Athlete With Wand (1894) The title is pretty much what you get in this Edison film. This is a rather interesting film on many levels because of the history behind it.
Another very early short by William Dickson, in his mid-30s at this point, shows an athlete wearing a white skirt and long pants showing us a couple tricks with his wand. If this was a Méliès film, the wand would have spat out a couple rabbits or stars or something else magical.
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People who criticize "Athlete with Wand" as being boring clearly do not see the actual point of this brief shot. No, the athlete was not a professional performer who had his performance filmed for publicity like Edison did later the same year, and the act he puts on for the camera here wasn't meant to be entertaining.
This brief footage provides a glimpse into a developmental stage of early cinema, in that it preserves what was understood to be a practice feature made by the Edison Company, in preparation for filming some popular acts in their 'Black Maria' studio. The material itself is largely bland, but it contains a dash of ironic humor, whether it was intentional or not.
The athlete shows some great flexibility here! ...
W.K.
Like I said in title, I am not sure that this guy is any kind of real athletete, nor he is doing anything special. But review Snow Leopard in his review said that '' The point of the movie was not the gymnastic routine, which in itself is neither difficult or interesting.
