''The Kiss'' (also known as ''The May Irwin Kiss'', ''The Rice-Irwin Kiss'' and ''The Widow Jones'') is an 1896

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

, and was one of the first films ever shown commercially to the public. Around 18 seconds long, it depicts a re-enactment of the kiss between

May Irwin May Irwin (born Georgina May Campbell; June 27, 1862 – October 22, 1938) was an actress, singer and star of vaudeville. Originally from Canada, she and her sister Flo Irwin found theater work after their father died. She was known for her pe ...

and John Rice from the final scene of the stage musical '' The Widow Jones.'' The film was directed by

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 ...

for

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, ...

. The film was produced in April 1896 at the

Edison Studios Edison Studios was an American film production organization, owned by companies controlled by inventor and entrepreneur, Thomas Edison. The studio made close to 1,200 films, as part of the Edison Manufacturing Company (1894–1911) and then Tho ...

of Edison, the first

film studio A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company that makes films. Today, studios are mostly financing and distribution entities. In addition, they may have their own studio facility or facilities; how ...

in the United States. At the time, Edison was working at the

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 ...

studios 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 ...

. In 1999, the short was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States

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 ...

and selected for preservation in the

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...

Cast

as Widow Jones * John Rice as Billie Bikes

Production

The film was one of the last shot at

Edison's Black Maria The Black Maria ( ) was Thomas Edison's film studio, film production studio in West Orange, New Jersey, West Orange, New Jersey. It was the world's first film studio. History In 1893, the world's first film production studio, the Black Mar ...

Release

According to

Charles Musser Charles John Musser (born 16 January 1951) is a film historian, documentary filmmaker, and a film editor. Since 1992, he has taught at Yale University, where he is currently a professor of Film and Media Studies as well as American Studies ...

the film was released in either April or May 1896, and was publicized in a sponsored article in the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 to 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers as a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publisher Jo ...

'' about actors kissing on stage. The article discussed the controversy surrounding onstage kissing and, along with an illustration of the Irwin and Rice kiss, referred readers to ''The Widow Jones'' and the Edison film. The campaign sought to bring attention to the newspaper, play, and movie all at once. The film was shown during demonstrations of the

Vitascope Vitascope was an early film projector first demonstrated in 1895 by Charles Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat. They had made modifications to Jenkins' patented Phantoscope, which cast images via film and electric light onto a wall or screen. T ...

Charles Frohman Charles Frohman (July 15, 1856 – May 7, 1915) was an American theater manager and producer, who discovered and promoted many stars of the American stage. Frohman produced over 700 shows, and among his biggest hits was '' Peter Pan'', both ...

was initially against the film, stating that "I shall have to consider replacing Miss Irwin" in '' The Widow Jones'', but then asked for Edson Raff to have advertising for the short include that Irwin was the star of ''The Widow Jones''. The film was sold to exhibitors for $7.50 ($232 in 2020) and it was being shown at the end of almost every show by the fall of 1896.

Reaction

The film was alleged to have caused a scandalized uproar and occasioned disapproving newspaper editorials and calls for police action in many places where it was shown. One contemporary critic wrote, "The spectacle of the prolonged pasturing on each other's lips was beastly enough in life size on the stage but magnified to gargantuan proportions and repeated three times over it is absolutely disgusting." However, according to Dengler (1979) in the ''Journal of Popular Film and Television'', the shocked reaction of the general public is a myth. The Edison catalogue advertised it this way: "They get ready to kiss, begin to kiss, and kiss and kiss and kiss in a way that brings down the house every time." Perhaps in defiance, and "to spice up a film", this was followed by many kiss imitators and take-offs, including ''

Something Good – Negro Kiss ''Something Good – Negro Kiss'' is an American short silent film from 1898 of a couple kissing and holding hands. It is believed to depict the earliest on-screen kiss involving African Americans and is known for departing from the prevalent an ...

'' (1898), ''

The Kiss in the Tunnel ''The Kiss in the Tunnel'', also known as ''A Kiss in the Tunnel'', is a 1899 in film, 1899 UK, British Short subject, short silent film, silent, comedy film, produced and directed by George Albert Smith (inventor), George Albert Smith, showing ...

'' (1899) and ''The Kiss'' (1900).

Public exposure

For a number of years, it was believed that a showing of ''The Kiss'' was the first film publicly shown in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, projected in West End Park,

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

, on July 21, 1896. It has since been learned that the competing

Lumière Brothers Lumière is French for 'light'. Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to: Buildings * Lumière, a building used by the Bibliothèque publique d'information in Paris, France * Lumiere (skyscraper), a cancelled skyscraper development in Leeds, ...

Cinematograph Cinematograph or kinematograph is an early term for several types of motion picture film mechanisms. The name was used for movie cameras as well as film projectors, or for complete systems that also provided means to print films (such as the ...

had already exhibited different films in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

24 days earlier, on June 27, 1896.Gaudreault, André and Lacasse, Germain (1996). "The Introduction of the Lumière Cinematograph in Canada", ''Canadian Journal of Film Studies'', Volume 5, No. 2.

References

Works cited

* * *

External links

*
''The Kiss''
at

''The Kiss''
video and biography of

''The Kiss''
on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

* ''The Kiss'' essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, Bloomsbury Academic, 2010 , pages 4–

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kiss (1896 film), The 1896 films 1896 short films 1890s American films 1890s romance films American black-and-white films American silent short films Articles containing video clips Edison Manufacturing Company films Films directed by William Heise Films shot in New Jersey Works about kissing Obscenity controversies in film Silent American romance films Surviving American silent films United States National Film Registry films