Frederick S. Armitage

Director

Frederick S. Armitage (June 19, 1874 in Seneca Falls, NY – January 3, 1933 in Ecorse, MI) was an early American motion picture cinematographer and director, working primarily for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company.

Birthday

Zodiac Sign

Genres

Total Films

Also known as (female)

Place of Birth

Birthday

Zodiac Sign

Genres

Total Films

Also Known As (female)

Place of Birth

Popular works

Media

Creative career

actor

0 Works

producer

0 Works

director

38 Works

writer

0 Works

other

13 Works

Trooper 44

0.0

Year:

1917

M. Lavelle, Physical Culture, no. 1

This is a single camera position film of muscle-flexing exercises by a professional physical culturist. The expansion, contraction, and flexing of the muscles and chest were done to display not only the prowess but also the control of the demonstrator.

0.0

Year:

1904

Seeing New York by Yacht

Seeing New York by Yacht.

4.8

Year:

1903

How Tommy Got a Pull on His Grandpa

In this short film, a white piece of wall bisects the screen; There are two different rooms on either side of the dividing line, but one hilarious payoff.

2.5

Year:

1903

Ameta

A filmed record of a fan dancer performing a dance using two white sheets suspended from poles which she frantically twirls around herself to create a succession of patterns.

4.2

Year:

1903

Down the Hudson

Film taken from a boat heading down the Hudson is shown at varying speeds, often giving a sense of rapid transit.

5.5

Year:

1903

Nora's 4th of July

Willie puts a pack of firecrackers in the flour which Nora is preparing for her dough. A policeman comes in and is entertained by Nora. Willie in the meantime explodes the firecrackers, covering Nora and policeman with the contents of the pan. —AMB Picture Catalogue

0.0

Year:

1901

Nora's 4th of July

0.0

Year:

1901

Birth of the Pearl

In this picture there is a limited amount of action in the pose. As the curtains are drawn aside the shell appears shut. It gradually opens, disclosing the model curled up in a recumbent position. She slowly arises as if awakening, and gracefully assumes the final position of the pose.

4.8

Year:

1901

Birth of the Pearl

4.8

Year:

1901

Anna Held

Stage star Anna Held (1872-1918) riffs on her once-famous scene from the comedy Papa's Wife (1899-1901) featuring a naif getting tipsy on her first champagne, in this "photographic interview", filmed in 68mm by Frederick S. Armitage. AM&B's Picture Catalogue of 1902 pitched it as "A stunning picture of the well-known actress in the drinking scene which made such a hit in Papa's Wife. The figure is shown in bust view, making the head very large and giving a clear view of the facial expressions of the beautiful artiste." The company said that both "make hits either in the Biograph [35mm projection service] or Mutoscope" [hand-cranked peep-show viewer].

6.3

Year:

1901

Anna Held

6.3

Year:

1901

Demolishing and Building Up the Star Theatre

Time-lapse photography showing the one month-long demolition of the Star Theatre in New York.

6.4

Year:

1901

Demolishing and Building Up the Star Theatre

Time-lapse photography showing the one month-long demolition of the Star Theatre in New York.

6.4

Year:

1901

Buffalo Bill's Wild West Parade

The film shows a parade down Fifth Avenue, New York. In the foreground many children, both black and white, can be seen following alongside the parade. The participants in the parade include cowboys, Indians, and soldiers in the uniform of the United States Cavalry on horseback and riding horse-drawn coaches. Buffalo Bill can be seen on horseback, lifting his hat to the crowd. Filmed on 1 April 1901.

3.1

Year:

1901

The Ghost Train

Special effects film with a train double exposed on the negative, creating a ghostly image.

4.6

Year:

1901

U.S.I. Dept., "Old Faithful," Yosemite Valley

The great geyser at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. c. 1901.

0.0

Year:

1901

Davey Jones' Locker

Two sets of images are superimposed. From the side, we see a two-masted ship. Across the deck walks a skeleton. It sits down, its legs akimbo. The legs separate and continue a dance while the body of the skeleton faces us and the skull moves its jaw bone. It rises and the legs rejoin the skull and body for an additional jig back and forth on deck.

4.9

Year:

1900

A Nymph of the Waves

A woman in ballet slippers wearing a large white hat and a long white dress - with ruffles, puffy sleeves and petticoats - dances across water with roiling waves behind her. She holds the edges of the skirt with her hands, lifting and twirling, sometimes exposing her bloomers and a dark garter on one leg. Her style combines ballet with the exuberant kicks and twirls of a burlesque dance hall. With churning waves behind her, the water seems to wash beneath her feet. The film of the dancer, "M'lle. Cathrina Bartho" (1899), is superimposed on that of the water, "Upper Rapids, from Bridge" (1896).

5.5

Year:

1900

Neptune's Daughters

A combination of the picture entitled "The Ballet of the Ghosts," and a surf scene; the resulting effect being that the ghostly figures rise up out of the surf and come to the shore, cast their draperies aside and dance a few steps of the ballet, after which they again take up their draperies, and having covered themselves, retreat into the waves.

4.8

Year:

1900

In a Chinese Restaurant

Two Chinese men (in full regalia) and an American-style tough are sitting at a table, eating out of bowls, all of them using chop sticks; The American is quite practiced with his chopsticks, eating things of large size and indeterminate composition.

3.0

Year:

1900

Above the Limit

Filming of a character sketch by the well-known vaudevillian Charles E. Grapewin. On a bare stage backed by a dark curtain, a man dressed in a three-piece suit and overcoat holds a racing program and excitedly watches a race supposedly taking place offstage.

4.3

Year:

1900

Around the Flip-Flap Railroad

A splendid picture of the remarkable centrifuge railroad at Coney Island in which the car makes a complete circle in its course around the track, commonly known as "Loop the Loop."

6.5

Year:

1900

Skating in Central Park

An interesting view of Central Park before there was a skyline of buildings. All along the length of the park on both sides and to the north, with the exception of the Dakota Apartments located at 72nd Street and Central Park West, It was virtually impossible to see anything other than sky above the trees. In the nineteenth century when people went to visit the park, they really were leaving the "city."

5.0

Year:

1900

Skating on Lake, Central Park

Photographed February 5, 1900.

5.0

Year:

1900

Early Superimpositions

“The filmmaker took several different scenes shot earlier between 1896 and 1899 and double-printed two sets of images together to create a new artistic creation. The transformation of a stage dance into a unique ciné-dance could only be possible in cinema - Bruce Posner

8.0

Year:

1900

Fougere

The famous Parisian chanteuse in the rag-time cakewalk 'Hello, Ma Baby,' with which she made such a sensation at the New York Theatre.

3.1

Year:

1899

Governor Roosevelt and Staff

Taken during the land parade in honor of Admiral Dewey, just before the turn into 72nd street...

2.5

Year:

1899

The Dandy Fifth

Taken during the land parade in honor of Admiral Dewey, just before the turn into 72nd street, with Grant's Tomb and decorated residences in the background.

3.0

Year:

1899

A Ray of Sunshine After the Rain

"This is a street scene. The rain has just ceased, and passers-by are lowering their umbrellas. A well-dressed young man meets a pretty girl beneath an awning over a shop door. While they are standing there, the shopkeeper lowers the awning, which has accumulated a lot of water, and the two are thoroughly drenched. This picture has made a big hit."

4.0

Year:

1899

The Corset Model

The scene opens with a salesman displaying corsets to the buyer of a country store. He calls in a female model and tries a corset on her. While the buyer is looking at the figure, the salesman removes the head and arms and finally shows that instead of legs, she has a wire frame. This is one of the most effective trick pictures in our list.

6.0

Year:

1899

Her First Cigarette

From a single camera position, two young women are photographed lighting a cigarette. After several puffs, one of the young ladies becomes faint, and the other one tries to revive her fallen friend.

3.5

Year:

1899

The Price of a Kiss

A woman barber is putting the finishing touches on a customer, who is so pleased with the operation that he puts his arms around her and kisses her. As he does so, a big sign on the wall changes to read: 'Kisses, one dollar Extra;' and the customer is compelled to pay up. - AMB Picture Catalogue 1902

0.0

Year:

1899

Charlie Wanted the Earth

A couple are making love beneath the window of a cranky old gentleman. There is a handsome window garden above them filled with plants and flowers. The old gentleman throws out a rope upon the lovers to annoy them. They, not knowing what it is, seize it and pull the window garden down upon themselves.

2.0

Year:

1899

The Finish of Mr. Fresh

In this spirited and suggestive film, an aggressive young man is drenched in rich, high-protein comeuppance, after he attempts to tell a dairymaid her buttery business.

0.0

Year:

1899

The Dairymaid's Revenge

The milk of human unkindness flows in this 1899 revenge comedy from the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company, in which a put-upon dairymaid throws off the chains of patriarchal and class oppression—or rather wields them in righteous anger.

0.0

Year:

1899

A Bad (K)night

A portly clubman comes home after a social session considerably the worse for the wear. In the hall he encounters a suit of armor which has all the appearances of being alive; and he is so badly frightened that he collapses in a chair, where he is discovered by his wife, and marched off to bed.

0.0

Year:

1899

Mardi Gras Carnival

The film is part of Eye Filmmuseum’s Mutoscope and Biograph Collection. This collection consists of about 200 films preserved on their original 68 mm format. The digital file provided is scanned in 2022 at Eye Collection Center, from the 35 mm duplicate negative that was made in 1998. After the first analogue preservation round made 25 years ago, Eye is now undertaking the digital restoration of the Mutoscope & Biograph Collection. “Mardi Gras Carnival” became the focus of attention, thanks to its inclusion within ‘The Artistry of REX’ exhibition, that opened in the summer of 2022 at the Louisiana State Museum.

6.3

Year:

1898