personally involved in producing the film “electrocuting an elephant, ” even though the title bears his name. although he was the president of the edison manufacturing co. , which, among other things, oversaw the film company, day - to - day operations were in the hands of the vice president and general manager william e. gilmore .
shots are speeded up, blurry, distorted; the music rises in an industrialist beat shifting into happy carny sounds shifting into suspense notes .
thomas edison believed that future executions by ac current would go more smoothly, “without the scene at auburn today. ” to further demonstrate the lethal nature of alternating current, he held a widely attended spectacle in coney island, new york, where a circus elephant named topsy was to be executed after she was deemed to be too dangerous to be around people. the elephant had killed three men in recent years—one a trainer who had tried to feed topsy a lit cigarette. edison had topsy fitted with copper - wire sandals, and before a crowd of thousands, an ac current of 6, 000 volts was sent coursing through the elephant until she toppled to her side, dead .
the background story for this terrible footage is that topsy, an elephant who literally helped to build coney island as a working animal, had killed three men in as many years. they had in one way or another abused her; the third fed her a burning cigarette as though it were a peanut, burning her sensitive trunk .
this short actuality from edison is a fairly unpleasant film, which will upset some viewers. fair warning: it does depict the actual death of an animal. it also has been frequently misinterpreted by modern viewers, and therefore is an important part of our study of the history of movies .
because it shows mainly only the lights it' s like an outline of coney island, patterns in bright white against black, & quite pretty .
topsy, the famous
baby
elephant, was electrocuted at coney island on january 4, 1903. we secured an excellent picture of the execution. the scene opens with keeper leading topsy to the place of execution. after copper plates or electrodes were fastened to her feet, 6, 600 volts of electricity were turned on. the elephant is seen to become rigid, throwing her trunk in the air, and then is completely enveloped in smoke from the burning electrodes. the current is cut off and she falls forward to the ground dead .
as the story goes, edison found his target in topsy, a murderous circus elephant that was slated for death. but as is so often the case, that tale is not quite so simple .
an aging doorman, after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbours and society .
( 1903). these two films really do portray orphans, so there' s an underlying sadness even to the sweetness of these films of children .
the shortest possible answer is that he didn' t, at least not directly. thomas edison, one of the giants of american history, is often credited (or more accurately, maligned) with using electricity to kill an elephant as part of a publicity stunt. edison may have been a flawed man, but he probably had nothing to do with elephant murder, although a cursory glance at his background makes it easy to see why many people attribute this act of cruelty to him. the story begins — and ends — with darkness, both literal and figurative .
as an elegant maestro of mirage and delusion drapes his beautiful female assistant with a gauzy textile, much to our amazement, the lady vanishes into thin air .
soviet montage theory is an approach to understanding and creating cinema that relies heavily upon editing (montage is french for
assembly
or
editing
) .
as the camera looks down an open road, a horse and carriage approaches, and passes by to one side of the field of view. soon afterwards, an automobile comes up the road, straight towards the camera. as it gets nearer, the occupants start to wave frantically, but can a collision be avoided ?
westinghouse was horrified by the reports of kemmler’s execution. “it has been a brutal affair, ” he said. “they could have done better with an ax. ”
an elephant will be self - released as a traditional vinyl lp and as 5. 5×5. 5” 160 page read - along comic that will be specially formatted, animated, and posted online in the weeks leading up to its physical release. the album is currently available to stream and pre - order through the band’s website and includes a direct pdf download of the entire book .
the execution of topsy, a female elephant, in a publicity stunt advertising the opening of luna park on coney island. topsy was originally owned by forepaugh circus where she killed a... see full summary »
there is no evidence that edison had anything to do with topsy' s electrocution. michael daly' s book on the subject and the rutgers edison archive point out that the means of execution were decided by thompson and dundy, and the details handled by the park electrician and the local power company called
edison
( that' s con - ed, not thomas alva). edison was a brand name at that point, so the power companies and even the film company that bore his name were not run by him. edison was definitely never at luna park and it looks like the local story
did you know in 1903 edison (con - ed) electrocuted an elephant ?
has morphed over the years into
in 1903 thomas alva edison electrocuted an elephant
.
first of all: it wasn' t edison who sentenced this poor elephant to death it wasn' t edison who abused the elephant it wasn' t edison who made the public bloodthirsty edison' s involvement with the execution of the elephant is by providing the equipment and then filming the event. so making use of two of his
inventions
. that he also makes a profit off the fate of the elephant has to be blamed to the nature of humankind that is still eager to see extreme violence. i only have to mention the success of the faces of death movies and you see that nothing has changed in 100 years. what about the movie which in fact is a documentary or rather a newsflash. the filming is accurate en there is some historic significance. so it is important that this movie still exist and shows us a world where cruelty on animals (and human beings) was still a public affair .
rube & amp; mandy at coney island. 1903 coney island at night. 1905 director: edwin s. porter meet me down at coney island. 1930 director: louis de rochemont coney island. 1939 director: william castle coney island, usa. 1952 director: valentine shevy orphans in the surf. 1903 director: g. w. bitzer baby class at lunch. 1903 great fire ruins coney island. 1903 director: alfred c. abadie shooting the chutes at luna park. 1903 director: william heise' king' & amp;' queen' the great diving horses. 1899 around the flip flap railroad. 1902 director: frederick s. armitage a total accident. 1903 director: wallace mccutcheon little egypt. 1897 the aeriel slide at coney island. 1897 electrocuting an elephant. 1903 directors: unknown
topsy the elephant was electrocuted at luna park zoo on coney island in 1903. captured on film by thomas edison, the event was one of a string of animal electrocutions edison staged to discredit a new form of electricity: alternating current .
the execution of topsy, a female elephant, in a publicity stunt advertising the opening of luna park on coney island. topsy was originally owned by forepaugh circus where she killed a drunken spectator who burned the tip of her trunk with a cigar. she was sold to sea lion park in 1902 which was then sold to new owners who turned it into luna park. after they decided they could no longer handle her, the owners of luna park announced they would hang topsy, leading to an outcry by the aspca. the owners then decided they would electrocute the elephant, with a backup plan of feeding her cyanide - laced carrots and strangling her with a cable .
the movie is about an elderly couple struggling to survive in a decaying neighborhood, and are terrorized by gangs. during the opening credit, the thunderbolt can be seen in the background .
but was edison to blame? did he have anything to do with the execution of topsy? the answer is an emphatic “no. ” topsy was sentenced to death by luna park officials after she had killed three men over a three - month period. that she had, under the goading of her drunken handler, menaced the local police and some workmen likely also influenced amusement park officials in their decision to rid themselves of the elephant .
it is worth noting that none of edison’s extant correspondence from the period mentions topsy or the electrocution of an elephant at coney island or in any other way links edison to the execution. and none directs gilmore or the edison manufacturing co. to make a film of the event. in fact, the correspondence between edison and gilmore during january and february 1903 (there is none from december of the previous year) chiefly concerns patents for phonograph speakers .
, the 2013 film that vilified seaworld for use of captive orcas. many in the theme park community have attacked the movie as a hit piece, while others in the anti - animal captivity community used it as a call to arms. but for all the discussion and passion that the movie generated, history tells us that this issue is as old as the industry itself. if told completely, this story shines a different kind of light on the culture of the times, and also on an iconic figure in american history. once upon a time, a 110 years before blackfish and tilikum there was another movie, and an elephant named topsy .
edison got his big chance, though, when the luna park zoo at coney island decided that topsy, a cranky female elephant who had squashed three handlers in three years (including one idiot who tried feeding her a lighted cigarette), had to go .
early movies by edison manufacturing, american mutoscope and biograph were were five minute one - reel shorts that were travelogues or silly comedies, and they often depicted an amusement ride or scene at the beach .
brash nyc policeman partnered with stiff by - the - book officer and assigned to protect an important mafia witness against organized crime in brooklyn. reported to be a lot of coney island scenes? ? ?
constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in russia beginning in 1919 and was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. the movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes .
film - noir about a sweet girl whose new husband (jagger) may be a murderer. mitchum is her ex - boyfriend. shows short clips of the human pool table and a scene from an unknown coaster .
infamous short of luna park' s rogue elephant being electrocuted in january 1903 during construction of the park. edison filmed various animals being electrocuted to show how dangerous his rival' s ac current was, and to scare potential customers into not allowing anything but his safer dc current into their homes .
she was initially fed poisoned carrots but it wasn' t sufficient to kill her, so publicity - hound thomas alva edison (who can be seen
fearlessly
leading the unwary elephant) volunteered personally to kill her horrifically, having already gotten his jollies killing dogs & cats by this method .
edison at the time was engaged in his own free - for - all, battling nikola tesla and george westinghouse for control of america' s electric infrastructure. edison had declared that his direct current system was safe, but that tesla and westinghouse' s alternating current was a deadly menace. to prove it, edison had been publicly electrocuting dogs and cats for years. and it was edison who had convinced new york to use tesla and westinghouse' s
deadly
ac for its electric chair .
vitascope was an early film projector first demonstrated in 1895 by charles francis jenkins and thomas armat. they had made modifications to jenkins patented
phantoscope
, which cast images via film & electric light onto a wall or screen .
electricity will kill a man “in the ten - thousandth part of a second, ” edison told one reporter shortly after the demonstration, and he was quick to remind him that “the current should come from an alternating machine. ”
but topsy had a temper. she killed three men in three years, the last a drunk trainer who had fed her a lit cigarette. topsy had to go. but how? the authorities fed her carrots laced with cyanide. she wolfed them down without effect. topsy was one tough elephant .
catastrophe of william gordon in an attempt to ride a loop - the - loop ramp on a bicycle. as he neared the bottom after circling the loop, the wheel swerved into the framework. the injured man was carried away .
one attraction is a pig sliding board orchestrated by a clown, & an act with an ornery donkey before the horses do their serious act with stunt - rider. carnival rides get some attention including a cool looking chance to ride about in big toy biplanes .
shoot - the - chutes
for a dime, this was still one of the coolest rides at coney island, & this time we get to see what it looks like from inside one of the boats .
the skipper is a charming old man loved by all his neighbors. unknown to them, he is an amateur conterfeiter who eluded the secret service of 20 years. scenes at coney island where the old man rides the coaster with two kids .
in a medium close - up shot of the first kiss ever recorded on screen, two fervent lovers cuddle and talk passionately at hair' s breadth, just before the love - smitten gentleman decides to give his chosen one an innocent peck .
the sound has been found in the form of an old edisonian recording cylinder. the cylinder was repaired, then walter murch ace mpse synced the film to the correct music in (i believe) 2002. total running time is approximately 17 seconds .
an early motion picture device, invented by winsor mccay and later patented by herman casler on november 21, 1894. like thomas edison' s kinetoscope it did not project on a screen, and provided viewing to only one person at a time .
killing a 10 - foot tall, three - ton elephant in 1903 wasn’t a simple proposition, let alone doing so in a quick and humane way. they didn’t have a gun big enough to quickly do the job, and even though it had been done to other elephants before, the idea of hanging her was thrown out .
young doctor abandons his jewish ghetto neighborhood, family, and friends to join park avenue set and make big money. there is a long shot of an unknown coaster, and a few seconds of a shot of a man and woman riding on the coaster .
articles: “”wait till the next one! ” newsweek, february 11, 2007. urltoken creating jobs” by steve lohr, new york times, january 12, 1997. “steve jobs and bill gates: it’s complicated” by jay greene, cnet news, microsoft, august 24, 2011. “coney elephant killed” new york times, january 6, 1903 .
despite lawyers hired by westinghouse arguing that the method was blatantly a cruel and unusual punishment, an axe murdered named william kemmler would be nominated to be the state' s guinea pig, with edison testifying in court that the death of anyone who was
westinghoused
would be painless .
new york stenographer meets an englishman and falls in love. she discovers he is a duke' s son and already engaged. she confides in her reporter friend who publicizes her as the' no girl', so she cashes in her notority and becomes a cafe entertainer. scenes at luna park? ?
purportedly, as the war of the currents came to an end, edison opted for one last stand in hopes of swaying the public that his dc standard was safer and better than ac. his hope was that a widely reported spectacle might stop ac from spreading and instead make dc the current of the future .
in june 1888, edison began to demonstrate the lethal power of alternating current for reporters. he rigged a sheet of tin to an ac dynamo and led a dog onto the tin to drink from a metal pan. once the dog touched the metal surface, it yelped and“the little cur dog fell dead. ”
story of an aloof jewish intellectual who after hiding from the nazis during world war ii, settles in coney island in 1949. he is married, but is fooling around with a sexy married woman. several of the long shots show the cyclone and thunderbolt coasters. there are also several closeups of the flat rides at astroland .
pre - dating true narrative, the films simply show the progress of a vehicle moving forwards, usually shot by strapping a cameraman to the front. the term phantom ride was applied because the position of the camera meant that only the track and scenery could be seen and the movement appeared to be coming from an invisible force .
in a letter to edison, he wrote ,
i believe there has been a systemic attempt on the part of some people to do a great deal of mischief and create as great a difference as possible between the edison company and the westinghouse electric co. , when there ought to be an entirely different condition of affairs .
a gang of thieves lure a man out of his home so that they can rob it and threaten his wife and children. the family barricade themselves in an interior room, but the criminals are well - equipped for breaking in. when the father finds out what is happening, he must race against time to get back home .
now, you can find various places on the internet that blame thomas edison for the death of this elephant. these claims are inaccurate, and result from poor historical study. having heard that edison waged a war against alternating current that inflated its dangers and suggested that people would be electrocuted by it, they have concluded that this movie was part of that campaign. it is not. the “war of the currents” was over for more than ten years by the time this was produced, and alternating current was already the standard at edison’s remaining plants at the time. because of the early date of the war of the currents, no movies were produced to support it. the movie “ pan - american exposition at night ” depicts a display of alternating current lights one year before this movie was made. in short, this movie represents a tragic execution of an animal in no way at fault for its inability to get along with human beings after they had systematically mistreated her, and it exploits the pain of that animal for purposes of spectacle, but thomas edison did not use it to make an argument regarding alternating current .
books: mark essig, edison & the electric chair, walker and company, 2003. craig brandon, the electric chair: an unnatural american history, mcfarland & company, inc. , 1999. gilbert king, the execution of willie francis: race, murder, and the search for justice in the american south, basic civitas books, 2008 .
he was so dedicated to discrediting westinghouse and tesla that he took a sheet of tin, poured water on it then attached it to an ac power source. in front of reporters he had invited to his lab, he had a dog try and drink the water, the animal falling over dead as soon at its mouth came in contact with the electrified metal .
throughout it retains an air of the macabre, weird dolls & mannequins, shouting barkers, eerie angles of whirling rides like the virginia wheel & the cyclone, the screaming of frightened funseekers, hairy arms tearing tickets, the promise of being half - killed, humanity swarming like insects as henry morgan narrates with venomous irony ,
you & i in the sun, you & i alone .
any normal human being will be repulsed by what they see on this short and badly deteriorated film. the elephant’s questionable ‘murderous’ behaviour doesn’t really justify her electrocution. she’s docile enough as she’s led to her death, suggesting she’s no rogue. despite the graininess of the picture, the viewer can easily identify the moment the poor animal is zapped by the way her huge body stiffens. a second later, smoke rises from around her feet and a few seconds after that she topples to the ground. that’s entertainment, folks .
a young wife and her musician husband live in poverty in a new york city tenement. the husband' s job requires him to go away for for a number of days. on his return, he is robbed by the neighborhood gangster. sometime later, an unrelated mob shoot - out ensues. the husband happens upon the melee, recognizing the crook who robbed him. can the husband retrieve his money ?
the execution took place on a dreary jan. 4. topsy was dosed with poison, and a rope was put around her neck. electricians from the local electric company fitted two of the elephant’s feet with electrodes to administer the shock. once the switch was flipped, it took just ten seconds before topsy fell over and died. the new bedford mercury reported that the spca officers present had said that “they had never seen a more humane manner of causing death, ” though they likely had very little real understanding of the effects of electrocution in spite of the experiments edison had done .
when new york state sentenced convicted murderer william kemmler to death, he was slated to become the first man to be executed in an electric chair. killing criminals with electricity “is a good idea, ” edison said at the time. “it will be so quick that the criminal can’t suffer much. ” he even introduced a new word to the american public, which was becoming more and more concerned by the dangers of electricity. the convicted criminals would be “westinghoused. ”
edison’s elephant cast includes: lynn berg (how i learned to drive, batz. film: a day’s messing and the clean up), kevin orton (sir peter hall’s amadeus, uncle vanya), wendy merritt (my first lady, game changers), alyssa simon (film: they will outlive us all, off - b’way: purchase, my first lady), cj trentacosta (bergenpac’s 42nd street. film: life in a box) john thomas waite (broadway: dracula, amadeus. off broadway: the fantasticks), rik walter (k comma joseph, “30 rock, ” “law and order”) with sean gough on piano .
also, while this might not have been crystal clear, i don' t recall saying that edison was ever present for this event. the fact remains though that an edison company carried out the execution, using means of execution invented by and marketed by edison, and it was filmed and distributed by edison' s film company. where in this chain is edison not a party? i find it hard to believe that a guy who was a) highly active with his companies, and b) whose name is on the sign (s) bears no responsibility whatsoever .
viewed from the lagoon, we see boats launched from the top of the slide, racing downward, & shooting across the water. boats would eventually be hooked to a lift & ratcheted to the top of the slide for another go. what a great ride, looks like a wonderful way to get killed too. (as an aside, captain paul boyton who designed the chutes also built one at the world' s columbia exhibition in chicago in 1893, & sold the design to be built again at fulton street park built along the same plan, opened in 1895. )
this whole release was a mistake from day 1 in this format. aside a few people who can afford to give that much money for it, it should never have been printed on a thousand copy run. . 200 copies for this format would be more than enough to cover the needs of those willing to pay for it, and the rest should have been on cd' s or even an lp edition normaly priced. now you have about 10 - 13 people selling it here on discogs, and it will eventually climb down it' s initial price tag, just wait and see .
edison’s “experience” with the matter and his standing as an authority on electricity prompted thompson and dundy to call. even though the current war was over, he apparently for one reason or another couldn’t resist the opportunity to demonstrate the “dangers” of ac one more time…this time on the largest land animal in the world. some say he was still fighting the war in his own mind, others say edison still harbored a grudge from the loss and participated out of vindictiveness. whichever the case, he signed on to do it, and he would document the whole thing with another one of his inventions, the movie camera .
box set limited to 1000 copies. the
passage to rhodesia
cd is housed in a book of photos and lyrics along with a second cd of exclusive material titled
house of stone
, and a dvd attached to the back page. also included in this set is a 10
picture disc with two exclusive tracks, a certificate signed and hand - numbered by jérôme reuter, an envelope with postcards, a coin and two posters. the interview with jérôme reuter was filmed on location in rome, italy, in the summer of 2013. video production company: solobuio visual factory authoring dvd: goffredo passi - gp visual arts
15. apocalypse now (1979) there are few sights more horrifying than a corpulent marlon brando in a black muumuu, but the ritual slaughter of a water buffalo at the climax of apocalypse now wins by an arterial squirt. the buffalo was already marked for ritual sacrifice by the indigenous tribe cast as the disciples of brando’s gone - native colonel kurtz, and the argument was that it would have been hacked to death whether or not the cameras were rolling. but director francis ford coppola is well aware of the shock value of watching a living creature fall apart like soft butter under the tribe’s blades, given that he uses it as a visual stand - in for what’s happening to the barely seen brando as his assassin attacks with a similar machete .
this selection of 55 “actuality” films is drawn from the library of congress’s paper print collection, an archive that includes hundreds of early films shot by edison and biograph cameramen on the streets of new york around the start of the 20th century, as the movies themselves were being born. begun in 1896, these short, documentary - like films contain no plots, no stories, and no characters – such things having not yet been invented – but are instead real - time glimpses of actual events, people, and places. primitive yet powerful, the films show not staged scenes but real life, the people in them not actors but ordinary new yorkers, going about their daily business, utterly unaware they are being captured forever by this new and magical medium .
within a year, westinghouse electric began installing its own ac generators around the country, focusing mostly on the less populated areas that edison’s system could not reach. but westinghouse was also making headway in cities like new orleans, selling electricity at a loss in order to cut into edison’s business. by 1887, after only a year in the business, westinghouse had already more than half as many generating stations as edison. the concern at edison was palpable, as sales agents around the country were demoralized by westinghouse’s reach into rural and suburban areas. but thomas edison had an idea. surely westinghouse’s system must be more dangerous, what with all that voltage passing through the wires. “just as certain as death, ” edison predicted, “westinghouse will kill a customer within 6 months after he puts in a system of any size. ”
in november 1887, edison received a letter from a dentist in buffalo, new york, who was trying to develop a more humane method of execution than hanging. having witnessed a drunk man accidentally kill himself by touching a live electric generator, alfred p. southwick became convinced that electricity could provide a quicker, less painful alternative for criminals condemned to death. perhaps the wizard of menlo park might have some thoughts about the best electric current “to produce death with certainty in all cases. ” edison, who opposed capital punishment, at first declined to get involved with southwick’s project. but when the dentist persisted, edison, recognizing the opportunity that had landed in his lap, wrote back to say that although he would “join heartily in an effort to totally abolish capital punishment, ” he did have some thoughts about electric currents in which to dispose of “criminals under sentence of death. ”
westinghouse was livid. he faced millions of dollars in losses if edison’s propaganda campaign convinced the public that his ac current would be lethal to homeowners. westinghouse contributed $ 100, 000 toward legal fees for kemmler’s appeal to the u. s. supreme court, where it was argued that death in the electric chair amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. both kemmler and westinghouse were unsuccessful, and on august 6, 1890, kemmler was strapped into harold brown’s chair at auburn prison and wired to an ac dynamo. when the current hit him, kemmler’s fist clenched so tight that blood began to trickle from his palm down the arm of the chair. his face contorted, and after 17 seconds, the power was shut down. arthur southwick, “the father of the electric chair, ” was in attendance and proclaimed to the witnesses, “this is the culmination of ten years work and study. we live in a higher civilization today. ”
when thomas edison, the so - called wizard of menlo who was always quick to claim the credit for his underlings’ toil and to fiercely crush any competitor who threatened to diminish the profits he expected to make from his staff’s labours, heard about the plan to kill topsy, he promptly offered the use of his technicians to manage the public execution, for which the circus owners planned to sell tickets at 25 cents a head. you might wonder why edison would make such an offer. well, he was in the middle of a titanic tussle with george westinghouse who, with former edison assistant nicolas tesla, had devised a system of alternating current to rival edison’s own direct current. edison was waging a concerted campaign to discredit alternating current, falsely claiming that it was vastly more dangerous than his own direct current, and so he ensured that the current that coursed through topsy’s body was ac in order to associate the animal’s unpleasant death with westinghouse’s rival system .
the point of photogénie is entirely visual. it can' t be reduced to words. in other words, what you can do is point at it, point it out, but you can' t define it. however, to define it by circling around it, the quickest thing is to say that - - when something' s photographed - - one view would be that you just copy it. it' s exactly as it looks in real life. the other view would be: no, that' s not true; it' s transformed. and it' s transformed in a way that is both creative and revelatory in the sense that it' s not just distorting something but revealing elements to it, you know? that' s the idea. it' s the way that a photograph or a film transforms what it films or photographs, and transforms it in a way that reveals aspects of it - - not just viewpoints of it - - but a sense of texture, a sense of form, and so on, which you might not notice if you look at it in real life. giving an object meaning through film
a growing source of silent era film information. this listing is from the progressive silent film list by carl bennett. copyright © 1999 - 2018 by carl bennett and the silent era company. all rights reserved .
edison manufacturing company production; distributed by edison manufacturing company. / © 12 january 1903 by thomas a. edison [ h26890 ]. released january 1903. / standard 35mm spherical 1. 33: 1 format. / the production was shot 4 january 1903 at luna park, coney island, new york .
references: everson - american pp. 20 - 21; kerr - silent p. 17; leyda - before pp. 81, 109: website - afi .
the following list, which includes the film title, studio, date, and director (d), or cameraman (c), links to the library of congress
american memory
website, which allows users to download the entire film or watch it online. (a few of them link to the internet movie database) .
, biograph, 1906, d wallace mccutcheon, c g. w. bitzer
east side urchins bathing in a fountain, edison, 1903, c edwin s. porter
, edison, 1905, d edwin s. porter, c edwin s. porter
, biograph, 1904, d wallace mccutcheon, c g. w. bitzer
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as the 19th century turned into the 20th, one of the biggest attractions at coney island' s
luna park
was its private herd of elephants, which roamed freely. a favorite was topsy, a three - ton tusker whose great strength had been put to use building the attractions that made coney island so much fun .
thompson & dundy, who owned luna park, decided to turn topsy into a moral issue - - and to make a profit at the same time. they announced that man - killer topsy would be publicly hanged for her crimes. the aspca protested: hanging was cruel and inhuman punishment. after all, hadn' t new york state just replaced the gallows with a modern electric chair ?
all right, said thompson and dundy. coney island has a powerful electrical plant - - we' ll fry topsy! but to pull it off, they needed top - shelf technical support. and that' s where thomas edison came in .
edison sent over a crack team of technicians - - and a film crew. topsy was led to a special platform, the cameras were set rolling, the switch was thrown. it took only ten seconds. edison later showed the film to audiences across the country to prove his point .
in the end, it made no difference. ac beat out dc, but both edison and westinghouse prospered (tesla did not). in fact, westinghouse was awarded the edison medal for
meritorious achievements in the development of the alternating current system .
that wasn' t much consolation to topsy, who was dead, nor to luna park, which was eventually destroyed in a horrible fire. today, nothing remains of either except for edison' s film. if you ask the folks at the coney island museum, they' ll show it to you .
( topsy had been largely forgotten - - except perhaps as a scene of out - of - context horror in the 1979 mr. mike' s mondo video - - until ric burns' 1991 coney island film documented and recounted the grisly details. )
coney island - sideshows by the seashore, brooklyn, ny - < 1 mi .
a & w; root beer statues, brooklyn, ny - < 1 mi .
stories, reports and tips on tourist attractions and odd sights in new york .
strange and amusing destinations in the us and canada are our specialty. start here. use urltoken' s attraction maps to plan your next road trip .
trip planning caution: urltoken offers maps, directions and attraction details as a convenience, providing all information as is. attraction status, hours and prices change without notice; call ahead !
credits, media / business inquiries © copyright 1996 - 2018 doug kirby, ken smith, mike wilkins. all rights reserved. no portion of this document may be reproduced, copied or revised without written permission of the authors .
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luna park management initially planned to hang topsy. but the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals objected, claiming that this method of execution was unnecessarily cruel. to meet these objections, park officials, with the approval of the spca, subsequently decided to use a combination of poisoning, strangulation, and electrocution .
while edison had nothing to do with the decision to euthanize topsy and took no part in the proceedings, the spca’s understanding of electrocution as a humane means of dispatching animals was certainly influenced by experiments edison and his associates had made at his west orange laboratory during the late 1880s. edison was prompted to conduct experiments on animals after spca founder henry bergh, jr. , contacted him to ask whether electrocution might provide a humane way of killing unwanted animals. during these experiments, edison and his assistants electrocuted a number of animals, chiefly dogs provided by the spca .
these experiments at edison’s west orange laboratory did convince spca officials that electrocution was a more humane and efficient way of euthanizing animals than either drowning (in the case of dogs) or hanging (in the case of other animals). edison associates had also used the results of this laboratory research during the battle of the currents (1886 - 1892) to demonstrate that ac was more dangerous than dc. these experiments were also undertaken at the behest of a commission established by the state of new york to find a more humane method of executing criminals and led to the institution of the electric chair as a common method of execution in the united states. however, the efforts by edison and his company to disparage the westinghouse system failed as a competitive strategy because ac proved to be more efficient for transmitting electricity over large distances .
once luna park officials had decided that electrocution would be used on topsy, they required the cooperation of the local electric power company— the edison electric illuminating co. of brooklyn, which under the supervision of electrician p. d. sharkey provided technical assistance and 6, 600 volts of power relayed from new general electric ac generators in nearby bay ridge. like so many local illuminating companies across the united states, the brooklyn company used the edison name because it originally employed the edison system of electric power generation under license from the edison electric light co. of new york. in most cases, edison had no personal role in the formation or direction of these companies. in 1903, he played no role in the direction of the edison electric illuminating co. of brooklyn, which in any case was acting at the behest of officials at luna park in conjunction with the spca .
it is sometimes said that edison had the film made to further dramatize the dangers of the alternating current system. it was, according to this canard, all part of the longstanding publicity campaign to discredit ac and promote edison’s own preference, direct current. but the film could have borne no relation to this so - called “battle of the currents, ” which had ended more than a decade earlier. very likely the film company decided to document the electrocution of topsy because it was of interest to the public.
electrocuting an elephant ( also known as electrocution of an elephant ) is a 1903 american , short , black-and-white , silent documentary film of the killing of the elephant topsy by electrocution at a coney island amusement park . it was produced by the edison film company ( part of the edison manufacturing company ) and is believed to have been shot by edwin s. porter or jacob blair smith . 
electrocuting an elephant (also known as electrocution of an elephant) is a 1903 american, short, black-and-white, silent documentary film of the killing of the elephant topsy by electrocution at a coney island amusement park. it was produced by the edison film company (part of the edison manufacturing company) and is believed to have been shot by edwin s. porter or jacob blair smith.
electrocuting an elephant (also known as electrocution of an elephant) is a 1903 american, short, black-and-white, silent documentary film of the killing of the elephant topsy by electrocution at a coney island amusement park. it was produced by the edison film company (part of the edison manufacturing company) and is believed to have been shot by edwin s. porter or jacob blair smith.