Back in the Winter of 2007, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival presented an afternoon program of Vitaphone Vaudeville. The program included nine short films - each released between 1926 and 1930 - starring the likes of George Burns and Gracie Allen, Spencer Tracy, The Mound City Blue Blowers, and others. Each was an entertaining example of the first synchronized-sound-and-image system to meet with commercial success. [Visit the SFSFF program notes archive for additional details.]
Recently, our colleagues at the Library of Congress posted a number of videos on YouTube of even earlier Vaudeville acts. These short silent films, which predate those shown by the SFSFF, feature both people and animals. To contemporary viewers, some of this footage looks a little dated - and the acts little more then novelty numbers. However, to patrons of the Teens and Twenties, this is what passed for swell entertainment. We encourge our readers to take a peek.
Each of the LOC video entries on YouTube are annotated. For example, the above clip features a performer named Karina filmed in New York City in 1902 by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. That's a long time ago!
The annotation goes on to note that "According to ads in the New York Clipper, Karina was a 'French chanteuse eccentrique' and 'creatrice of the Valse Deshabille.' She performed specialty acts, songs, and dances, and was accepting engagements with 'first class vaudeville or burlesque managers.'" Certainly, 108 years later, her artistry has achieved a renown through film never imagined at the turn of the last century.
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