Video Details      

Animal Act



Opens on a closeup of a baboon "playing" a violin, then cuts to a medium shot of the same. The baboon wears a white short-sleeved shirt with a loose bow tie and tweed pants. Cuts to a closeup of the baboon in a circular mask or iris effect, without the violin but with a collar around his neck and a striped kitten that he places on his shoulder. Another iris effect opens to a long shot of a stage with a painted backdrop of a river. Standing at stage left is a woman in a spangled, sleeveless dress to the knee and high laced boots, holding the leash of a dark donkey. The baboon stands center stage, near a man in a white animal trainer suit with dark piping and a white cap. On a chair stage right sits a black and white spotted dog. A series of cuts show the baboon performing various tricks, including roller-skating in a circle around the man, doing a walking handstand, circling the stage atop a large ball, and riding the ball down a ramp with the kitten in his arms. The dog then creates figure-eights through the woman's legs as she walks, and jumps a rope held by the woman and baboon. Cuts to the baboon riding a bicycle in a circle around the man. Cuts to the baboon leading the donkey onstage, and then to the donkey apparently play-biting and kicking two men. The gag of the men trying to mount the donkey--only to be bitten, kicked, or thrown off--is repeated, with one intertitle: "A 100% kick." Ends after the baboon jumps on one man.                                               
 
Download:
 

Video Information
Year: 0
Genre: Historical
Keywords: Circus animals--United States; Baboons--United States; Donkeys--Behavior--United States; Dogs--United States; Silent films; Vaudeville; Animal films and programs; Shorts;
Duration: 00:01:28
Color: No
Sound: No
Amount of Motion: Medium
Language: English
Sponsor: Thomas Edison
Contributing Organization: Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division
Transcript Available: No

Digitization Information
Digitization Date:
Digitizing Organization: Library of Congress

Search for video box
Box bottom
Related Videos box
Box bottom

The Open Video Project is managed at the Interaction Design Laboratory,
at the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill