George S. Fleming
Directing
Biography
George S. Fleming was an American actor, director, and scenic designer active in the early 20th century. In January 1901, he joined the Edison Manufacturing Company as it opened its new rooftop studio on East Twenty-First Street in New York City. Fleming frequently collaborated with Edwin S. Porter, contributing to several early films. Notably, he co-directed What Happened on Twenty-third Street, New York City (1901), a short film that humorously depicts a woman's skirt being lifted by a gust of air from a sidewalk grate. This scene is considered an early example of cinematic humor and voyeurism. Fleming's work during this formative period of cinema helped lay the groundwork for narrative storytelling in film.
Known For
Porter's sequential continuity editing links several shots to form a narrative of the famous fairy tale story of Jack and his magic beanstalk. Borrowing on cinematographic methods reminiscent of 'Georges Melies' , Porter uses animation, double exposure, and trick photography to illustrate the fairy's apparitions, Jack's dream, and the fast growing beanstalk.
Jack and the Beanstalk
Our presidential hunter runs across the landscape and falls down in the snow, gets up with his rifle, and gazes upward at a treed animal which isn't in the camera's view. He fires a shot into the tree, then leaps on the ground to grab the fallen prey, a domestic cat, finishing it off with wild blows of his hunting knife while his companions, a photographer and a press agent, record the event that will be reported far and wide as a manly moment. Teddy then rides out of the forest followed by two companions afoot, never mind that they all originally arrived afoot. Perhaps it was funnier in its day than it is now, but apparently shooting cats was regarded as funny in those days. The larger point was to use a minor whimsy as a political criticism, in this case of Teddy Roosevelt's easy manipulations of the press. It was based on two frames of a political cartoon that had appeared in the paper a mere week before the film was made.
Terrible Teddy, the Grizzly King
An old maid is walking about the studio while the photographer is getting his camera ready. She first looks at a hanger, which immediately falls from the wall, not being able to stand her gaze. Then she looks at the clock, and her face causes it to fall to the floor with a crash. She then walks over to the mirror, which suddenly cracks in several places. The photographer then poses her. Just as he is to press the button the camera explodes with a great puff of smoke, completely destroying the camera and demolishing the studio. The picture finishes up with the old maid tipping back in her chair and losing her balance, displaying a large quantity of fancy lace goods. Cross-dressed Gilbert Saroni reprises the role of the old maid.