William Heise Movies

The first woman to appear in front of an Edison motion picture camera and possibly the first woman to appear in a motion picture within the United...

Experimental film fragment made with the Edison-Dickson-Heise experimental horizontal-feed kinetograph camera and viewer, using 3/4-inch wide film.

Experimental film made to test the original cylinder format of the Kinetoscope and believed to be the first film shot in the United States. It shows...

Early Edison short showing two men fencing.

Great horse racing on the famous Hartford track, showing start and finish of a 2.04 3/4 heat run by the fastest harness horse in the world, John R....

King of the slack wire. His daring feats of balancing as he performs his thrilling feats in midair show that he is perfectly at home.

“A file of Spanish soldiers line up the Cubans against a blank wall and fire a volley. The flash of rifles and drifting smoke make a very...

The 'Laughing Waters' of Longfellow's 'Hiawatha.' A beautiful view of this picturesque and celebrated waterfall.

A lady watering the garden with a hose, a mischievous boy stops the flow of water until she looks for the cause, when he permits the water to flow,...

1897 version of Annabelle Moore performing a serpentine dance.

"Beautiful water effects at Haines' Falls, a most picturesque and charming mountain cataract. The wild and rugged surroundings are very impressive.

William K.L. Dickson brings his hat from his one hand to the other and moves his head slightly, as a small nod toward the audience. This was the...

Vaudeville dancer Amy Muller performs a portion of her stage routine, which features dancing on her toes. She dances on one toe for part of the...

A woman in a white gown performs a skirt dance, using her arms to produce circles and other patterns within the folds of her costume. Her legs and...

"This scene shows almost the entire Fire Department led by the Chief, responding to an alarm. The horses, said to be the finest of their kind in the...

William K.L. Dickson and William Heise shake hands in this early experimental film.

Imagine ten pickaninnies turned loose and on mischief bent. Farmer catches one leaving but Nine. Nine Happy Snowballs on a Swing elate. One gets...

The victim is lying on a trolley car fender. Ambulance drives up and the injured man is removed in a stretcher.

Hadji Cheriff, a performer known for a variety of unusual abilities, demonstrates part of his act in the Thomas Edison studio. He has a large knife...

An athlete demonstrating various poses.