It's clearly Jean on the far right and Clara in the middle. It's a handsome 
young fellow with a shock of hair, not Ashcroft, who brings Clara her hat. 
It was filmed aiming the camera east toward the rear slope (toward 
Redding)--the profile of a tree top between the columns matches a tree seen 
in other photos of that spot, besides some smaller details. I wonder if the 
hat-bringer was Ossip? I'll have to make some comparisons. He was around in 
late 1909, at least until he and Clara left after their October wedding. I 
have pre-1910 photos of him and he had a shock of hair like that before male 
pattern baldness set in. But not quite his profile at first glance.

I have several versions of the film and at least one is not flipped. In at 
least one version on youtube, the tea-sipping scene is not flipped. Besides 
Twain's vest buttons, the window placements give it away as being flipped.

Although Jean and Isabel had once been cordial, they were not sipping tea 
together in late 1909 --Isabel had been fired in the Spring (April?) and 
later "evicted" from the Lobster Pot. Read the newspaper accounts and 
allegations being made at the time. Lots of high drama but no high teas.

I have the original first Stormfield guestbook, and a good copy of the 
second made by Twain's lawyer (the original is at Hartford), and I don't 
recall any Edison crews being in those pages, but not everybody signed the 
guestbook(s) and they could be recorded merely as names with no 
identification. I do think if Thomas Edison himself had shown up he would 
have been asked to sign the guestbook and his visit would have been 
otherwise recorded, and he and Twain would likely have been filmed or at 
least photographed together, like others of note who came to visit (Keller, 
Howells, Laura Hawkins Frazer, various angelfish, Paine, Coburn, Henderson, 
Whitmore, Eliz. Wallace).

Kevin
@
Mac Donnell Rare Books
9307 Glenlake Drive
Austin TX 78730
512-345-4139
Member: ABAA, ILAB
*************************
You may browse our books at
www.macdonnellrarebooks.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Arianne" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, September 09, 2013 3:33 PM
Subject: Re: The only known MT film footage


>I also read somewhere that the ladies at the table weren't Jean and Clara,
> but Jean and Isabel Lyon.  Not sure which caption is correct.  Please
> advise.
> Have you actually seen the correct movie?  I didn't know one could be
> "flipped."
> Arianne Laidlaw
> Sacramento
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 9, 2013 at 6:36 AM, Kevin Mac Donnell <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Interesting that this video is flipped just like the one on youtube, and 
>> it
>> makes me wonder who copied from whom, or if they share a common flawed
>> source. I'm used to seeing flipped negatives on photos printed from glass
>> plate negatives or modern repros, but I wonder how often an entire video 
>> of
>> that vintage has been flipped. It's no big deal that somebody messed up 
>> on
>> youtube, but too bad the Smithsonian got sloppy. They should fix it just 
>> to
>> be historically accurate, if they really give a hoot. In truth, Twain was
>> holding the cigar in his left hand not his right, and he was walking 
>> around
>> from the "cellar side" of Stormfield rather than the "loggia side." This
>> flipped film makes him appear left-handed since he's holding the cigar in
>> his right hand, and of course misrepresents the architecture of 
>> Stormfield.
>> G-r-r-r-r-r...
>>
>> Kevin
>> @
>> Mac Donnell Rare Books
>> 9307 Glenlake Drive
>> Austin TX 78730
>> 512-345-4139
>> Member: ABAA, ILAB
>> *************************
>> You may browse our books at
>> www.macdonnellrarebooks.com
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Tony Verhulst" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Sunday, September 08, 2013 6:38 PM
>> Subject: The only known MT film footage
>>
>>
>> > I've seen this before - we probably all have. But, I just ran across it
>> > again and thought is was worth posting.
>> >
>> >
>> http://www.smithsonianmag.com/video/The-Only-Footage-of-Mark-Twain-in-Existence.html
>> >
>> > Tony
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > -----
>> > No virus found in this message.
>> > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
>> > Version: 2013.0.3392 / Virus Database: 3222/6649 - Release Date: 
>> > 09/09/13
>> >
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Arianne Laidlaw A '58
>
>
>
> -----
> No virus found in this message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> Version: 2013.0.3392 / Virus Database: 3222/6649 - Release Date: 09/09/13
>