William Heise Movies

“The watchful father disturbs a dream of bliss, and the bucolic lover is taught a lesson. He made a great hit.” (Edison film catalog)

From the upper windows of a ruined mill Cubans are firing at a scouting party of Spaniards, who return the volley. Fine smoke effects.

A fellow in a wide-brimmed hat, with a willowy stick for a rod and a baited hook, sits down on a plank hanging over a bridge above a stream. He...

From Edison films catalog: A long line of horses, mules and ponies are led, driven and ridden into the yards, where they are sold and distributed.

“A comic subject, clear, bright and characteristic. Shows four girls in their night dresses, engaged in an animated pillow fight. During the...

This fight consists of six rounds, each round on a film 150 feet long. It's an actual contest between James J. Corbett, former champion of the world,...

They get ready to kiss, begin to kiss, and kiss in a way that brings down the house every time.

Three men hammer on an anvil and pass a bottle of beer around. Notable for being the first film in which a scene is being acted out.

William K.L. Dickson plays the violin while two men dance. This is the oldest surviving sound film where sound is recorded on the phonograph.

"A glove contest between trained cats. A very comical and amusing subject, and is sure to create a great laugh." (by Edison Films)

A short documentary capturing the officers and crew of the USS Brooklyn during a naval parade in Brooklyn, New York, on October 1, 1898, following...

A short Edison Black Maria studio film featuring famed sharpshooter Annie Oakley, known as “Little Sure Shot.” Born Phoebe Ann Oakley...

"A battalion of New York's famous mounted police at inspection. They approach at break-neck gallop." - from the Edison Catalog

A vaudeville routine: two denizens of the Bowery dance while under the influence. She's wearing a light dress with a full skirt. He wears a white...

The busiest corner in Chicago. Cable cars and street traffic of all descriptions. Hundreds of shoppers. Fine perspective view looking north toward...

The Glenroy Brothers perform a portion of their vaudeville act, "The Comic View of Boxing: The Tramp & the Athlete", which depicts a boxer with a...

A man in formal dinner clothes and a woman in a white ruffled dress with a flower corsage and white shoes execute various dance steps designed as...

Late 1800s cigarette advertisement produced by Thomas Edison Manufacturing.

In this movie, dancer Ella Lola performs a Turkish variation of a "Danse Du Ventre", the oriental belly dance. In her dance she shakes, twists and...

The dancer Fatima, well-known for her dancing shows at the World's Exhibition in 1893, performs for the camera. She opens her act by twirling around...