Just read an account of Twain's butler today and it was said HE
was the one in the video.  So frustrating.  I'm going over to youtube and
see if I can see an unflipped video.

I guess we should be happy there is any video at all of anybody there then.
Arianne Laidlaw
Sacramentol



On Mon, Sep 9, 2013 at 5:33 PM, Kevin Mac Donnell <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> 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
> >
>



-- 
Arianne Laidlaw A '58