7cb1d79195 &quot;A glove contest between trained cats. A very comical and amusing subject, and is sure to create a great laugh.&quot; (by Edison Films) Henry Welton presents two of the trained cats that appear in his vaudeville performances. The cats appear in a miniature boxing ring, and they are wearing miniature boxing gloves on their front paws. As Professor Welton looks on, they spar in a manner similar to that of human boxers. William Heise and W.K.L. Dickson present their first foray into comedy. A short sample of Professor Welton&#39;s vaudeville act, this film shows the Professor&#39;s two cats &quot;box&quot; each other. He is seen in the background smilingthe felines go at it.<br/><br/>This was the Edison Manufacturing Company&#39;s first stab at a comedic short. Though, of course, very short, I reckon it must have provided a quick laugh for its viewers. The Professor also filmed another short, titled &quot;Wrestling Dog&quot;, for the Edison team. However it would be hard to classify the Professor&#39;s effortsfunny.<br/><br/>I give it a 2 out of 10. Shortly after the early Kinetoscope experiment &quot;Leonard-Cushing Fight&quot;, featuring the two boxers Jack Cushing and Mike Leonard in a boxing match, this movie got made at the Thomas Edison&#39;s Black Maria Studios, featuring two cats, fully equipped with boxing gloves, having a go at each other. So perhaps with some imagination you can call this movie the first ever made spoof and it certainly is the first ever done comical subject at the Thomas Edison&#39;s Black Maria Studios.<br/><br/>The subject of Professor Welton (exactly what was he a professor in I wonder?) Vaudeville&#39;s act of two boxing cats is sort of amusing and cute. No doubt that animal right organizations now days would do anything to ban this movie from being shown was it made today but truth is that this is a pretty harmless act. The gloves take away a lot of the blow, so no cats got harmed during the making of this motion picture and actually seeing cats fight on the streets with their claws is of course something far more violent and violent looking, even though it&#39;s just nature, unlike obviously putting gloves on a couple of cats and let them fight in a small boxing ring.<br/><br/>Henry Welton himself (the professor from this movie its title) sets the cats up against each other and he can be seen picking them up toward each other. These two cats obviously had no grudge toward each other but were put up to it to fight. Perhaps not the most kind thing to do but you also have to remember that this was 1894 when these sort of animal vaudeville acts were very common and part of everyday&#39;s life.<br/><br/>The camera is pretty close up to the fight but it covers the entire fighting area. It&#39;s not entirely symmetric, since it only shows one side of the ring. Nevertheless it&#39;s an effective composition, since it shows everything that needs to be seen and apart from its shaking images, it&#39;s perfect. The same can be said about the quality of the movie. Hardly any grain here in this one.<br/><br/>A nice little comical turn from the boys at the Edison Manufacturing Company.<br/><br/>8/10<br/><br/>http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
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