Kansas Saloon Smashers (1901)

A gilded saloon, with a fancy bar, forms the background. A nobby bartender with white coat and apron is dispensing drinks to customers. Behind him are polished plate glass mirrors. A comical Irishman enters, sets a huge pail on the bar to be filled, and while he is drinking a glass of foam beer, Mrs. Nation and her followers enter with their hatchets. One of the women jams the Irishman's stiff hat down over his eyes and another one douses him with his own pail of beer. They then wreck the saloon and smash the mirrors, bottles, cash register and bar fixtures. The bartender plays a stream of seltzer water on Mrs. Nation, and as she backs away from behind the counter, a policeman enters and hustles everybody out. Full of comedy from start to finish. (Edison Catalog)

Date of release
1901-03-16
TMDB
4.6 / 10 (8)
Runtime
1m
Genres
Comedy
Director
Edwin S. Porter

Interesting facts

Kansas Saloon Smashers is a 1901 comedy short film produced and distributed by Edison Studios. Directed by Edwin S. Porter, it is a satire of American activist Carrie Nation. The film portrays Nation and her followers entering and destroying a saloon. After the bartender retaliates by spraying Nation with water, policemen order them out; the identities of the actors are not known. Inspiration for the film was provided by an editorial cartoon which appeared in the New York Evening Journal.

Production

After American activist Carrie Nation first attacked a saloon in December 1900, silent motion pictures dealing with the subject of alcohol began to be produced, a testament to Nation's national notoriety and her influence over studios at the time. Kansas Saloon Smashers was produced by Edison Studios as a parody of Nation's crusade.

The director of Kansas Saloon Smashers was Edwin S. Porter, a projectionist who came to work for Edison as a cameraman in 1900. Eventually, Porter became the director responsible for all of Edison Studios' output. Porter based the set off of a photograph of a wrecked saloon which appeared in the Journal, while the characters and plot were based on editorial cartoons published in the paper.

With production supervised by James H. White, Porter was assisted by George S. Fleming during the creation of Kansas Saloon Smashers. Fleming was an actor and scenic designer at Edison Studios, who had joined the studio in January 1901. Porter operated the camera for the film, and also developed the footage. Kansas Saloon Smashers marked one of the first short films to be created under Fleming and Porter's partnership.

Kansas Saloon Smashers features stop action techniques, used to portray Nation destroying the bar; it was shot in black-and-white. A copyright was filed for the film on February 2, 1903. The finished product comprised around 60 to 65 feet (around 18 m) of 35 mm film. Kansas Saloon Smashers was not the only satire of Nation to be produced by Edison Studios. Why Mr.

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