Oh, he's playing for the camera for sure. Even in still photos Twain is
seldom caught truly off-guard. Even his supposedly spontaneous speeches and
interview responses were usually carefully rehearsed. That looks like the
self-conscious public Mark Twain stalking about Stormfield, not the private
Mr Clemens.
The little finger extended from the teacup is another good detail. Every
time the film is viewed more little details emerge, especially if you hit
the pause button now and then. As he walks away from the front door there
appears to be a silhouette of someone standing inside the entrance. The
curtains in the sidelights rustle in the wind, an indication that the French
doors of the dining room must have been open, creating a breeze through the
center of the house (that would also be his pathway to go around and circle
that end of the house later in the film).
But the limp looks real to me. I played with the pause and the rhythm of his
steps does not correspond with each frame, so it's not the film --it's
Twain. So, the question is whether it's deliberate. The posture of his hips
while at the door and the persistent limp in profile both trips around the
house, and the left side sway all seem genuine indications of a problem of
some sort. When I get time I'm going to run it past my medical friends and
seek an expert opinion.
Also, it would be nice to nail down the precise date this film was made. Is
there a list of Edison's employees who might have been in the crew he sent
out that day? If so, I could check them against the two Stormfield
guest-books. I have the original first guestbook and an old facsimile of the
second (the original is at Hartford) and although most of the people can be
identified, quite a few of the people who signed in are not.
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: John Chappell
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2014 9:25 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Twain film redux
The Langdons gave the Edison film to the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum
in Hannibal, as I was told in the early 1970s. It was on dangerous nitrate
stock, so 16mm prints were made from it; and a number of copies were kept
in Hannibal.
When I visited Hannibal for a benefit performance around 1971, they ran
them on a 16mm projector for me. 18 frames a second looked way too fast.
Thinking they'd probably been shot at a slower speed, maybe 12 frames a
second, we got access to an audio-visual Bell&Howell projector. It had
variable speed that made it possible to see them at what was obviously a
more correct rate.
It was my opinion that Twain was intentionally playing the camera for
humor. First, he comes out the door as if saying "Get that contraption off
my property, and be quick about it!"
Next, we see him ambling past the camera but completely ignoring it,
puffing away on his cigar. That has to have been deliberate.
There's a pause following, and here he comes again wandering past camera
again, and ignoring it again, as if he'd run madly around the house for
another shot, but wouldn't let on to it -- oh,no -- just wander past as if
he never noticed camera or crew. Again.
From an actor's view, he's working it. And doing it very well.
That humor looked might Twainian to me, and to the man who ran the Becky
Thatcher Bookshop back then. Every time I've viewed the Edison film since
I've seen that same humor.
It's there again with the tea. Watch him stick his little finger out as he
lifts his teacup.
They gave me one of the prints, since I wouldn't take money for the show.
After, they asked how I liked the table they'd brought to use on stage at
the high school.
"That's the one, you know," they said. "From the museum. That's the one he
wrote Tom Sawyer on."
Oh, my. For sure I knew I was in the right town then. Just as I knew who
you were Susan, when I saw your photo, and that inherited nose so familiar
from many, many studies of photographs of the man.
John Chappell
On Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 8:59 PM, Susan Bailey <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Kevin, I've looked at this footage many time and I agree that it looks as
> if he has a slight limp coming around the corner but then it seems to
> clear
> up as he appears in front of the house. As Bob said, this could be due to
> his age. You can see at the beginning that his right hip seems to be a
> bit
> higher than his left.
>
> As a person who actually knew Clara when I was a child, I don't believe
> that is Clara on the left. And that is certainly not her in the middle.
> That woman has a widow's peak, which Clara didn't have. Clara had a strong
> face and, in my memory was not given to girlish gestures like touching or
> smoothing back her hair. That could be a difference in age but this just
> does not look like Clara to me.
>
> Regards,
> Susan Bailey
>
> On Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 8:43 PM, Kevin Mac Donnell <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > Well, I have me bad days and me better days, but it looks like a limp to
> > me,
> > especially visible as he corners the far end of the house in profile.
> >
> > It's Jean on the left and Clara in the middle. That's not Ashcroft who
> > brings Clara her hat, nor Ossip, but likely a servant and there are
> several
> > candidates for that honor.
> >
> > 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: [log in to unmask]
> > Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2014 6:27 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: Twain film redux
> >
> > Kevin, you're certainly right about the wind. Those trees in the
> background
> > look like props from news footage of a hurricane making landfall. But
> > I'm
> > not sure about the limp. If it's there, it's very slight -- and might
> that
> > just be a normal state of affairs from someone in his 70s?
> >
> > The little explanation at the beginning says the two women in the film
> are
> > believed to be Jean and Clara. But didn't someone here confirm a while
> back
> > that it's Jean and Isabel Lyon? I seem to recall that, anyway. And the
> man
> > who appears briefly -- is that Ashcroft?
> >
> > -- Bob G.
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Susan Bailey
> Greenville, SC
> www.marktwainonline.com
>
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