''The Boxing Cats (Prof. Welton's)'', or simply ''Boxing Cats'', is an 1894 American short

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

directed by William K.L. Dickson and

William Heise William Heise (c. 1847 – February 14, 1910) was a German-born American film cinematographer and director, active in the 1890s and credited for more than 175 short silent films. Heise filmed a "We All Smoke" skit promoting Admiral Cigarettes in ...

, and starring Henry Welton. It depicts a

boxing match Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing punches at each other for a p ...

between two cats, each wearing a pair of

boxing glove Boxing gloves are cushioned gloves that fighters wear on their hands during boxing matches and practices. Unlike "fist-load weapons" (such as the ancient cestus (boxing), cestus) which were designed as a lethal weapon, modern boxing gloves are n ...

s. The two cats were members of Welton's touring "cat circus", which reportedly also featured cats riding bicycles. ''The Boxing Cats'' was filmed in

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...

Black Maria Black Maria may refer to: Art and literature *Black Mariah (comics), a character in the Luke Cage comics series *List of One Piece characters#Animal Kingdom Pirates, Black Maria, a character in the manga series ''One Piece'' *Black Maria (nove ...

studio in

West Orange, New Jersey West Orange is a suburban Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 48,843, an increase of 2,636 (+5.7%) from t ...

, on 35 mm. The film has been described as a precursor to cat videos popular on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

References

External links

*
''The Boxing Cats (Prof. Welton's)''
at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

1894 films 1894 short films 1890s American films American black-and-white films American boxing films American silent short films Articles containing video clips Edison Manufacturing Company films Films directed by William Kennedy Dickson Films shot in New Jersey Surviving American silent films Films about cats {{1890s-film-stub

See also

References

Further reading

External links