The Martyred Presidents

The Martyred Presidents
The Martyred Presidents
	Title card for film
Directed by	Edwin S. Porter
Starring	See below
Cinematography	Edwin S. Porter
Release date	1901
Running time	1 minute
Country	United States
Language	English

The Martyred Presidents is a 1901 American film directed by Edwin S. Porter.

Plot summary

The film, just over a minute long, is composed of two shots. In the first, a girl sits at the base of an altar or tomb, her face hidden from the camera. At the center of the altar, a viewing portal displays the portraits of three U.S. Presidents—Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, and William McKinley—each victims of assassination.

In the second shot, which runs just over eight seconds long, an assassin kneels at the feet of Lady Justice.

Production

Evocative of early magic lantern and Phantasmagoria shows, The Martyred Presidents is part of a cycle of films made by the Edison Studios to chronicle the McKinley assassination in Buffalo, New York at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition.^[1] An Edison catalog from the time suggests to exhibitors that The Martyred Presidents be used as a closing tableau when "...shown in connection with the funeral ceremonies of the illustrious McKinley."^[2]

Notes

^ Musser, Charles (Autumn 1979). "The Early Cinema of Edwin Porter". Cinema Journal. 19 (1): 16–17.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
^ "The martyred presidents / Thomas A. Edison, Inc". Retrieved 9 March 2013.

External links

The Martyred Presidents at IMDb
The Martyred Presidents is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive

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[1] Musser, Charles (Autumn 1979). "The Early Cinema of Edwin Porter". Cinema Journal. 19 (1): 16–17.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: year (link)

[2] "The martyred presidents / Thomas A. Edison, Inc". Retrieved 9 March 2013.

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